Middle East Soccer Fans In the Dark Over Live EPL Rights
The English Premier League season is just weeks away from finishing and Manchester United Football Club’s name has again been etched on to the silver trophy as winners for the twentieth time.
But eager football fans in the Middle East and North Africa are still wondering whether they will be able to watch the league live next season as no broadcaster for the games has been announced ahead of the planned August kick off.
In previous rounds, the three-year MENA rights have been awarded to a broadcaster at auction nearly a full year in advance of the season starting. But this time, the EPL awarded the rights later, in January, and to a media broker, MP & Silva, in the expectation that the firm would sell on the rights to one or more broadcasters in the region of 23 countries.
No announcement has been made yet, and media consultants and executives say a potential sticking point in signing an exclusive deal, or a number of deals, could be the differing views between MP & Silva and potential broadcasters about how much the rights are worth.
“The rights owners’ expectations and the ability to provide an economic return are far apart,” said David Butorac, the chief executive of regional pay-television broadcaster OSN, which has been in talks with MP & Silva to buy the rights. “That situation provides an unsustainable model for football broadcasting in the MENA region.”
Currently, the league is broadcast exclusively across the region by Abu Dhabi Sports, part of the government-owned Abu Dhabi Media, which bought the rights from the EPL for the current and previous two seasons for about $360 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.
MP & Silva declined to comment on plans for the rights, but told Reuters in January that it paid a “similar level” as Abu Dhabi Media in the last round.
Media consultants say Qatar’s Al Jazeera Sports, Abu Dhabi Sports and OSN are realistically the only companies with an established pay-television platform and distribution reach to be able to pay for the rights from MP & Silva, given the time frame left until the start of next season.
Free-to-air broadcasters such as Dubai-based MBC and DMI, broadcast their channels via satellite and do not have secure systems so games could be picked up in the United Kingdom, infringing on the GBP3 billion ($4.6 billion) rights deal with BSkyB and BT. Meanwhile, telecoms operators and cable television providers’ fixed networks are not widespread enough in many countries, such as Saudi Arabia, and non-existent in others. Many of the telcos have the cash to buy the rights and create an internet-only platform, but analysts and some telco executives say the adoption of internet television isn’t high in the region and so represents little financial reward for an investment of more than $300 million.
“This price requires a customer with deep pockets who places a strategic importance on the TV audience delivered by EPL,” said Nick Grande, managing director for ChannelSculptor, a media consultancy. “Al Jazeera Sports and Abu Dhabi Sports are the only MENA networks that fit this profile.”