Nov 17, 2016
BT and Sky downplay football rights bidding war
The heads of BT and Sky have attempted to play down the prospect of a frantic bidding war in the impending auction of European football rights, after a huge rise in the most recent sale of TV rights for England's Premier League. BT outflanked its rivals Sky and ITV in 2013, when it bid £900m for the exclusive broadcast rights to Champions League and Europa League football in the UK. European football became the backbone of BT Sport, but the shock win triggered a wave of inflation for sports rights from telecoms and media companies, culminating in the record £5.1bn auction of Premier League rights in 2015, a 70 per cent rise on the previous sale. A June auction of rights to broadcast German Bundesliga football saw an 85 per cent rise, with Sky taking the lion's share. Chief executive of Sky, told the Morgan Stanley Tech, Media & Telecom Conference in Barcelona that the higher cost of sports rights meant that telecoms and media companies were having to make "Harder choices". Mr Darroch added that it would act "Opportunistically" in the forthcoming sale of Serie A and European football rights in Italy, where its rival Mediaset has become embroiled in a war of words with potential partner Vivendi over the terms of a proposed alliance.
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