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 The Abu Dhabi Media Company has secured Middle East broadcast rights to the English Premier League, one of the biggest prizes in televised football, according to a report in The National, also owned by ADMC.
The broadcaster snapped up the rights for three seasons of Premier goodness, starting from the 2010-11 season. Currently Showtime Arabia owns the regional broadcast rights.
ADMC was keeping quiet on the value of the deal, but The National’s report offers a clue by suggesting that Showtime’s bid three years ago was worth some $120 million, and that this round of rights sales may have been priced in line with the League’s aim of boosting rights income by 30% - which would potentially put ADMC’s bid at around $150 million.
The Abu Dhabi government-owned media firm is the first non-pay TV broadcaster to secure Premier League rights, but because ADMC’s sports channels are available outside the region on free-to-air satellite , it won’t be able to broadcast the games on its own stations.
Instead it will partner with pay TV providers and local terrestrial broadcasters, effectively acting as a reseller of the rights, according to The National.
“For us, it’s a balance between maximising audience and maximising return. We need to look at it market by market,” said Karim Sarkis, executive director of broadcast at ADMC, quoted in The National.
ADMC’s deal also includes the digital rights for Premier League games – for which it paid extra – so it will also be looking at offering options for mobile phones and other digital platforms.
There’s lots more in The National’s report about Abu Dhabi’s fondness for English football at the moment – see also the recent purchase of Manchester City, and Etihad’s sponsorship of that club and Chelsea.
But the rights deal does raise an important issue for us – how does ADMC expect to make its money back?
Given that the rights are likely to have gone for something around $150 million – and certainly not less than $120 million – if “industry sources” are to be believed, then in the current climate it will be harder than ever to make this pay.
And as much of ADMC’s business model would seem to rest on it successfully flogging the rights to other broadcasters in the region, it may have an even bigger challenge, given that said broadcasters are likely to be feeling the pinch, much more so than ADMC itself.
Of course, having the rights for three years, from a point where most people expect things to have gotten a little better, will give the broadcaster more flexibility. And this is the Premier League we’re talking about – everyone loves the Premier League, right?
Well, probably. But we’re still guessing ADMC will have to play a clever game to make the most of its investment.
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