Newcastle takeover???

BaZ87 · 5 Jun 2020 at 15:21

MissChief said:
its a blind auction, no one knows what the others have bid. Sure there can be some collusion between Sky and BT to not bid against each other on particular packages but with Amazon now on the scene both need to be careful. To an extent it’s why BT sport is now on Sky, to reduce the impact of Amazon. I also believe that neither BT nor Sky bid for the package that Amazon got for an undisclosed sum. Considering it was a few weeks after that Amazon were announced suggests Amazon bid low or were able to negotiate with the EPL.

I'd question how blind the auction is when Sky and BT ended up paying the exact same amount per game in the last rights sale

The League doesn't have to take the highest bid though and you're right, Amazon paid less than the reserve for the package they bought. I'll dig out an article when I have a moment but it was speculated in a number of reports that the PL were willing to sell those cheaper packages for less to Amazon (which turned out to happen) because they wanted them to get a taste for the PL in preparation for future sales.

the wopster · 5 Jun 2020 at 16:02

BaZ87 said:
I'd question how blind the auction is when Sky and BT ended up paying the exact same amount per game in the last rights sale The League doesn't have to take the highest bid though and you're right, Amazon paid less than the reserve for the package they bought. I'll dig out an article when I have a moment but it was speculated in a number of reports that the PL were willing to sell those cheaper packages for less to Amazon (which turned out to happen) because they wanted them to get a taste for the PL in preparation for future sales.

When it comes the the MENA rights if Saudi bids £1b for the rights and Qatar bids £750m, you can bet your bottom dollar the premier league will take the higher offer, even if the difference was £100m they would still take the higher offer

Bigpig · 5 Jun 2020 at 16:26

Read a few stories today and the deal is a bit more complex than first thought. Could explain the delay.

Its been reported that the premiership had to hire extra lawyers and outsource a lot of work to corporate investigation teams and so on.

Since there's 3 holding companies each one had/has to be investigated and the people behind them all checked. Weeks and weeks of work as well as the other issue's as well as the pandemic.

Places still reporting that all the work is done and it's down to the PL to trawl through all the details and rubber stamp it or reject.

BaZ87 · 5 Jun 2020 at 16:26

woppy101 said:
When it comes the the MENA rights if Saudi bids £1b for the rights and Qatar bids £750m, you can bet your bottom dollar the premier league will take the higher offer, even if the difference was £100m they would still take the higher offer

Not if it would lose them £200m from the rights in France and other territories that beIN operate that the Saudi's don't.

Bigpig · 5 Jun 2020 at 16:29

BaZ87 said:
Not if it would lose them £200m from the rights in France and other territories that beIN operate that the Saudi's don't.

Doesn't channel + have the French rights?

the wopster · 5 Jun 2020 at 16:41

BaZ87 said:
Not if it would lose them £200m from the rights in France and other territories that beIN operate that the Saudi's don't.

Bein don’t operate in Europe, MENA is the only area they hold rights, which is why the PL would take the higher bid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Premier_League_broadcasters

BaZ87 · 5 Jun 2020 at 16:44

woppy101 said:
Bein don’t operate in Europe, MENA only which is why the PL would take the higher bid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Premier_League_broadcasters

They currently don't have the PL rights in Europe but over the last few years they've began buying up rights of the French League and several other European Leagues. They are going to be a big player throughout Europe in the coming years and the PL will want them bidding for the PL rights in France and elsewhere. It's this competition that drives the value up for the PL.

edit: In France alone beIN have some of the French League, CL, La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga - they'll be in for the PL rights when the next sale, even if they don't win the rights they will force Canal+ to bid more. They also operate in the US and parts of Asia.

the wopster · 5 Jun 2020 at 16:52

BaZ87 said:
They currently don't have the PL rights in Europe but over the last few years they've began buying up rights of the French League and several other European Leagues. They are going to be a big player throughout Europe in the coming years and the PL will want them bidding for the PL rights in France and elsewhere. It's this competition that drives the value up for the PL.

We weren’t talking about other leagues, we were talking about current premier league rights and bids, which they only hold the rights to in the MENA area. What’s to stop Saudi doing the same and becoming a big player over the next few years considering they have more money and better infrastructure than Qatar. As you said competition drives up value.

BaZ87 · 5 Jun 2020 at 17:07

woppy101 said:
We weren’t talking about other leagues, we were talking about current premier league rights, which they only hold the rights to in the MENA area. What’s to stop Saudi doing the same and becoming a big player over the next few years considering they have more money and better infrastructure than Qatar. As you said competition drives up value.

I'm not sure what you were talking about but I was talking about the value of beIN to the PL. When the news about the piracy issue first broke I mentioned how beIN were already the PL's biggest overseas partner and mentioned that their future growth would possibly make them as valuable to the PL as Sky are in years to come. beIN aren't simply a Middle East broadcaster anymore, they're active in France, Spain & Turkey (off the top of my head) in Europe, a couple of Far East countries and North America.

The reason for the success of the PL's tv contracts have been the amount of competition for the rights and the PL will want beIN bidding for the TV rights in all the various nations they now operate in - it might be years off but who is to say they don't launch in the UK and rival Sky & BT one day, I know the PL would love that to happen as at the very least it will keep Sky and BT on their toes*. If accepting a lower bid in the Middle East encourages beIN to bid for the rights in France, Spain, Turkey, Canada, Indonesia etc etc etc then whatever the lost revenue would be more than made up for with the increased value of the rights in other regions. They don't even have to win the rights as long as it forces the other broadcasters in those regions to pay more.

*part of the reason why the PL put up the entire round of midweek game packages was to get one or more of the Amazon's, Netflix's of this world. For the first time in a long time there was no growth in the domestic TV rights (it actually fell slightly) because Sky and BT stopped trying to out bid each other. It's no coincidence that they've ended up paying pretty much the same amount per game in the last tv rights sale, shortly after they announced their channel sharing deal. The PL knew that the full 10 midweek games wouldn't be of huge value to Sky and they were priced cheaper to snag Amazon (the PL even sold it for less than the reserve just to get Amazon in fact) - the PL's idea was that if they took less now, then hopefully when the next round of tv rights go up for sale that Amazon will make a big move for more packages. Even if Amazon don't win the rights, if it forces Sky to bid more then it's worked from the PL's point of view.

edit: as for "what's to stop the Saudi's doing the same...." nothing but until they launch a rival network for even the middle east rights then it's not really worth speculating. It's certainly possible that the Saudi's could get the PL rights but right now, as things stand, I think it's less likely than the takeover happening. There's more obstacles to that than the takeover imo.

Bigpig · 5 Jun 2020 at 17:10

Somebody reaching

the wopster · 5 Jun 2020 at 17:13

Bigpig said:
Somebody reaching

MissChief · 5 Jun 2020 at 17:32

BaZ87 said:
edit: as for "what's to stop the Saudi's doing the same...." nothing but until they launch a rival network for even the middle east rights then it's not really worth speculating. It's certainly possible that the Saudi's could get the PL rights but right now, as things stand, I think it's less likely than the takeover happening. There's more obstacles to that than the takeover imo.

Scenes if they do so and call it BeoutQ

BaZ87 · 5 Jun 2020 at 17:34

That would be the ultimate troll

the wopster · 5 Jun 2020 at 17:40

MissChief said:
Scenes if they do so and call it BeoutQ

It really shouldn’t but that would make me laugh, and it wouldn’t surprise me IF this takeover does happen they did call there station that if they won the rights

BaZ87 · 5 Jun 2020 at 17:45

Of course they wouldn't call it that @woppy101

the wopster · 5 Jun 2020 at 17:49

MissChief said:
Scenes if they do so and call it BeoutQ

BaZ87 said:
That would be the ultimate troll

IF the takeover does happen, I have no doubt they would start making the changes required to there infrastructure ready to bid for the rights in 2022.

what I don’t understand is, IF they do takeover Newcastle how do they broadcast games? With Bein banned in Saudi can they pay someone else to broadcast games IE Turkish tv company or someone like that? For all we know that could be one of the major questions the PL is asking

the wopster · 5 Jun 2020 at 17:50

BaZ87 said:
Of course they wouldn't call it that @woppy101

Are you 100% sure about that? It’s the ultimate FU to Qatar and once the O&D test is passed no body can do anything about it

BaZ87 · 5 Jun 2020 at 17:58

woppy101 said:
Are you 100% sure about that? It’s the ultimate FU to Qatar and once the O&D test is passed no body can do anything about it

I can't predict the future so no, I'm not 100% sure but I think it's a safe bet that they won't do that. The PL won't sell the tv rights to a tv station named after a piracy operation that's cost them many millions of pounds.

woppy101 said:
IF the takeover does happen, I have no doubt they would start making the changes required to there infrastructure ready to bid for the rights in 2022.

what I don’t understand is, IF they do takeover Newcastle how do they broadcast games? With Bein banned in Saudi can they pay someone else to broadcast games IE Turkish tv company or someone like that?

The bidding for the next round of rights is already going on. The rights for Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland have already been sold and not just for the 3 years from 2022 but for 6 years. And the only legal way to watch the PL right now would be through beIN. They have the exclusive rights to the region.

On the topic of future tv rights, if there was no issue regarding conflict of interests, I wonder whether the PL would break up the Middle East rights and sell them on a country by country basis. This might be a way for them to earn more, while not ****ing off beIN too much.

the wopster · 5 Jun 2020 at 18:04

BaZ87 said:
On the topic of future tv rights, if there was no issue regarding conflict of interests, I wonder whether the PL would break up the Middle East rights and sell them on a country by country basis. This might be a way for them to earn more, while not ****ing off beIN too much.

That’s a good point and makes a lot of sense (so they probably won’t do it

). I wonder if there is something in the contract now that would allow Saudi to buy the rights(for transmission in there own country of course), because bein is banned in Saudi, bein wouldn’t then lose any money and both countries win and the PL get more money.

BaZ87 · 5 Jun 2020 at 18:10

The rights are owned by beIN so the only way that could happen would be if beIN resold them onto Saudi, which would require the PL's permission unless already included in their agreement.