PDF of theSportel Briefing

M I A M I M A R C H 2 01 5
BRIEFING
SPORTEL
The Battle for
Sports Rights
in the Americas
How soccer is
catching up
NFL the ratings winner
We give our readers a competitive advantage.
But don’t take our word for it...
TV Sports Markets it’s the difference
between bluffing
and knowing
Peter Hutton, CEO, Eurosport
Secure your access to TV Sports Markets today Call us on +44 (0) 207 954 3483 Email us at sales@tvsportsmarkets.com
Dear Sportel Delegate,
A warm welcome to the TV Sports Markets Sportel Briefing for Sportel America 2015.
The Briefing is designed to provide a snapshot of the in-depth coverage of the industry that is
available to TV Sports Markets subscribers and to showcase our range of products and services.
You’ll find four articles from the TV Sports Markets newsletter beginning on page 10. These are:
Telefónica’s move into the market for domestic La Liga rights; the rationale behind beIN Media
Group’s global expansion; Fox Sports Latin America’s surprise deal for Formula One rights with
Mediapro; and Turner’s move into the Brazilian pay-television market.
As well as our newsletter coverage, we publish full verbatim interviews we conduct with senior industry
executives on our website. The number of extended Q&A interviews on our website is quite substantial
and our subscribers tell us they really value them. We have included some samples on pages 22 and 23.
Those of you whom we spoke to at Sportel Monaco in October will probably be aware we have added
a powerful new service to our portfolio: TV Sports Markets Rights Tracker. On page 14 we give you an
example of how this could work for your business. In this case we have pulled together information from
our vast database of sports-rights deals to explore the growth in value of football (soccer) rights in the US.
While our granular detail clearly has a value, we have never really stood back and looked at how it all
added up to make a global picture. For 2015, we have ticked that box as well, with the publication
of the TVSM Global Report 2015. We believe it to be the most accurate assessment ever made of the
global sports-rights business. An example of the coverage in the report is provided on page 8.
Two features maintain our American theme. On page 20, we look at the sports events which brought
in the biggest TV audiences in 2014 in the US. And on page 4 we look at why sports-rights prices are
booming in the US, Canada and Latin America, and ask whether such increases are sustainable. The
two regions – North America and Latin America – are covered by two panels which we will run for
Sportel in Miami. Full details are available on page 7.
And, as usual, we also provide a summary of the Top 10 deals signed since Sportel Monaco.
Our staff will be present at the conference. Please feel free to get in touch using the contact details
below. For enquiries about accessing TV Sports Markets content, or advertising in the next edition of
the Sportel Briefing, call David Hunt, our senior account manager.
CONTENTS
4
8
10
14
17
20
22
THE SCRIMMAGE FOR SPORT
The battle for sport in North America
TVSM GLOBAL REPORT
A preview of the TVSM Global
Report 2015
NEWS REVIEW
A selection of full stories from the TV
Sports Markets newsletter
THE GROWTH OF FOOTBALL
Analysis of the growing rights fees
paid for football in North America
THE TOP 10 DEALS
A look at the Top 10 rights deals
signed since Sportel Monaco
NFL TV AUDIENCE DOMINATES
The NFL continues to pull in the
biggest audiences in the US
FEATURE INTERVIEWS
A sample of the Q&A interviews
we offer on our website
We wish you a productive and enjoyable Sportel America 2015.
Frank Dunne
Editor
TV Sports Markets
THE TV SPORTS MARKETS TEAM
Frank Dunne
Editor
frank@tvsportsmarkets.com
(mob) +39 34 95 84 64 23
+44 207 954 3509
Paul Santos
Head of Group Information Sales
David Hunt
Senior Account Manager
paul.santos@tvsportsmarkets.com
david.hunt@sportbusiness.com
(mob) +44 79 31 39 05 02
+44 207 954 3483
(mob) +44 (0) 7816 856 581
+44 (0) 207 954 3415
Richard Welbirg
Senior Reporter
richard@tvsportsmarkets.com
(mob) +44 77 38 42 18 82
+44 207 702 5283
Robin Jellis
Senior Reporter
robin.jellis@tvsportsmarkets.com
(mob) +44 78 46 82 21 75
+44 207 954 3439
Ben Speight
Head of SportBusiness Group
ben@sportbusiness.com
(mob) +44 (0) 78 83 00 98 69
+44 207 954 3505
WWW.SPORTBUSINESS.COM/TV-SPORTS-MARKETS
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3
SPORTEL BRIEFING
SCRIMMAGE FOR SPORT INTENSIFIES
FRANK DUNNE ANALYSES THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF TOP SPORTS RIGHTS ACROSS THE AMERICAS
IN 2002, RUPERT Murdoch’s US network
Fox took a write-down of $909m (€800m)
on three sports-rights deals. It reduced
the value of: its $4.5bn, eight-year deal
with the National Football League by
$387m; its $1.9bn, eight-year Nascar deal
by $297m; and its $2.4bn, six-year deal
with Major League Baseball by $225m.
With just a hint of understatement,
Peter Chernin, president of Fox’s parent
company News Corp, told investors: “I
guess you would have to say we overpaid.”
At the time, experts were queuing
up to predict that Fox and other US
networks would have to rein in their
sports-rights ambitions, or maybe pull
out of sport altogether, leading inevitably
to a cooling of rights-price inflation. We
all know how that worked out.
Fox, ESPN, Turner, NBCUniversal and
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others have continued to invest massive
sums in securing top sports rights, paying
substantial percentage increases as deals
come up for renewal. The same scenario
has unfolded across Latin America,
involving many of the same US-based
media companies but also local players.
Canada has also, although to a lesser
extent, been caught up in the frenzy.
Across the Americas, all the signs point
to the rampant inflation continuing for the
foreseeable future. But with every new megadeal, the Cassandra figures appear, predicting
that the bursting of the sports-rights bubble
is inevitable – a case of when, not if.
So what is driving the sports-rights
inflation in the Americas? Are there
underlying factors common to Latin America,
the US and Canada? And are the increases
sustainable in any of the territories?
SPORT IS THE GLUE HOLDING
THE BUNDLE TOGETHER
In the last two to three years, many of the
biggest sports rights contracts in the US
have been renewed. With a small number
of exceptions, the deals had two defining
characteristics: they involved massive fee
increases and very long contract durations.
Disney-owned sports broadcaster ESPN,
for example, hugely increased its spending
on its core rights properties. Among other
deals, it agreed to pay the NFL $15.2bn over
eight years for its Monday Night Football
package of rights – a 73-per-cent increase
on its previous deal. Disney, together with
Turner, shelled out $24bn in a nine-year
deal, through to 2024-25, for NBA rights – a
187-per-cent increase. ESPN committed a
further $7.3bn to secure College Football
Playoffs through to 2026. The content of
SPECIAL
TVSM OVERVIEW
FEATURE
the package changed so an exact like-withlike comparison is not possible, but ESPN’s
spending probably represented a four- to
five-fold increase. The broadcaster will
also pay $5.6bn for MLB rights through
to 2021 – a 136-per-cent increase.
ESPN has two principal revenue
streams: ‘affiliate fees’ paid by cable and
satellite carriers to carry its channels, and
advertising. Because of the strength of its
content, it is able to charge carriers over $5
per subscriber per month to be carried in
their basic programming tiers, which are
available in over 100m homes. This is by far
the highest affiliate fee in the US television
market. It equates to almost $6bn per year
in income. The wide reach achieved by being
in basic tiers – which ESPN insists upon
– allows the broadcaster to earn a further
$3.5bn or so per year from advertising.
The US pay-television industry has grown
fat on this kind of bundling of content.
Broadcasters and carriers have been making
big profits as the price of an annual cable
bundle for the average US home has inched
up towards $1,000. But the model is coming
under strain. Consumers are demanding
greater choice and increasingly only want
to pay for the programmes or channels they
are interested in. ‘Cord-cutting’ – people
dropping bundled pay-television services in
favour of OTT services which offer content
on an à la carte basis – is on the increase.
The problem is not thought to be
sports fans objecting to paying increasing
fees, but cable and satellite subscribers with
no interest in sport (at least 40 per cent
of the population) who have to put up
with what they see as a “sports tax” – the
additional fees they pay to cover the costs
of sports content. Estimates of the size
of the ‘tax’ vary from $50 to $100 per
year for the average cable subscriber.
The idea of the bundled content model
collapsing is a worrying one for broadcasters
and carriers. In July 2013, analysts Needham
estimated that the television industry
would lose $70bn per year if cable content
was unbundled and channels could be
acquired on an à la carte basis. That was
about half of all television revenues at the
time. Needham concluded that “fewer than
20 channels would survive in an à la carte
world where consumers are required to bear
100 per cent of the cost of the channel.”
These changing consumer habits don’t
only represent a threat to bundled content,
but to the very existence of traditional linear
broadcasting. Analysts Nomura reported
a drop of 12 per cent in linear viewing in
the US between 2013 and 2014, describing
it as “one of the worst declines we have
seen since we launched coverage of these
companies.” They put the decline down
to the increasing uptake of subscription
video-on-demand services such as Netflix,
Amazon Instant Video and Hulu.
In this environment of fragmentation
and uncertainty, top sport is becoming
increasingly important. It is both the
glue which holds the bundle together
and the only remaining form of
appointment-to-view content which can
drive big audiences on a regular basis.
It is not surprising then, that media
companies are paying more for top sports
rights and signing deals for as long as they
possibly can. The most striking recent
example of a sports rights deal designed
to future-proof a television company
against these shifts was NBCUniversal’s
renewal for the Olympic Games.
In May 2014, NBCU paid $7.65bn
for the rights to six editions of the Games
between 2021 and 2032. No major sportsrights deal has ever represented such a
leap in the dark for both rights-holder
and broadcaster. The contract would not
even begin until seven years later and
would end 18 years down the road.
When asked by TV Sports Markets how
rights-holders and broadcasters could put
a value on media content so far into the
5
SPORTEL BRIEFING
future, the IOC’s television and marketing
services director Timo Lumme replied: “The
short answer is that you basically can’t.”
GROWING MIDDLE CLASS
DRIVES PAY-TV EXPLOSION
The sports rights boom in Latin America
has different roots to that in the US. In the
US, the pay-television market has reached
maturity and is now slowly shrinking. In
Latin America, it is experiencing substantial
year-on-year growth, driven by the expansion
of the continent’s middle class, the roll-out
of low-priced content package options and
a more benign regulatory environment.
Analysts Bernstein Research last year
predicted growth in the Latin American
pay-television subscriber base of eight
per cent per year through to 2019, with
double-digit growth in markets like
Peru and Brazil, which currently have
low pay-television penetration levels.
In a note on the region’s pay-television
market, Bernstein said: “Economic growth
drives more households into the ‘middle
class,’ a point at which pay-TV becomes
an affordable luxury for the first time. Also
helping bring penetration rates higher has
been the introduction of low-priced, entrylevel basic tiers, making pay-TV much
more affordable. In most markets, satellite
companies were the first to introduce these
tiers, but cable distributors have increasingly
caught on to the popularity of these products.”
The relatively limited choice of highquality free-to-air programming has also
helped the growth of pay-television.
The scramble for market share by existing
companies, and the emergence of new players
6
trying to establish a foothold, is the biggest
single factor driving sports-rights inflation
across the region. Brazil provides a good
example of this and the deal last November
for the pay-television rights to the Uefa
Champions League a good case study.
Commercial channel Esporte Interativo
surprisingly unseated incumbent rightsholder ESPN as part of its strategy of entering
the country’s pay-television market. The
broadcaster is thought to have paid about
$45m per season for pay-television and
online rights to the Champions League for
three seasons, from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
The fee represents an increase of just over
180 per cent on the $16m per season ESPN
pays in the current deal, from 2012-13 to
2014-15. Globosat-owned pay-television
network SporTV also bid for the rights.
It was the second consecutive big
increase for Uefa. Competition from Fox
had forced ESPN to pay a huge increase
on the $2.1m per season it had been
paying between 2009-10 and 2011-12.
Esporte Interativo’s aggressive bidding
was made possible by the ambitions of US
media group Turner Broadcasting System to
get into the Brazilian pay-television market.
Turner initially acquired a stake of 20 per
cent in Esporte Interativo in June 2013 for
$32m. This was increased to 100 per cent
in January 2015 (for the full TV Sports
Markets story on the deal, see page 13).
FIGHTING FOR THE FUTURE OF PAY-TV
In terms of underlying macro-economic
factors, Canada resembles the US much more
closely than it does Latin America. GDP
growth in both countries has bumped along
modestly at around two per cent for the last
few years. In both, the pay-television market
reached maturity several years ago and is
experiencing a slight contraction. In both
markets, the threat posed to existing business
models is an engine of sports rights growth.
Never has this been made more
apparent than in the deal in late 2013
in which telco Rogers Communications
paid C$5.23bn (€3.7bn/US$5bn) for the
exclusive rights on all platforms to ice
hockey’s National Hockey League for 12
seasons, from 2014-15 to 2025-26. It is the
country’s biggest-ever sports-rights deal.
At the time, Barry Schwartz, vice
president of Baskin Financial Services, a
company which manages portfolios and
owns shares in both of the country’s biggest
telcos, Rogers and Bell, told TV Sports
Markets: “You can’t duplicate live sports and
news through Netflix and other mediums.
It’s an arms race and it’s got to be done.”
Schwartz said Rogers was taking a
gamble with the size of its payment but
that it was an “educated” gamble by the
company. “We don’t know how the
landscape will lie in 12 years’ time. But
remember Rogers is vertically integrated,
they own the pipeline to millions of homes
in Canada, they own internet, and they are
selling triple play.” He said that having the
NHL would enable Rogers to raise prices
over time, prevent churn, command higher
advertising rates, and increase cash flows.
The biggest advantage of the deal,
according to Michael Hennessy, president of
the Canadian Media Production Association,
was that “they [Rogers] have given consumers
a big reason not to cut the cord.”
TV SPORTS MARKETS PANELS AT SPORTEL AMERICA
TV Sports Markets is proud to present two high-level panels at Sportel America in the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel,
which will bring together some of the biggest names in the global sports media rights industry.
The first panel, The North American sports rights boom: is it sustainable?, will look at the growth in rights fees for sports
properties in the US and Canada. The second panel, The Evolution of the Latin American TV Market, will look at the
rapid development of sports broadcasting across Latin America.
Both panels will be moderated by TV Sports Markets editor Frank Dunne.
TUESDAY MARCH 17, 3.45PM, JUNIOR BALLROOM A (5TH FLOOR)
The North American sports rights boom: is it sustainable?
A panel discussion featuring:
Daniel Cohen
SVP, Americas
MP & Silva
Scott Moore
President, Sportsnet and NHL Properties
Rogers
Thomas Schmidt
Managing Director, Media Rights
Team Marketing
WEDNESDAY MARCH 18, 3.00PM, JUNIOR BALLROOM A (5TH FLOOR)
Sport & the Evolution of the Latin American TV Market
A panel discussion featuring:
Felix Alvarez-Garmon
SVP, Latin America,
Brazil, Caribbean and
US Hispanic
IMG Events & Media
Felipe Aquilino
Director of Acquisition
and Sale of Media Rights
Esporte Interativo
Pedro Freire
Head of Programming
TyC Sports
Francisco Pazmino
SVP Programming &
Acquisition
Fox Sports Latin America
SPORTEL BRIEFING
$36.8bn
34%
the increase in
value since 2010
the total, global value of sports
media rights deals in 2014
FOOTBALL AND NFL BEHIND MEDIA GROWTH
A GLOBAL ASSESSMENT OF THE VALUE OF THE SPORTS MEDIA RIGHTS INDUSTRY, FROM THE TVSM GLOBAL REPORT 2015
THE GLOBAL SPORTS-rights market
will grow by nine per cent over the
course of 2015, from just under $36.8bn
(€29.5bn) to just under $40bn, according
to the TVSM Global Report 2015. By
2017 it will have grown to $44.7bn.
The growth has come despite the global
recession which followed the financial
crisis of 2008. Some of the market
developments which had been expected to
put a brake on growth have not done so.
The maturing of the pay-television
market in the US and large parts of
Europe, for example, has not stopped rights
inflation in both regions. The growth of
internet-based media platforms, far from
hitting traditional broadcast revenues,
appears to be helping to drive them.
Between 2013 and 2014, the value of
the market increased by a staggering 15 per
cent, from just over $32bn. However, that
growth rate was something of an anomaly.
It reflected big new deals for the world’s
most valuable property, American football’s
National Football League, and increases in the
value of football properties around the world,
particularly the English Premier League.
New deals for the NFL lifted its annual
income by over $2bn this year, and for
the Premier League by about $600m.
Not surprisingly, football proved to
be very much the world game in terms of
income, generating $13.1bn in 2014, or 36
per cent of the global total. It is set to grow
further to $15.8bn by 2017, which would
represent a 55-per-cent increase since 2010.
Football was twice as valuable as the second-
8
biggest sport, American football, in 2014.
The Premier League is the most successful
football property in the world, followed
by the Uefa Champions League, Italy’s Serie A,
France’s Ligue 1 and Spain’s La Liga.
The Premier League was third overall,
trailing two US leagues: American
football’s NFL and baseball’s MLB.
The US is the biggest market in terms
of value but is only the joint fourth fastest
growing of those markets surveyed between
2010 and 2017. Canada and Brazil lead
the way, each enjoying an 83-per-cent
growth in rights values across the period.
The two countries are followed by the
UK, on 80 per cent. Australia and the US
both grew 67 per cent across the period.
The two biggest deals of 2014 were the
NBA’s nine-year, $24bn renewal with ESPN
and Turner Broadcasting, and the NFL’s
$12bn, eight-year renewal for its Sunday
Ticket rights package with DirecTV.
RECESSION-PROOF RIGHTS
On the basis of deals already concluded
and some estimates, we expect the global
sports-rights market to grow at a rate
of nine per cent in 2015, seven per cent
in 2016 and four per cent in 2017.
The market experienced single-digit
growth in 2011 (two per cent), 2012 (six
per cent) and 2013 (seven per cent).
The growth between 2010 and 2014,
and the projected growth through to
2017, demonstrates that the media rights
to top sport are ‘recession proof.’
Growth in some markets, especially in
THE FUTURE
Between 2014 and 2017 our expectations include:
21%
increase in the value of the global
sports media rights market
92%
increase in the value of basketball rights
29%
increase in the value of sports media
rights in the Indian subcontinent
PREVIEW: TVSM GLOBAL REPORT
$2.9bn
$4.6bn
52%
increase in value of media
rights for football, the
world’s most valuable
sport, in 2010-14
increase in value of sports
media rights in the US,
the world’s most valuable
market, in 2010-14
percentage increase in value of
the National Football League,
the world’s most valuable
sports property, in 2010-14
Europe, stalled between 2009 and 2013
because of the impact of the crisis on
consumer spending, with the knock-on
effects of reduced advertising spending
and stagnating or diminishing paytelevision subscriptions. But even in the
European markets hardest hit, such as
Spain and Greece, there are already signs
of recovery in sports rights values.
GROWTH FACTORS
A number of factors explain the year-onyear growth of sports media rights. Several
are underlying, structural factors. Others
are specific to regions or even individual
markets. The broader factors include:
• Continuing economic growth in large
parts of Asia, Latin America and Africa.
• The continued increase in the
penetration of pay-television, including
heavy investment by many pay-television
operators in bundled, multi-play offerings.
• Increasing penetration of fast
broadband services, driving the
take-up of streamed content.
• The rapid expansion in the sale of
mobile devices with wireless internet.
• The explosion of social media platforms.
• The emergence of aggressive new players in
the rights market, often operating on a global
level in competition with strong local operators.
• Sports bodies becoming smarter
at exploiting their media assets.
• Consolidation in the sports-rights
agency market, with a small number
of wealthy companies paying strategic
fees to acquire premium content.
• Changing viewing habits, in
particular multi-screen activity.
• The creation of new, media-friendly
competition formats, such as Twenty20 cricket.
• Fragmentation in media markets,
reducing the types of content which
can regularly deliver large audiences.
• Improved broadcast technologies, such
as HD, which enable media operators to earn
incremental revenues on sports content.
During the great expansion of pay-television
services in the 1990s, top sport and first-
The TVSM Global Report 2015 combines data and analysis from TV Sports Markets
to assess the total value of the global sports media rights market, and other data
including: the 10 most valuable markets; the 20 most valuable sports properties; and
the 10 most valuable sports. As well as current annual values, the report includes
historic and estimated future values covering the period 2010 to 2017. The data is
accompanied by written analysis from the TV Sports Markets editorial team, putting
the numbers in context and shedding light on the trends shaping the market.
run Hollywood films were the main drivers
of subscriptions. The expansion of OTT
services such as Netflix has diminished the
relative importance of films to pay-television
companies, many of whom are directing more
of their content investment into live sport.
As the process of fragmentation continues,
allied with consumers getting used to accessing
content where, how and when they want it,
both the linear television schedule and the
bundle-and-buy-through model of traditional
television will come under pressure. In this
environment, the scramble for sport is likely
to become even more intense than at present.
LIVE EXPERIENCE
The explosion of internet-based services
was expected by some analysts to negatively
affect the value of traditional television
rights. This has not proved to be the case.
Smartphones and tablets and other mobile
devices have increased the range of the live
event and have helped create new ways
of engaging with sport which add, rather
than subtract, value for rights-holders.
TVSM
GLOBAL
REPORT
2015
The report is available to buy now. To find out more contact David Hunt on
+44 (0) 207 954 3415, or david.hunt@sportbusiness.com.
9
SPORTEL BRIEFING
NEWS REVIEW
A SELECTION OF STORIES FROM THE TV SPORTS MARKETS
NEWSLETTER SINCE SPORTEL MONACO
TELEFÓNICA ACQUIRES LA LIGA RIGHTS
JANUARY 16: TELEFÓNICA STRENGTHENS ITS HAND IN DEALS WITH TWO SPANISH CLUBS
TELEFÓNICA’S ACQUISITION OF all rights to
two Primera Liga clubs, and its bid to acquire
the rights to Spanish giant Barcelona, are aimed
at strengthening the telco’s position ahead of
changes in the domestic broadcast market.
The deals give the Spanish company a strong
hand in discussions with the Mediapro agency
over next season’s domestic rights, and improve
its position ahead of the league’s impending
switch to collective selling in 2016-17.
They underline Telefónica’s determination
to be a major player in the domestic sportsrights market, following big deals last
year for Formula One motor racing and
motor cycling’s MotoGP championship.
Telefónica will pay Celta Vigo and Real
Sociedad about €23m ($26.7m) and €26m
respectively for their media rights in the
2015-16 season. Both clubs earned €22m
this season – Sociedad from Mediapro and
Celta from pay-television platform Canal Plus.
Telefónica is now in head-to-head competition
with Mediapro for the two clubs yet to sell their
rights for 2015-16: Barcelona and Espanyol.
Next season is the last in which Spanish
clubs will sell their rights individually. Thereafter,
rights will be sold collectively by the Liga
de Fútbol Profesional, the association which
administers the Primera and Segunda divisions.
The emergence of an aggressive Telefónica,
which last year took over Canal Plus from
publisher Prisa, is good news for the LFP. When
the collective rights come to market it will
now have a well-funded telco going up against
Mediapro, which is expected to be working
with Qatari sports broadcaster beIN Sports.
As one Spanish football expert put it this
week, “until now there has been competition
10
between one fairly small player [Mediapro],
and a big player with massive financial
problems [Prisa]. The league has grounds
to be very optimistic about the future.”
Vodafone-owned cable operator Ono
and pan-European sports broadcaster
Eurosport are also potential bidders.
The ‘professional sport law’ which will
enable the change has been agreed by the
clubs, the relevant government departments
and Spain’s competition regulator, the
Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y La
Competencia. It is awaiting the final approval
of the Council of Ministers, Spain’s cabinet,
which is expected before the end of January.
CATALAN CONNECTION
Most experts believe Telefónica will
struggle to beat Mediapro to a deal with
Barcelona. The agency is likely to have
offered the club the same terms it agreed
with Real Madrid for the 2015-16 season,
thought to be about €140m. Telefónica
would have to bid at least that amount.
In practice, it would probably have to
bid considerably more to overcome the
strength of the relationship between the
two. Mediapro, which holds Barcelona’s
rights in the current cycle, shares the club’s
Catalan culture and has worked closely
with the club for years across a range of
commercial ventures. The agency also
designed and built the club museum.
The delay in renewing their agreement is
thought to be due to political upheaval at
the club – president Josep Maria Bartomeu
recently called early elections to “relieve
tension” – rather than Telefónica’s involvement.
POLITICS
Spanish football insiders say political as
well as financial factors helped Telefónica
close deals for rights to matches of Celta
Vigo and Real Sociedad, and would likely
help them acquire Espanyol rights.
Real Sociedad has a fractious relationship
with Mediapro. In 2012, the club
terminated its contract with the agency
after winning a case for late payments, only
for Mediapro to successfully countersue.
Celta Vigo signed with Canal Plus
in the current cycle to ensure a similar
fee as local rival Deportiva La Coruña,
which is partnered with Mediapro.
Espanyol’s rights are also held by Canal Plus.
The club believed it would have been treated
as a poor relation to city rival Barcelona had it
signed with Mediapro. Telefónica took 100-percent ownership of Canal Plus in July 2014.
WHY NOW?
Mediapro agreed deals for the majority of the
42 Primera and Segunda division clubs last
summer without competition, and was expected
to complete deals with the remaining clubs.
There are two possible reasons for
Telefónica’s decision to enter the market for
club rights so late in the day. One is that
holding these rights ensures Telefónica’s
presence in discussions about the structure and
implementation of the collective selling regime.
Second, it felt the need to secure its
position in the Spanish broadcast market
after losing out to Mediapro in the bidding
for Uefa Champions League rights in
September last year. Without a top football
competition Canal Plus will shed subscribers.
NEWS REVIEW
BEIN MEDIA STRATEGY: WHATEVER WORKS
JANUARY 16: BEIN MEDIA GROUP DEMONSTRATES ITS ABILITY TO ADAPT TO MARKET CONDITIONS
BEIN MEDIA GROUP’S recent rights deals in
Canada, as well as negotiations in Spain and
Turkey, demonstrate the company’s ability
to adapt to market conditions in expanding
its pay-television operation beyond its core
market of the Middle East and North Africa.
The developments show that beIN will
continue to grow opportunistically, by
adopting different business models and
ownership structures depending on the
characteristics of each market. It will not always
simply launch wholly-owned premium sports
channels, as it has done in France and the US.
BeIN’s recent Uefa Champions League
and Europa League deals in Canada were
agreed together with the Bell media group.
Due to broadcasting restrictions, beIN
was only able to launch by entering into a
partnership with a Canadian company.
The deals are evidence that beIN is
prepared to work in partnership with other
companies for either strategic reasons or when
it is a regulatory necessity in a certain market.
In Asia, beIN initially entered into a joint
venture with the MP & Silva agency to launch
premium channels, before buying the agency’s
50-per-cent stake in order to have complete
control of the strategic direction of the channels.
In Spain, a market in which beIN has
not yet launched its channels, it worked
with the Mediapro agency on its acquisition
of Champions League rights in September
last year. A roll-out of the beIN Sports
channels is almost certain in 2015, but it
has not yet been decided in what guise.
It is highly unlikely that beIN would
launch a purely football channel, like
Mediapro’s Gol T pay-television channel.
BeIN has not yet ruled out the possibility of
rebranding Gol T but may launch its beIN
Sports multi-sports channels alongside Gol T.
BeIN’s parent company, Al Jazeera, is
also reported to be preparing a bid for
five new licences for free-to-air digitalterrestrial channels in the country.
In Latin America, beIN also bid for
Champions League and Europa League
rights, ahead of plans – it is thought – to
roll out its channels across the region.
TAKING CONTROL
In Turkey and Australia, the strategy is
different again: taking control of an
existing pay-television platform.
In Australia, beIN acquired the Irishowned Setanta Sports Australia pay-television
operation last October, rebranding it
beIN Sports the following month.
In Turkey, media reports claim beIN has
secured a majority shareholding in leading paytelevision operator Digiturk, acquiring a 53-percent stake in a deal worth $820m (€707m).
TV Sports Markets understands that no
deal has yet been agreed, although there is
serious interest from beIN, and a deal is
likely to be completed in the near future.
The deal has been complicated due to
Digiturk’s current ownership structure.
Media group Çukurova Holding had held a
53-per-cent stake, with private equity group
Providence holding the remaining 47 per cent.
Çukurova’s stake was seized by Turkey’s
Savings Deposit Insurance Fund, the
national body for fund management, after
the media group defaulted on a payment.
The body put the stake up for sale in May
2013. Any deal by beIN would have to be
agreed with the body and with Çukurova.
The Doğan Holding media group and
telco Türk Telekom are also reported to
have bid for Çukurova’s 53-per-cent stake.
BEIN’S TURKISH PLANS
BeIN is understood to be keen to launch in
Turkey – a market it has ear-marked as one
with great potential for growth. Turkey has
a large population – 75m – with a young
demographic. Football is the top sport in the
country, but basketball is also very popular.
It would also act as a natural bridge
between the beIN businesses in Mena and
Europe. One media expert said “there is
high growth potential” in Turkey, and “a
lot of headroom” to grow pay-television.
Digiturk is the leading pay-television
operator in Turkey, with about 3m subscribers.
Digiturk’s main property is the Süper Lig, the
top domestic football league. Its renewal to the
end of 2016-17 was approved by the Turkish
competition authority in November last year.
It is understood that beIN prefers the
notion of a straight takeover of an established
operation in Turkey, rather than a roll-out
of its channels from scratch for two reasons.
First, the challenge of hiring all the staff
necessary to run a pay-television operation
is a time-consuming exercise. In acquiring
Digiturk, beIN will inherit a highly-skilled
workforce of around 1,000 employees.
Second, external staff would have
little knowledge of the Turkish market.
Acquiring Digiturk staff who can speak
the language and understand the culture
will be a big advantage for beIN.
11
SPORTEL BRIEFING
FOX MAKES OFFER MEDIAPRO CAN’T REFUSE
28 NOVEMBER: MEDIAPRO SELLS FORMULA ONE RIGHTS TO FOX DESPITE LAUNCH OF F1 CHANNEL
SPANISH AGENCY MEDIAPRO will
dilute the exclusivity of its new Formula
One channel in Latin America with a
sublicensing deal because it felt the offer
from Fox Sports was too good to refuse.
Mediapro will launch the 24-hour Formula
One channel – a joint venture with satellite
television provider DirecTV – in March 2015,
shortly before the Formula One season begins.
Earlier this month the agency agreed
a five-year sublicensing deal worth
about $8m (€6.4m) per year with Fox
across Latin America and the Caribbean,
excluding Brazil, giving the broadcaster
non-exclusive live rights to 10 of the 20
races each season from 2015 to 2019.
The deal came as a surprise. Fox’s
rights are limited but its coverage will still
undermine the exclusivity, and therefore the
value, of the channel for DirecTV and other
platforms. Mediapro is negotiating carriage
deals with other major Latin American
platforms, including telcos Telefónica
and América Móvil subsidiary Claro.
Mediapro did the deal because it
felt the size of Fox’s offer balanced the
loss of exclusivity in sublicensing the
races. Additionally, Fox’s coverage will
carry advertising sold by Mediapro,
increasing the agency’s income.
In March this year, Mediapro acquired
exclusive rights to Formula One across
Latin America and the Caribbean, excluding
Brazil, from 2015 to 2019. The agency is
thought to be paying $25m per year.
At the time of the deal, Mediapro’s
managing director Gerard Romy told
TV Sports Markets: “From the beginning
12
our goal was to build a channel. This was
always our business plan and we have
been in discussion with all the operators.
Reselling the rights was not the concept.
Never say never. If someone puts one zero
more they can change your agenda. But
the concept was to do the channel.”
Fox is paying the same amount as in its
existing 2012 to 2014 deal, for half the content
and with no exclusivity. Carlos Martinez,
president of Fox International Channels Latin
America, told TV Sports Markets that it was
keen to maintain some Formula One content.
Fox has a history in motorsport in the
region, in the now-defunct Speed network
and in the coverage of Latin American
drivers like Pastor Maldonaldo, Sergio
‘Checo’ Pérez and Esteban Gutiérrez as they
moved up the ranks to Formula One.
“To get out of this would have been a
waste of the things we had done over the
last 10 years,” he said. He added that the
network needed to have Formula One content
as part of a serious motorsport offering.
The Mexican Grand Prix returns to
Formula One in 2015. It will boost the profile
of the sport in the region, and Martinez
said it was vital Fox was involved with the
broadcasting of the region’s key events.
FOX DEAL
The sublicensing agreement covers all the
territories in Mediapro’s deal, although
the agency has carved out some free-to-air
rights in Mexico and Venezuela. The latter
was not included in Fox’s previous deal.
Fox will show the races on its motorsportoriented Fox Sports 3 channel and its online
Fox Play platform. Fox can choose which 10
of the 20 races it will simulcast. It has the first
two choices from grands prix in the Americas,
leaving Mediapro the remaining two. Choices
are then sequential: first Fox, then Mediapro.
Fox can air the remaining 10
grands prix on a delayed basis. The
length of the delay will vary between
European, American and Asian races.
Fox will show the Mexican Grand Prix live,
including live qualifying and practice races.
For other races these will be shown delayed.
Mediapro has also agreed a oneoff deal with Mexican media group
Televisa for live free-to-air coverage
of the Mexican Grand Prix.
Mediapro is also in talks with multiple
free-to-air broadcasters in Venezuela for
coverage of all 20 races. FOM secured
deals in the territory thought to be worth
between $1.5m and $2m per season from
2012 to 2014. A one-hour highlights
package will be sold in other territories
for which Mediapro holds the rights.
MEDIAPRO CHANNEL
All 20 races will be shown live on Mediapro’s
24-hour Formula One channel. The
deal confirming the extent of DirecTV’s
shareholding in the channel is expected
to be finalised before Christmas. The
channel will be positioned among
carriers’ premium sports packages.
Production will be handled by Mediapro,
alongside its production for the Spanish
market. Mediapro holds free-to-air rights
to Formula One in Spain in 2014 and
2015, in a deal worth €32m per season.
NEWS REVIEW
TURNER SET TO ENTER PAY-TV MARKET
14 NOVEMBER: CHAMPIONS LEAGUE RIGHTS SET TURNER UP TO RIVAL PAY-TV BROADCASTER ESPN
THE ACQUISITION OF the Champions
League rights earlier this month paves
the way for Brazilian commercial channel
Esporte Interativo to enter the paytelevision market, while simultaneously
damaging its future rival ESPN.
Esporte Interativo will pay $45m
(€36m) per season for pay-television and
online rights to the Champions League for
three seasons, 2015-16 to 2017-18. The
fee represents a 180-per-cent increase on
the $16m per season ESPN pays in the
current cycle, from 2012-13 to 2014-15.
The agreement is awaiting approval
from Uefa, European football’s
governing body. It was brokered by
Uefa’s sales agent Team Marketing.
The free-to-air rights were sold
as a separate package and acquired
by commercial network Globo.
Esporte Interativo fought off competition
from a partnership between ESPN and
Globosat-owned pay-television network
SporTV. Offers were closely matched in
the first round of bidding before Esporte
Interativo won out in the second. ESPN/
SporTV is thought to have offered about
$36.6m per season in the second round.
There was no bid from pay-television
channel Fox Sports Brasil. Aggressive bidding
from Fox helped Uefa achieve a massive
increase in the current cycle, up from
$2.1m per season in 2009-10 to 2011-12.
At the time, Fox required strong content
to help strike favourable carriage agreements
on Brazil’s major pay-television platforms but
now has long-term agreements in place. It is
thought it did not bid as it would be unlikely
to recoup the outlay in increased carriage fees.
TURNER IN BRAZIL
Esporte Interativo would not have been
able to finance such a significant outlay
independently. Its bid was backed by Turner
Broadcasting System, its largest shareholder.
Turner acquired a stake of around 20
per cent in Esporte Interativo in June
2013, paying R80m ($32m/€26m).
This is the first time the US-based
broadcaster has flexed its financial muscle
in pursuit of Brazilian sports rights.
Esporte Interativo will use the Champions
League as its key content in a new paytelevision channel. It will have a strong
position from which to negotiate carriage
deals with Brazil’s major pay-television
operators, satellite platform Sky Brasil and
cable platform Net. DirecTV-owned Sky
and Net, owned by telco Embratel, have
29.8-per-cent and 33.5-per-cent shares of
the pay-television market respectively.
The deal came as a surprise to many; ESPN
has broadcast the competition since its launch
in Brazil. Its long relationship with Uefa was
not enough to see off Esporte Interativo’s
aggressive bidding, and the loss is a major blow.
FREE TO AIR
Rights to show first-choice Tuesday
and Wednesday matches on free-to-air
channels were sold as a separate package.
Esporte Interativo bid but was beaten by
Globo in the first round of bidding.
Globo will pay $15m per season between
2015-16 and 2017-18. It pays $5m per
season in the current deal for Wednesday
matches, while Esporte Interativo pays
$4m per season for Tuesday matches.
The pay-television and free-to-air
deals take Uefa’s total income from the
Champions League in Brazil to $60m per
season, a 150-per-cent increase on the
$25m per season in the current cycle.
The deals follow one in August for the paytelevision rights to the Champions League and
Europa League in the rest of Latin America
worth $50m per season with ESPN and Fox.
Each fortnight the TV Sports Markets newsletter covers the biggest deals in the
global sports media rights industry, and is full of exclusive deal facts and analysis.
To discover our full range of content access options call
David Hunt, our senior account manager, on
+44 207 954 3415, or email david.hunt@sportbusiness.com
13
SPORTEL BRIEFING
THE GROWTH OF FOOTBALL IN NORTH AMERICA
MIKE KIERNAN AND LUKAS ZAJANCAUSKAS LOOK AT FOOTBALL’S RIGHTS-FEE GROWTH IN THE NORTH
AMERICAN MARKET, AND COMPARE IT TO TRADITIONAL LEADING US SPORTS PROPERTIES
FIFA’S SHOCK DEAL in February with
broadcast network Fox and paytelevision broadcaster Telemundo
for the World Cup means the rights
are now locked up until 2026.
Along with the eight-year deal
for the rights to Major League Soccer
and US team matches, and the 10-year
Spanish-language rights deals for the Copa
América, the Fifa extension illustrates
the way North American broadcasters
are increasingly locking up rights to
football properties in long-term deals – in
much the same way as they do for the
traditional major US sports properties.
For example, Disney and Turner have
secured the rights to basketball’s NBA
until 2024-25, while the Canadian rights
to ice hockey’s NHL are held by telco
Rogers Communications until 2025-26.
In contrast, the five major European
football leagues have traditionally sold
their rights for much shorter time periods
– for example, the English Premier League
sells its rights in three-year cycles – meaning
that a host of rights will be available in
the US in the near future. The English
2009
Renewal Timeline:
Seletced football
properties in the
US, who owns
them and their
contract durations
Source: TVSM Rights Tracker
14
2010
2011
Selected football property cycle-by-cycle increases in the US
374%
English Premier League
274%
Spanish Liga
Uefa Champions League and
Europa League
156%
Italian Serie A
129%
Copa América
94%
90%
MLS and US Soccer
80%
Fifa World Cup
Annual rights fee in current cycle compared to previous one
Source: TVSM Rights Tracker
Note: This chart depicts an increase in rights fee cycle-on-cycle, e.g. the increase in English Premier League rights fee in 2013-2016
compared to 2010-2013
Increase in Fifa World Cup rights fees in the US
Share of total media rights income in US in 2015
NFL
1999-2006
2007-2014
2015-2022
MLB
29%
38%
156%
NBA
NHL
2%
4%
158%
Football
9%
17%
Others
Fifa World Cup
Source: TVSM Global Report 2015
Note: Includes US regional individual franchise deals for MLB, NBA and NHL
2012
2013
2014
Source: TVSM Rights Tracker
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
MEDIA RIGHTS ANALYSIS
TVSportsMarkets
Rights fees and contract durations taken from TV Sports Markets Rights
Tracker, the new business intelligence tool available now.
See overleaf for more information on Rights Tracker
Premier League rights, currently held
by media company NBCUniversal from
2013-14 to 2015-16, are due for renewal
and are likely to be very hotly contested.
Rights fees for leading football
properties in North America are increasing
dramatically. The cumulative value of
the leading football properties in the
region has increased from $143.95m in
2010 to $398.2m in 2015, an overall
increase of just over 176 per cent.
At the same time, the English Premier
League, Major League Soccer and the Fifa
World Cup have seen the value of their
rights increase in line with, or ahead of, the
traditional major US sports properties on a
percentage basis – albeit it from a lower base.
Despite the rise in the value of football
media rights, the sport only makes up
two per cent of total sports media rights
spend in the US (as reported in the TVSM
Global Report 2015, see pages 8 and 9).
The US market is dominated by American
football’s NFL, which accounts for 38 per
cent of all sports rights spending. Major
League Baseball, the NBA and the NCAA
also attract huge media rights fees.
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
Key football property cycle-by-cycle increases in the US compared to other properties
374%
274%
185%
158%
121%
156%
58%
NFL
MLB
NHL
NBA
Fifa World
Cup
Source: TVSM Rights Tracker
Note: Increases in annual rights fee on a cycle-by-cycle basis across selected properties in different sports
English Premier
League
MLS and US Soccer
Increase in combined rights fee revenue for selected football properties in the US, 2010 to 2015 (USD, millions)
398
258
227
+54%
175
147
144
+14%
+30%
+19%
+2%
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Year
Source: TVSM Rights Tracker
2024
Note: List of properties included: English Premier League, Spanish Liga, Uefa Champions League and Europa League, Italian Serie A, Copa
América, Concacaf events, Fifa World Cup, English FA and MLS and US Soccer rights
2025
2026
2027
ESPN buys Uefa European Championships
Fox buys Concacaf events
Univision buys Concacaf events
BeIN buys Copa América
Fox buys FA (English Football Association) events
BeIN buys Italian Serie A
BeIN buys Spanish Liga
Gol TV buys German Bundesliga
Time Warner Cable buys LA Galaxy (MLS)
Fox buys Uefa Champions League
Fox buys Uefa Europa League
Fox buys Australian A-League
NBCUniversal buys English Premier League
Fox buys Uefa European Qualifiers
Fox buys Fifa World Cup
Telemundo buys Fifa World Cup
Futbol de Primera buys Fifa World Cup
ESPN and Fox buy MLS and US Soccer events
Univision buys MLS and US Soccer events
Fox buys Fifa World Cup
Telemundo buys Fifa World Cup
15
TVSportsMarkets
NEW AND
AVAILABLE
NOW
Rights Tracker is a brand new business intelligence tool from TV Sports
Markets. The first of its kind, Rights Tracker is an interactive platform which
allows clients to interrogate the TV Sports Markets deals database.
Since 1997, TV Sports Markets has brought its clients unrivalled accuracy and insight into the
trading of sports media rights through the pages of its fortnightly newsletter. Now Rights Tracker
provides the most sophisticated service yet to help you with your media rights strategy.
Rights Tracker enables you to find out:
˜ when media rights are available with our unique renewal timeline
˜ where properties are distributed around the world by different rights-holders
and agencies, and which territories generate the most revenue
˜ what broadcasters and agencies have in their rights portfolios, what they paid
for them and the relative importance of the rights to their strategies
˜ how historic trends might affect the value of rights in a particular market
˜ and much, much more
Constantly updated by our new research analyst team, the platform also features analysis by the
renowned TV Sports Markets team as well as up-to-date company financial and key market data.
To find out more or arrange a demo of this
new service, please contact David Hunt on
david.hunt@sportbusiness.com
or +44 (0) 207 954 3415.
DEALS REVIEW
THE TOP 10 DEALS
THE MOST VALUABLE SPORTS RIGHTS DEALS WHICH HAVE BEEN SIGNED OFF SINCE SPORTEL MONACO 2014
$13.4bn
1.
2
total value of
top 10 deals
number of rugby
deals in the top 10
$8.8bn
10 years
total value of
football deals
length of Perform deal
with the WTA
*The exchange rates used were those when the respective deals were agreed.
$7.719bn
4.
BT and Sky bought UK Premier League rights
2.
$2.1bn
The ICC sold global
media rights to Star
3.
$702m
5.
$525m
Perform renewed WTA tennis rights
Canal Plus retained Top 14 rights
CCTV bought Olympics rights in China
6.
7.
$350m
$500m
MP & Silva agreed an advisory
deal for Malaysian M-League rights
NBA China sold digital rights to Tencent
8.
$328m
$550m
MP & Silva renewed its
international Serie A rights
9. 10.
$300m
CBS renewed Thursday Night Football rights
$282m
17 to Sky
The RFU sold global rights
SPORTELAMERICA_CHARTE_A4.indd 1
16/06/2014 16:38
ADVERTORIAL
Sportel Monaco 2014 delegates in the Grimaldi Forum
SPORTEL FOCUS ON
TECH CHALLENGES
“Marketing &
Monetizing Second
Screen in the Americas”
Cultural differences can make a
big difference when it comes to
understanding how to monetise
the second-screen experience.
We believe that high-quality
marketing and monetisation of
this content go hand-in-hand with
the industry’s objectives. With
that in mind, we aim to produce
an informative session that brings
together both sides of the equation
in order to educate attendees.
On March 18 at 10.45am in the
fifth-floor Junior Ballroom A, Jason
Dachman will moderate a panel
featuring industry leaders who are
finding new ways to create, distribute,
market and monetise their sports
content on every screen possible.
Speakers from Deltatre, the Perform
Group, SNTV, WWE and others
will discuss how their second-screen
offerings are being monetised, how
those efforts will evolve during 2015,
and best practices and technologies
in offering a quality product.
DAVID JONES, CEO OF OCEANWORX LLC, OFFICIAL MARKETING AND
SALES AGENCY OF SPORTEL, ON THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF
NEW MEDIA AND SECOND SCREEN
One big issue we’re addressing for the
Sportel community is the ever growing
tech challenges for content dealers.
One of the challenges the industry faces
today is new media and second screen,
basically defining the major objective for the
industry as “fan interaction”. These new-
“One of the challenges
the industry faces
today is new media
and second screen”
found opportunities influence us all, how
we communicate, how we follow things or
simply watch TV, but of course it has also
changed the business of selling content.
It really has become more of
a marketing strategy and brand
communication, using sports content as
a tool or carrier to transport the image
of a sport, a brand, a league, even an
athlete to the targeted audiences.
All this must be taken into account
while signing over your content rights,
and the one that doesn’t agree is usually
the one who loses valuable business
opportunities. Since marketing Sportel
we have noticed the change in the
industry: the business is not about
content deals alone anymore.
As a result it is up to us to step up and
provide new opportunities to the Sportel
community, and help them to do better
business in the future. For years we have
developed and brought in more and more
tech solutions and providers that enable
marketing and content professionals
to realise a wider variety of deals. But
this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Alongside the tech developments
at Sportel conventions, we have also
built and continue to create informative
panels to help and inspire our industry
with new ideas and solutions which
combine marketing strategies with
content and tech solutions to extend the
global brand/sport communication.
In essence, Sportel will intensify
its activities and stay the reliable key
platform that unites the international
sports marketing and media industry.
19
SPORTEL BRIEFING
TELEVISION AUDIENCE DEMAND
FOR THE NFL STAYS HIGH
MIKE KIERNAN, ANALYST FOR SPORTBUSINESS INTELLIGENCE, LOOKS AT
HOW THE NFL CONTINUES TO DOMINATE TELEVISION AUDIENCES IN THE US
AS IT DID in each of the two preceding
years, the NFL dominated US television
audiences in 2014. Nine of the 10 mostwatched programmes were American
football matches, with eight from the 2014
NFL play-offs. SuperBowl XLVIII, played
between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver
Broncos, attracted an average audience of
112.8 million (71.1-per-cent share) viewers
on the Fox network. At the time this was the
most-watched programme in US television
history. That record only lasted a year however
as SuperBowl XLIX, which took place
last month, attracted an average audience
of 114.5 million on the NBC network.
While the 2014 SuperBowl audience,
almost exactly double the audience of the
next most-watched sports programme in
2014, is something of an anomaly,
audiences for the remainder of the NFL
play-offs remained very high and
continued to dominate. Only the opening
ceremony of the winter Olympic Games
from Sochi broke the NFL monopoly of
the 10 most-watched programmes, a similar
situation to 2012 when three days’ coverage
of the London summer Olympic Games
featured in seventh, eighth and ninth
place in the top 10. In 2013, the entire
top 10 was made up of NFL matches.
The average audience for all live NFL
programming, taken across four
networks (NBC, Fox, CBS and pay-television
broadcaster ESPN) remained
very much in line with previous years,
averaging 21.1 million (21.4-per-cent share),
a very slight decrease from the average
audience of 21.6 million (21.3-per-cent share)
in 2013. Neither includes audiences from
the NFL Network. This average audience
is more than five-and-a-half times bigger
than the average audience for basketball’s
NBA, the next most-watched property.
One reason for this is that the vast
majority of the NFL’s live programming
takes place on free-to-air television. In
other sports, such as the NBA or
baseball’s MLB, the situation is
reversed, with the majority of matches
shown on pay-television channels.
While the average television audience
for MLB, football’s Major League Soccer
and NCAA sport has fluctuated in the last
three years, and the average NBA audience has
fallen, more viewers in the US have watched
ice hockey’s NHL in consecutive years across
three of the media company’s NBCUniversal
channels, increasing by eight per cent from
909,700 viewers (0.9-per-cent share) in 2013
to 982,800 (1.0-per-cent share) in 2014.
The most-watched NHL match of 2014
was the second game of the Stanley Cup
Finals, between the Los Angeles Kings and
the New York Rangers, which was played
on a Saturday night. The fourth mostwatched match was not from the Stanley
In association with
Average live NFL television
audiences in the US, 2012 to 2014
NFL
Audiences in 000s
20,991
21,644
21,150
2012
2013
2014
Source: Eurodata TV, Nielsen Media Research
Average live audiences for selected
properties in the US, 2012 to 2014
MLB
Audiences in 000s
2012
2,083
2,378
2013
2014
1,824
NBA
2012
3,531
3,468
2013
2014
3,235
NHL
2012
895.4
2013
909.7
Top 10 most-watched events in the US in 2014
Rank
Event
Date
Channel
000’s
Shr%
1
American Football: Super Bowl, Seattle v Denver
Sun, 2 Feb
Fox
112,761
71.1
2
American Football: NFC Chmp Gm, San Fran at Seattle
Sun, 19 Jan
Fox
58,182
42.2
3
American Football: AFC Chmp Gm, New England at Denver
Sun, 19 Jan
CBS
51,508
49.4
4
American Football: NFC WildCard, San Fran at Green Bay
Sun, 5 Jan
Fox
47,167
38.8
5
American Football: AFC Divisional, San Diego at Denver
Sun, 12 Jan
CBS
41,288
36.7
6
American Football: NFC WildCard, New Orleans at Philadelphia
Sat, 4 Jan
NBC
34,541
28.9
7
Winter Olympics: Opening Ceremony
Fri, 7 Feb
NBC
33,466
28.6
8
American Football: NFC Divisional, San Fran at Carolina
Sun, 12 Jan
Fox
33,360
37.8
9
American Football: NFL, Philadelphia at Dallas
Thur, 27 Nov
Fox
32,123
37.0
10
American Football: AFC Divisional, Indianapolis at New England
Sat, 11 Jan
CBS
31,901
27.2
Source: Eurodata TV, Nielsen Media Research
20
2014
982.8
MLS
2012
194.8
2013
194.6
2014
195.4
Source: Eurodata TV, Nielsen Media Research
AUDIENCE DATA ANALYSIS
Average television audience for leading US sports properties
Most-watched live event by property
Audiences in 000s
195
983
NFL: Super Bowl XLVIII,
Seattle vs Denver
1824
112,761
3235
21150
MLS
NHL
MLB
NBA
NFL
Source: Eurodata TV, Nielsen Media Research
Cup Finals, but the NHL Winter Classic
game played between the Detroit Red Wings
and the Toronto Blue Jays on New Year’s
Day, which attracted an average audience
of 4.4 million (4.8-per-cent share).
The average television audience for MLB
dropped by 25 per cent from 2.4 million
(2.7-per-cent share) in 2013 to 1.8 million
(2.1-per-cent share) in 2014, having risen
from 2.1 million (2.3-per-cent share) in
2012. This may be because many of the
teams in major television markets such
as New York, Chicago and Boston had
disappointing seasons. The dramatic seventh
game of the World Series between the
Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco
Giants attracted the largest audience of 23.6
million (21.3-per-cent share). It was by
some distance the most-watched baseball
game of the year, with the next-highest
audience the World Series Game Six audience
of 13.4 million (12.2-per-cent share).
The NBA audience dropped in each
of 2013 and 2014, falling to 3.2 million
(3.5-per-cent share) across three Disney
channels and media company Turner’s
TNT channel. The most-watched match
was Game Five of the NBA Finals in which
the San Antonio Spurs defeated Miami
Heat to clinch the NBA Championship.
NCAA: BCS Championship,
Florida State vs Auburn
25,746
MLB: World Series Game 7:
San Francisco at Kansas City
23,613
NBA: NBA Finals Game 5, Miami
at San Antonio
18,106
NHL: Stanley Cup Final Game 2, NY
Rangers at LA Kings
6,428
Source: Eurodata TV, Nielsen Media Research
Eurodata TV Worldwide
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SPORTEL BRIEFING
obligations that event organisers will take
on as the reform process takes effect.
But organisers and teams are keen to move
ahead without simply waiting for a regulatory
requirement. The incorporation of new
technologies is something that will serve as a
catalyst in this area, and that is something we
are pro-actively encouraging and supporting
in order to enhance the viewer experience.
BRIAN COOKSON
President
The Union Cycliste Internationale
INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN COOKSON ON THE
FUTURE OF CYCLING AS A MEDIA PRODUCT
There have been attempts for years to create
a single centralised commercial structure
to handle the sale of media rights and
sponsorship to the UCI World Tour. What
is your view on (1) the desirability and (2)
the feasibility of centralising the commercial
rights to UCI World Tour events?
The first thing to say is that the UCI is
under new management and we are actively
looking at new solutions to deeply entrenched
issues. Our approach is to do this with our
stakeholders, not in opposition to them.
Cycling is a very diverse sport with a
complex heritage, and any initiatives to
move things forward have to be done in
strong, mutually beneficial, partnerships. In
my view, previous attempts failed because
they did not recognise the realities of this.
So of course improved sales coordination
can lead to better results. But our current
main focus at the UCI is helping to ensure
the product is as good as it can be, and we
are working with stakeholders to see in which
areas we can work together more effectively.
22
Do you accept the view of many in the
industry that the UCI World Tour will
always punch below its true weight
commercially as long as the offering to
the market remains so fractured?
I think that is an over-simplistic analysis. I
think we need to work as much on the
product as the distribution. Professional road
cycling has a huge fan base and produces
incredible images of sporting competition.
However it is true that the broadcast
experience has not evolved as much as it could
have done, and that’s an area we’re looking at.
There are of course a number of very
high quality organisations in the sport as
rights owners or agents, and so perhaps the
position is not as weak as some may suggest.
Another UCI aspiration has long been to
create “a consistent broadcastable product
across all UCI World Tour events.” How
close are you to achieving this? What
improvements have already been put in place?
The quality of TV production is monitored
across all UCI World Tour events, and we
think quality standards are now consistently
high. We’re building some criteria into the
There appears to be a widespread
acceptance of the need to embrace
new forms of technology to provide
viewers across different media with a
genuinely immersive experience. How
big a challenge is this for the UCI?
It is clear that, with sports such as Formula
One and sailing events like the America’s
Cup leading the way, TV production of sport
events has greatly improved over the past
years. We are fully aware of this evolution.
Cycling fans will have seen cameras
on bikes in a number of races this season,
and it’s an innovation we are keen to
continue. It’s by no means the only new
technology though, as there are many
exciting things that can be communicated
to fans about the race and riders.
Although there are some technology
challenges, we are optimistic that workable
solutions for this new experience can
be available from next year. And as the
technology develops, so we will be able to roll
out further enhancements in future years.
Can you give an indication of what
percentage of your overall media rights
income comes from new media platforms
or applications? What kind of growth
have you seen in take-up of digital
products and income from them?
Our digital platforms have been growing
very quickly, and we’ve put particular focus
on them over the past 12 months [complete
re-launch of our website, engagement with
athletes on the occasion of the UCI Twitter
account crossing 100K, photo contest in
conjunction with the launch of the UCI Cyclocross Twitter and Facebook platforms, live
tweeting of Jens Voigt’s and Matthias Brändle’s
UCI Hour Record attempts, live blogging
of the Road World Championships...].
Of course, for now this doesn’t represent
a large source of income, but it’s important
for us to build these new platforms.
FEATURE INTERVIEWS
TV Sports Markets speaks to hundreds
of the most important decisionmakers in the world of sport, and
we publish the full interviews on our
website for subscribers to get an
in-depth insight into their companies’
strategies. These are just two
examples of interviews we have had
in recent months but a full archive is
available on our website.
INTERVIEW WITH GILES CLARKE AFTER THE
INTERNATIONAL CRICKET COUNCIL’S DEAL
WITH STAR FOR GLOBAL MEDIA RIGHTS
Who at the ICC agreed the deal with Star?
As well as myself there was Mr Srinivasan,
chairman of the ICC, and Wally Edwards
from Cricket Australia. We three individuals
make up the board, and I chair the group.
The ICC also has a general commercial
manager, Campbell Jamieson. The four
of us were responsible for the deal.
What does this deal mean for world cricket?
Clearly this deal means a significant increase
in value for all 106 members of the ICC. The
biggest countries will receive the largest reward,
but they are driving the income to the game.
There will also be important increases for both
the Sri Lanka and West Indies cricket boards,
and also associate members like Ireland, the
Netherlands and Afghanistan. Afghanistan are
ranked the 12th best team in the world, but their
budget is tiny. This is a fantastic opportunity
for them, as it is for the Dutch and the Irish.
Which are the most valuable territories?
The key territories are the Middle East, Africa,
North America, the Caribbean, Australia,
New Zealand, and of course the UK and
the Indian subcontinent. The interesting
aspect, which is quite significant, is the huge
value of the sport in the subcontinent.
The final of our last worldwide event, the
Champions Trophy in 2013, had 1.6bn
viewers and had the single highest audience for
a televised event held in the UK – much more
than the Olympics. It’s not really recognised
that the audience for the sport is so enormous.
We had 1.25bn for the World Cup final
in Mumbai in 2011. And our audiences
GILES CLARKE
Chairman of the finance and commercial affairs committee
The International Cricket Council
are rising dramatically. As well as strong
interest from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh,
we have the UK, Australia, New Zealand
and ex-pats all around the world.
One losing bidder suggested that, by
selling global rights to Star, the ICC
missed an opportunity to sell market-bymarket. How would you respond to that?
We received bids both in individual
territories and global bids. We examined
the bids in individual territories very
carefully. We had discussions with global
bidders as to exactly who their preferred
rights-buyers were in each territory, so I
don’t think it is a missed opportunity.
We are very satisfied as to the reach of Star
across the subcontinent, and they have an
important presence in the Middle East. They
currently have sublicensing deals in South
Africa, the UK and Australia which provide very
major reach. North America and the Caribbean,
and South America, are well covered too,
so I don’t think we should necessarily have
agreed direct deals with broadcasters.
The gap between the value of Star’s global
bid and bids in individual territories was quite
small, but still a significant amount of money.
We had a responsibility to the game to see
the value we could have got in each territory.
When we were debating the various options,
we agreed we didn’t have to take the highest
bid – we gave ourselves the flexibility to sell
the rights to the bidder who was most capable.
Can you give any detail as to how the money
will be split between the various boards?
We have to work on the final numbers. We
agreed that the BCCI, in particular, should
have a share that was measured against the
contribution from the value of the rights
in India, which is very significant. The
UK will also get a big contribution. India
and the UK, between them, contribute a
vast amount of the total, which you would
expect given the size of their economies.
For the UK, the money will go to
supporting the new grounds which are being
built by our counties and developing the
sport and its facilities in the inner cities. For
India, they are building new grounds and
new academies for men and women across
their huge nation. All the boards will see a
significant increase in money from the ICC.
23
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