Can Scottish football cash in as BT Sport takes La Liga coverage off Sky Sports
The current joint deal between Sky Sports and BT Sport is reported to bring in between £15-17m a season for 86 matches and runs until the end of the 2016/17 season. There are also some claims that Sky has the option to extend their deal for a further two seasons although previously it was also claimed that the telly deal included ‘four Old Firm fixtures’.
That deal was negotiated by Neil Doncaster shortly after the 2012 farce that saw the SPL chief executive warn about Armageddon after clubs refused to catapult Charles Green’s Sevco into the top flight.
The poverty of that deal was highlighted last year when the same broadcasters agreed a £5bn plus deal for English Premier football that sees Sky fork out the equivalent on £11m per match for the new deal which kicks in next season. It’s believed that over 10% of Sky Sports subscriptions come from Scotland.
Fears that Sky Sports have overstretched themselves were confirmed earlier today when BT Sport picked up UK rights for live coverage of La Liga.
Sky Sports have helped cultivate the audience around Real Madrid and Barcelona with the El Classico fixture given the build up treatment normally reserved for clashes between the top clubs in the Premier League.
Reporting on this development the highly informed Charles Sale of the Daily Mail stated: “A further sign that Sky Sports massively overspent in paying £11million a match for their Premier League coverage is the fact they ceded the Spanish football contract to arch-rivals BT Sport without a fight.
“It is understood that Sky made a far bigger first-round offer for La Liga, but were upset enough about the tender going to a second round that they withdrew from a contest BT believed they had no chance of winning.”
The last three rounds of Scottish football rights have been conveniently shared between Sky Sports and ESPN followed by BT Sports.
With the two main subscription broadcasters and broadband providers now battling for rights it seems certain that Scottish football will be in line for a major financial boost by signing an exclusive deal with one company.
Sky’s massive English Premier League deal was negotiated after they lost out to BT Sport for exclusive rights to the UEFA Champions League and Europa League.
BT Sport already have the live rights to French, German and Italian football with the La Liga deal complimenting their European coverage which will centre on Champions League coverage.