In what will soon resemble the market of TV rights ? The pandemic of sars coronavirus has disrupted the programs. Canal+ and beIN Sports have broken their contract to broadcast the Championship of France, Eurosport has waived its rights to the Bundesliga, RMC Sport claims the money to the UEFA for a postponement of the champions League... The suspension of the competition due to sanitary measures related to the epidemic has seriously obscured the horizon financial of the holders of rights. The streaming platform, sports DAZN, a new entrant, in particular in Germany and Italy, has already placed part of its workforce on leave be imposed, according to the press. In France, beIN Sports has confirmed a reorganization plan, and NextRadioTV, the parent company of the broadcaster RMC Sport, has announced a social plan, particularly focusing on the sport just four years after its arrival on the market, considered to be " unpredictable and inflationary ".
However, the rights of domestic Championship of France is about to increase by 60 % (to 1,217 billion euros annually) and those of the powerful Premier League and abroad exceed 4.5 billion euros over the period 2019-2022... These records can be vastly improved ? "It is clear that the Covid will be reflected also on the foot. But set now how is this going to affect the value of the rights, or the rights holders, it is still a little early ", has tempered this week Jaume Roures, head of Mediapro, a future broadcaster of major League 1.
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Netflix, Twitch and Amazon
If the officer in catalan has assured that it will only renégociera not to drop the contract with the French football, despite concerns over the "quality" of the championship, the threat of a lock-sustainable, or the financial losses of the clubs leave little doubt on a possible degradation of the product on television. "Broadcasters have learned that this kind of pandemic existed and could require new clauses of termination or security in contracts," said Stefan Kuerten, director of sport at the european broadcasting Union.
The suspension of the competitions has also made the best of the online platforms, already in full swing prior to the crisis. "Netflix, Twitch (video games), social networks, all of this is that, mechanically, you have less time to consume the sport on tv. The model of the sport business, very largely based on the cable, is in pain, " peak Arnaud Simon, former managing director of Eurosport France today boss of the consulting firm, In & Out Stories. These new players have taken advantage of the moment to intrude a little more in the sport. Amazon, already the holder of some rights one-off like the famous "Boxing Day" in English, has captured several days of Bundesliga neglected by Eurosport.
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the question of The value of the live football
A trend to which we will have to get used to, according to several observers. "What actor would want to buy a right he may lose them three years later ?" asks Arnaud Simon. The future is, therefore, according to this specialist, rather to look for contracts "very punctual" and " least expensive ", such as those referred to by Amazon, or the opposite in "long-term partnership" : five, seven, or even ten years. "Register in the duration can have a lot of virtues in this period of upheaval ", he says.
" The trend is to contract long and reveals a certain nervousness of the right holders, who think that the market has reached a ceiling ", continues Pierre Maes, author of the Business of TV rights of football (Fyp Editions). But this concern raises a deeper question : that of the intrinsic value of football live in a society where the consumption patterns are changing. "During the confinement, [football] has been replaced by other entertainment products exciting (Netflix, Fortnite...) and the amateur football perhaps has suffered less than it feared," notes Pierre Maes.
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The point to be more demanding ? "If you ask him, [the football fans] will say, "I support the PSG, I want a pass for the matches of the PSG". He wants something of affinity. However one wants to sell him (also) the Guingamp-Toulouse, it will not consume live, "said Arnaud Simon, for which broadcasters such as right holders do not have a clearly identified "risk" for them. "If you don't take the turn (of the interaction with the fan) at the right time, you lose ground and others occupy. And when you are no longer present, we can learn to live without you. "
