Bidders Lining Up For U.S. Rights To English Premier League Soccer

EPL Expected To Begin Taking Bids On U.S.  Media Rights In Spring Or Early Summer

At least three networks -- ESPN, Fox Soccer Channel (FSC) and Setanta Sports -- have "emerged as serious bidders for the U.S. media rights” to the EPL, according to Mickle & Ourand of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The nets are “lining up to acquire the rights when the bidding process officially opens this spring or early summer.” The U.S. media rights “will be awarded after the league decides what to do with the six British packages that it is selling.” Sources said that the EPL has set aside February 3 as the day it “will hold an auction for those packages.” The process in the U.S. and other int'l regions “should begin soon after that tender has concluded.” The time difference between the U.K. and the U.S. is “working against a significant U.S. rights fee increase, especially since most EPL games would be played on weekend mornings.” The EPL “netted just $57[M] over three years” from Setanta and FSC for U.S. rights during the last bidding process. But the EPL is “hoping that a bidding war will push the U.S. rights fees higher.” Setanta and FSC split the U.S. rights for three seasons beginning in ’07, and the deal “has worked well for both parties." It also is "possible that they will collaborate again later this year.” Meanwhile, ESPN “could be more interested in the EPL’s broadband rights, which are currently held by [FSC] and Setanta, rather than its TV rights” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 1/26 issue).