Discovery Communications "will bid for rights to screen English Premier League" football, "joining a multi-billion-pound auction for one of sport’s most popular televised championships," according to Kristen Schweizer of BLOOMBERG. Two people familiar with the matter said that bids for the Premier League "are due early next month and Discovery is planning to take part." One of those people said that Discovery CEO David Zaslav "flew to London" on Wednesday "to meet Premier League officials." Discovery, part-owned by cable-TV billionaire John Malone, "will face intense competition from Rupert Murdoch’s Sky and BT Group." Those two companies together paid a record £3B in '12 for the current three-year rights package.
Discovery "is increasingly taking part in European sports auctions, illustrating how valuable such content has become because of lucrative advertising deals and viewer subscriptions." The Premier League "is selling 168 games per season for three years starting in 2016." The sale "is divided into five packages of 28 games and two of 14, with no buyer allowed to buy more than 126 matches" (BLOOMBERG, 1/21).
