Insiders said that Sky "is not prepared to break the bank for the rights to top flight football," according to Graham Hiscott of the London DAILY MIRROR. The next Premier League auction kicks off Friday "with experts forecasting it could rake in" £4B ($6B) -- up sharply on the current £3B ($4.6B) deal. But Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch suggested that "it was less reliant on the Premier League than before." He said, "We like the Premier League. But the whole point of the business is about broadening the offer." That "means a wider range of sports, including snatching golf’s Open Championships from the BBC," plus more of its own entertainment programs (DAILY MIRROR, 2/5). In London, Ben Rumsby reported the BBC "was already starting to lose its premium content, having announced a self-imposed cap on sports rights spending" of £300M ($460M) per year back in '10 and a further budget cut of 15% the following year. However, it was the "surprise entry" of BT Sport into the market which proved the real "game changer" for the BBC’s future as a serious sports broadcaster. That "is because although BT’s war with BSkyB has focused on football, it has had a considerable knock-on effect on live television rights in every other major sport." It "began when BT’s ultimately futile attempt to wrest the lion’s share of Premier League matches" from Sky resulted in a 70% increase in the value of the contract. With BT promising a raid on Sky’s other sporting properties, "its rival reacted by locking down a succession of them at significant cost." This one-upmanship "has had a devastating impact on the BBC which -- judging by its refusal to enter a bidding war with Sky for the Open -- appears wedded to spending only a tiny percentage" of its £5B ($7.6B)-plus annual revenue on sport. That "leaves it facing a real battle to hold on to the iconic sporting events it still possesses" (TELEGRAPH, 2/5).
