Rupert Murdoch’s grip on European football "is being challenged again," according to Nicola, Schweizer & Panja of BLOOMBERG. Sky Plc., which lost its exclusive hold on English football broadcasts in '07, "now risks the same fate in Germany as rivals such as Deutsche Telekom AG and Discovery Communications Inc. prepare to bid against it in a TV rights auction." Sky’s early bet on football broadcasts’ rising popularity -- it has held the rights for almost a decade now -- "has paid off by making it Germany’s dominant pay-TV provider." Even as the auction price is forecast to reach €1B ($1.1B) a season, "rivals are now set to challenge Sky for the games to attract subscribers and advertisers as movies and TV shows move to online services." Deloitte Sports Business Group Head Dan Jones said, "Live domestic football is the best of the rights available. They have that year around quality to attract and retain a subscriber base." In a "potential blow" to Sky, German regulators may ask that "the live rights go to more than one TV outlet for the first time." That would "make the market similar to that of countries including the U.K. and Spain, where leagues have boosted revenue by selling rights to multiple pay-TV companies." Macquarie Group analyst Guy Peddy said that in that scenario, "Sky could end up paying more than its winning bid in the previous auction for a smaller number of games." In Germany, analysts "project the price to rise by more than a third" to above €1B a season. The list of "potential bidders in the auction is long." It includes Bertelsmann SE’s RTL Group, which owns the rights to show the German national team’s qualifying matches for the 2016 European Championship and the 2018 World Cup, and Deutsche Telekom, "which operates a popular online-TV service and was outbid by Sky in the previous auction." Discovery, which owns rights to show the next four Olympic Games, and Perform Group, "both plan to bid." Vodafone "may also bid." Officials for Sky and the Bundesliga "declined to comment." Discovery, Deutsche Telekom and Perform Group did not return calls and e-mails seeking comment. Vodafone is "monitoring" the process (BLOOMBERG, 3/31).
