BT’s "willingness to pay substantially more" for Champions League rights from '18 on has "potentially big ramifications for the leading clubs" in Ireland, according to Emmet Malone of the IRISH TIMES. Prize money for UEFA's two big club competitions "is, for the most part, related to income generated." The 32% increase -- to almost €1.4B ($1.5B) -- that BT "agreed to pay for exclusive rights to both" over the three seasons leading up to the summer of '21 "gives an idea of where club revenues from the Champions and Europa Leagues can be expected to go." Last year’s Europa League run "could have been worth an additional" €2M ($2.1M) "or so to Dundalk which, in a rather more mundane year, would almost certainly exceed total revenues up at Oriel Park." It "dwarfs" the €110,000 ($116,284) a club gets for winning the Irish league or, for that matter, the €475,500 ($502,665) that "all 20 clubs will split between them this season." The three Irish clubs going straight into this season’s Europa League "are guaranteed more than" €200,000 ($211,426). If they make it to the playoff round they will earn close to €1M ($1.1M), "a figure that should also rise substantially" from '18 (IRISH TIMES, 3/7). In London, Charles Sale reported English cricket "looks likely to be one of the biggest beneficiaries" of UEFA's decision to award the Champions League and Europa League to BT. The England & Wales Cricket Board is "hoping to take full advantage of the TV football fall-out by going to market as early as this summer" to sell its rights in various packages from '20, including the T20 tournament. Sky "will be that much more determined to win most if not all of that cricket content having lost out to BT Sport for the Champions League." The ECB is also "guaranteed a competitive tender" as BT is "still keen on more cricket rights," having spent £80M ($97.6M) on Australian cricket over five years, "primarily in order to cover the Ashes Down Under next winter" (DAILY MAIL, 3/6).
SATURATION POINT?: In London, Jacob Steinberg opined the "nagging sense that people might be about to switch off won't go away." There are "few better bargaining chips than live sport, which is why BT has been accused of squeezing customers to fund its increasingly intense battle with Sky." There has been "inevitable criticism, but the business model makes sense." Because "people cannot resist live football." But "what if they stop paying?" Or "at least scale back a little?" What if "they conclude that the Champions League is the same old show featuring the same old privileged few and turn their attention elsewhere?" It is "a valid question and one that has already been asked this season" (GUARDIAN, 3/6).
