When al-Jazeera's new U.S.-based network beIN Sport acquired the rights to the U.S. men's national football team World Cup Qualifier away matches,
it "messed up the market for everyone," according to a source cited by
Jack Bell of the N.Y. TIMES. The source said that beIN "paid double the
$18M fee GolTV had paid La Liga." The source said, "I think
Traffic was looking for $500,000 a game." Brazil-based Traffic Sports
Marketing President of Int'l Business Jochen Losch, whose company sold
the World Cup qualifier rights to beIN Sport, said, "Are American fans
really upset? That would be a big surprise to me. We offered the matches
to everyone, but the amount of money we got offered was simply too
low." Losch "would not confirm the sale price but did say that Traffic
negotiated" with Soccer United Marketing and Major League Soccer on behalf of ESPN. A
source said that SUM "dropped out of negotiations because of the high
price (in excess of $1M)." Losch said, "I'm a little surprised to
hear people moaning about beIN. Everyone should be happy because they
want to build a real football channel. No channel in the U.S. thinks
they have to pay money for U.S. games. They seem to think there is not a
big appeal. If now they are complaining, maybe they underestimated the
value." Meanwhile, Comcast on Friday announced it "had picked up" beIN
Sport "at a premium in its sports entertainment package." The addition
of Comcast "means the game at Jamaica on Sept. 7 could be available in a
total of 54 million homes" when combined with distribution from Dish
Network and DirecTV (N.Y. TIMES, 8/26).
