The "fiercely competitive sports media market" in the U.K. is "causing major problems" for Eleven Sports, according to Tariq Panja of the N.Y. TIMES. The network is "considering shutting down its business in Britain, just four months after arriving with a blaze of publicity and courting controversy." Having "spent millions to outbid the country’s biggest network" for popular European football rights, Eleven Sports Founder Andrea Radrizzani said that he is "now likely to pull out of the country if he cannot work out distribution deals with Britain’s media giants for his channel." He added that without the agreements, "his business is not viable" in the U.K. Radrizzani: "You cannot just keep losing money." Mike Darcey, who negotiated "several billion dollars’ worth of sports contracts for Sky" when he was its COO, said that by outbidding Sky and BT, Britain’s two largest sports broadcasters, for Spanish and Italian football rights that the two companies had previously owned, Radrizzani "was entering uncharted territory." Darcey: "La Liga and Serie A have been broadcast by the main players in the past. He’s picked a more serious challenge. ... He’s the latest guy in a long line to overestimate his model. Everyone thinks it’s easy until you try to make money" (N.Y. TIMES, 12/21).
