ADMC wins Premier League TV rights

The Premier League Limited has awarded Abu Dhabi Television's Sports channels the exclusive Middle East rights to the Barclays Premier League for three seasons starting in 2010, the Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) announced yesterday. The deal marks the first time that the region's rights to the world's most profitable football league were held by a non-pay-TV broadcaster. The rights are currently with Showtime Arabia.

"Pay TV by definition is very defined, because you need to have a box and pay for the subscription," said Edward Borgerding, the chief executive of ADMC, which also owns and publishes The National. "So I think that part of the attractiveness of our bid is that, by having a multiplatform strategy, we can potentially create broader access to viewers and lovers of football in the region." Abu Dhabi Sports channels are normally broadcast free-to-air on satellite, but the Premier League contract prohibits such broadcasts because they extend beyond the league's regional rights restrictions.

So revenue from owning the rights will come from partnerships with pay-TV broadcasters, sublicensing of the rights to local terrestrial stations and advertising sales, according to Karim Sarkis, the executive director of broadcast for ADMC. "For us, it's a balance between maximising audience and maximising return," he said. "We need to look at it market by market." Another revenue stream will come through mobile and other digital rights, which ADMC bid extra for and received, he said. ADMC would likely strike deals with local mobile telecom operators to distribute video of the games. "These have become an increasingly important revenue stream that probably wasn't exploited in the past," he said.

The deal represents a major coup for Abu Dhabi TV, whose first sport station, Abu Dhabi Al Riyadiya, was launched in 1996. Rights to broadcast the English Premier League have been fiercely contested in the region, with Showtime beating rivals ART and Al Jazeera Sports in the previous tender with a US$120 million (Dh441m) bid, according to sources in the industry. "This is the best property in the world," said Richard Bunn, the managing director of the RBI Network, Geneva-based consulting firm for television, sport and marketing. "If you are a football fan, and the Arab world is obsessed with football, this is the property you want."

The price of the deal has not been released, but Tom Cannon, a sport finance expert from the University of Liverpool, expects it to be in line with the Premier League's goal of boosting its revenue from international rights by 30 per cent. "International rights are currently the fastest-growing area of television rights," he said. "You are talking about a 30 per cent increase, which is what they are trying to get this time around, and it shouldn't be out of the question."

Tim Crow, the chief executive of Synergy Sponsorship in London, said the Premier League's choice to award the rights to a non-pay-TV broadcaster made sense in light of these international expansion plans. "The Premier League is interested in growing its franchise, and it makes sense, if you are going to try and do that, to get as many people as possible to look at your project," he said. He added that he was not surprised to get the news yesterday morning, since Abu Dhabi already had shown itself to be interested in the Premier League through the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment's (ADUG) purchase of Manchester City last year, and Etihad Airways' sponsorship of the Chelsea and Manchester City football clubs.

"Everybody is aware that Abu Dhabi has taken a stake in the Premier League in various ways, so this will generate headlines around the world, which will be a good thing for Abu Dhabi," he said. Mr Cannon said that ADMC, which is owned by the Government, was unlikely to be seeking a quick return on its investment. "It has to be seen as a diversification strategy," he said. "I would see it as part of a much wider game in which the Abu Dhabi Royal Family, and the state are quite sensibly looking to build up a portfolio that includes rock-solid established sectors like oil, established sectors like the airlines, and now, a high-growth sector like football and like media."

khagey@thenational.ae