In an age of DVDs and Netflix, satellite and fibre optic internet cable, PVRs and On-Demand, live sporting events are an increasingly sought after property in TV circles. Because sports take place in real time, jag-offs like you or I have to sit through acres of TV ads to get to the sweet, sweet sports candy, lest we want to avoid friends, family and any and all media, new and old, to watch it ourselves later on PVR. Sports is the one thing on TV that cleaves to the old formula: put it on TV, earn high viewer ratings, sell ads at a premium. Not only that, but compared to traditional sitcoms and dramas, TV broadcasts themselves are relatively cheap to produce.
Of those sporting properties, soccer is currently the “hottest” among the very important 12-24 year-old demographic in the USA where it ranks second only the NFL in popularity. From a Luker on Trends report released last March in conjunction with ESPN:
This is partly the reason why interest in football has exploded in North American TV*, and why Al Jazeera’s offshoot beIN sport decided to buy the North American rights to La Liga and—as many US fans found out Friday night—the rights to the US national team away games (except for Mexico) in World Cup qualifying from Traffic Sports USA.
Based on last night’s telecast, US mens national teams fans aren’t very happy with the current state of affairs. Fox Soccer’s Leander Schaerlaeckens went so far as to call out beIN for their coverage on the splash page, a comparatively rare event in soccer media circles. After relaying word of the ‘subpar commentary’ mentioned by US fans, Schaerlaeckens wrote:
Few [fans] were able to watch the game to begin with. A property of Al Jazeera, beIN came into existence only recently and nabbed the right to air U.S. national team away games on the road to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil – provided its path does in fact lead there. But beIN is carried by just one cable company and two satellite systems. For most fans wanting to watch, they would have to forsake the comfort of their own couch for the rare bar that would show the game.
Most observers of the media game in soccer know that the TV rights game is almost entirely decided on money. Rights go to the TV channel with the biggest bid, even if that TV channel barely exists on the available satellite and cable provider packages, and will realistically be seen by no one.
To be fair, the United States Soccer Federation had little say in beIN picking up the away games package from Traffic Sports (USSF chief Sunil Gulati was diplomatic on the purchase). But La Liga certainly did, and were happy to cede their package to the channel with the biggest bag of money, even though it meant taking their product off US and Canadian screens for an unspecified period that could stretch into months if not years.
In Europe, this sort of thing wouldn’t matter nearly as much. Domestic league football is so popular there enough fans would pay a disturbingly high TV premium to enjoy Serie A, the Bundesliga, or the Premier League (especially the Premier League) to make an obscene rights deal worthwhile. Barring that, fans would go to the pub, who pay exorbitant fees to show games to the drinking public. Some of the kids will watch online, but the majority of TV viewers, not knowing a router from a mouse, will simply pay a giant cable bill and shrug.
In the US (and, one suspects, Canada), the strategy of simply selling to the highest bidder is far more dangerous for the value of the product in the long term. First, games are shown earlier in the day, which means fewer people will trek out to the pub to watch.
Second, despite it’s growing popularity among the young, soccer is still a niche sport, so relying on third party establishments to show games in the interim isn’t a great strategy for growth.
Third, soccer is growing fastest among younger viewers who are either high school or university students. They’re not usually among those interested in purchasing expensive cable packages to watch games, and only a lucky minority will be able to convince their parents to do the same.
Fourth, 12-24 year-olds tend also to be Internet savvy. While waiting for beIN to work out deals with various cable providers, they will become better adept at finding free Internet streams (so will USA fans, who took to illegal feeds on Friday night in droves).
Fifth, and most alarmingly for those interested in growing soccer in America, many of these younger viewers at the early stages of interest will find other, easily-available mainstream sports to watch. beIN’s purchase could harm the growth of the game in the US and Canada.
It’s possible beIN’s strategy is to hold the reins for a while until the present demographic grows up and gains some purchasing power, enough to subscribe to the channel when it becomes available. But with La Liga offline, only an HD, available, affordable, and bug-proof streaming service will be enough to reap the financial benefits from acquiring rights. Because, in the meantime, illegal streams will get better, faster, and be more widely available. In time, they could threaten the TV sports market as much as illegal downloads upended the music industry.
And that means far less money from international rights deals for overseas leagues. And, sadly, as we’re already seeing, less exposure to overseas soccer in North America.
*excluding Mexico, duh duh duh
Thanks for writing this, Richard. I am part-incensed and part-disgusted with how foreign rights are being handled in Canada. Looks like it’ll be illegal streams for me.
illegal streams are the way of the future no doubt. except the quality is legit crap.
Bein may have screwed some viewers but the alternative was a $15-30 price tag on ppv for that game.
Whittall is desperate for clicks and attention. another poor piece.
Thanks for clicking and paying attention.
Totally agree with this, and I will add to it that I really think that the big soccer leagues’ Internet streaming strategy is not helping.
If I’m over in Europe and am an NHL, NBA, MLB or MLS fan (not sure about the NFL), I can subscribe to an Internet streaming service offered by the league itself. The leagues have a) the assurance that fans of their league have access to the games they want to see, and b) quality control.
Instead of this model, the European soccer leagues sell the streaming rights along with the TV broadcasting rights. This means that if the TV broadcaster doesn’t have any streaming service (for instance, GolTV), fans are out of luck and need to resort to illegal streams, which tend to be of poor quality.
People in Europe have the same complaint, too. Lots of UK Bundesliga fans complain on a weekly basis about the lack of coverage, and for the same reasons. They too typically resort to illegal streams. It’s a ridiculous situation in this Internet age.
Desperate for clicks? Idiots.
This is a really interesting piece. Probably more could be said and gone into depth with this, but its a fantastic start. It also seems entirely opposite from the North American point of sports marketing view – throw your product into massive foreign stadiums, try and convince everyone why they need it and market the living shit out of it.
Football there is so big, they clearly could care less and the money talks. To be honest, as naive as it is, the most annoying thing is that the fans suffer, and it totally blows. Hell, Sportsnet World is… 12 bucks a month? Insane.
Sportsnet World may be 12 bucks a month, but you get access to every single EPL game in HD for that cost (barring the one or two a week that are on TSN) Compared to what it costs for NFL Sunday ticket I find that to be a fair bargain.
Was annoyed to see that GolTV no longer carries La Liga… sure it was only SD but it was better than any online feed you could find. At least they still ahve the Bundesliga (but for how much longer I wonder).
12 bucks? Was it ever that low? It’s currently $18+ on Rogers.
Like Fatz said, it’s $18 a month, and also you don’t get access to every EPL game. Several of them are on Sportsnet, or SportsnetOne, and of course some are on TSN. Then you get one or two live games on SportsnetWorld, and then same day replays later on. It sucks. I thought once Sportsnet bought it they’d make it cheaper or even included in other sports packages.
It is 14.99 plus tax per month on Shaw for Sportsnet World and you have to buy the recent models of cable boxes to decode the MP4 high def version ie. the motorola dct6412 wont decode it. I too was choked that GOLTV stopped carrying La Liga. I have contacted Shaw customer care and let them know I would like this content carried and asked them to pick up “bein sports” and I recommend that everyone who is annoyed about this do the same with their cable provider.
On the following web page they have a link to a petition you can sign – plus it is a handy web page to see what games are televised.
http://footballtvcanada.blogspot.ca/
This is repeatedly called the “best country in the world”.
Based on access to world media regarding the most popular sport in the world, the above statement is false.
I have a theory that the fact that they can’t advertise for a whole 45 minutes is the whole reason Football is a mess in NA media.
Idiot that didn’t even read the story.
In Italy…a little pop up advertisement will appear at the bottom of the screen every now and then…kind of like sports ticker….
There are ways…
Is that why you don’t have serie A coverage anymore? I have been living in Italy for the last while but when I was home visiting I noticed the Score had Serie A and just before I came back found out it was gone. Shame!
In Italy you get ALL Serie A games, Select Serie B plus Champions League, Europa League and WC Qualifiers for 24€ per month. Not bad. Also one of the reasons why Stadiums here are half empty.
North America always about the big $$$$$$
I dont own cable/satellite and recently cancelled my NetFlix due to lack of choices in Canada.
I download all my music, movies, and shows for free and watch all my live stream sports (NFL, NHL, NBA, EPL, La Liga and any international soprting events) on my TV
So I dont care who owns what, or what was sold to who… I only pay to my internet provider and I get what ever I want on my TV and I think everyone should do that the same :)
I agree – just want all the games were missing back on the air in Canada!! This is ridiculous and makes me crazy! The best games ever being played and we cannot see them! Have signed a few petitions and also let SHAW know that we want it back NOW!! Hoping all you footy lovers out there will do the same! Please : )