Guest Post: Overseas TV Rights

Guest post time with Marcus taking up the reigns on TV Rights:

Much as been said over the last week about the Premier League’s 39th Game proposal.  In the PL’s official press release, Richard Scudamore refers repeatedly to the PL’s global appeal: 

We are proud the Barclays Premiere League is viewed as the strongest domestic football competition in the world by fans at home and abroad…  The ‘international round’ is an exciting and innovative proposal… [T]his concept recognizes the truly global appeal of the Barclays Premiere League…  We believe that an ‘international round’ of matches will enhance the strength of the Barclays Premier League as a competition; create extra interest in all 20 Premier League Clubs at home and abroad…

Apparently, WE are the object of Scudamore’s greedy affections:  PL fans outside the UK (I live in Brooklyn , NY ).

A few weeks before this announcement, the Arsenal TV channel was launched on Setanta Sports.  In the UK , that channel is carried by Sky.  In the months leading up to the channel’s launch, gooners who subscribe to the Virgin Media platform in England were led to believe that they too would have access to the channel.  This expectation proved false. 

Goonerholic has been working excellently on this issue on behalf of Virgin Media subscribers.  You can see his relevant postings (and reader comments) here: 

Arsenal TV Offline. It’s A Bloody Shambles!
Robin Or Arsenal TV On Virgin. Who Will Appear First?
I’m Sorry, I’ll Say That Again
City Preview, Loan Moves, And TV Restrictions,

But what about we gooners outside the UK ? Here in North America, football fans rely mainly on 3 channels for regular matches in Europe :  the Canada-based Fox Soccer Channel, the Hispanic-owned GolTV and Setanta Sports. 

The first two are available as part of a sports package.  Setanta Sports, however, is only available separately, with an additional charge of $15 per month, a hefty addition to an already expensive monthly cable or satellite bill.  Until last Fall, Setanta North America aired a weekly 3-hour show called Arsenal TV, which was repeated 3 times each week.  This show aired a full-length repeat of the latest Arsenal match, an occasional player interview, and an edited version of a classic match. 

Setanta North America also airs two other weekly PL club channels:  Chelsea TV and Manchester United TV.  Some months ago, Setanta abruptly canceled Arsenal TV.  The other two channels remain.

After he posted about the “shambles” that Virgin Media had made of the Arsenal TV situation in England , Goonerholic started to receive e-mails from gooners outside the UK who subscribe to the Setanta platform, principally Australia and Ireland .  Like them, I and several of my fellow gooners here in the US had been hearing about the launch of the new channel for months on Setanta.  We naturally expected that as subscribers, we would have access to the channel.  We assumed that Setanta had canceled the previous version of Arsenal TV in preparation for this updated official club channel. This turned out not to be true. 

One Australian explained that he had e-mailed Setanta Australia and received a reply that unearthed a Premiere League rule that no one knew existed.  Goonerholic received official confirmation of the rule,

Thank you for your email and we do apologise for the delay in responding.  There are a number of restrictions around club programming.  If Setanta only have one channel in Australia (which they do) then they are only entitled to carry two club programming blocks in this case Liverpool and Chelsea .  We do apologise for any inconvenience this has caused but thank you for your support of the Premier League

For my part, I called the offices of Setanta North America and all I got was

we do not have the right to schedule that program and at the moment the situation will not change

As Goonerholic said: 

What can be gained by preventing potential fans of your product from watching what you should be able to offer? Is this insane rule also preventing Gooners in the USA and Far East from getting the new channel for the same reason?  It seems to me they need some lessons in marketing basics…

These are the same people all fired up to distort the league competition by hauling entire PL teams across the globe for competitive games and yet they can’t provide the most basic TV access to the league’s top club channels because of some nonsensical rule that has no logic whatsoever.

In reaction to the discovery of this rule, another Arsenal blog that is also campaigning against the 39th game has launched a petition to open up the overseas market to more club channels.

But it is not only marketing lessons that the PL suits need.  They also need a few lessons in basic planning.  In all the media and fan furor over the proposal, I’ve seen little attention paid to one salient fact.  The only pundit I saw who referred to it soon after the announcement was released was Bobby McMahon, resident analyst of the Fox Soccer Channel.  McMahon brings up the fact that the PL thoroughly ignored FIFA’s and UEFA’s opinion on the matter but, more importantly, that of local football authorities,

How many associations are going to willingly accept the Premiership juggernaut rolling into town, giving prominence to conflicting sponsors, taking attention away from the domestic league and then leaving a few days later with a suitcase of cash that wasn’t spend on supporting the local product?

Already, the Asian and Australian football federations have expressed opposition.  Some pundits said that only the Americans would be favorable.  However, the president of the US Soccer Federation, Sunil Gulati has had this to say We’ve been reluctant to have official games played in the US and we’ll be guided by Fifa. But if it’s not in line with their rules then we won’t sanction it. We understand it’s a global sport, but it’s about nurturing the home game

On the nightly Fox Soccer Report, McMahon also mentioned that cities will bid to host these PL games.  He asked if the local football federations will allow this kind of direct bidding process between cities and the PL, effectively bypassing their regional authority over the game.

A word here to American and other non-UK gooners who favor this proposal.  I understand that you’d love to see  Arsenal play a competitive match in person without traveling to England.  But supporting Arsenal or any football club is not like being a fan of a film or TV show.  Supporting a football club means sometimes having to sacrifice your own personal desires in favor of the health and integrity of the team and the competition.  American sports fans long ago gave up their right to oppose anything that happens with their games. 

By contrast, while English fans have conceded much of their sport to the rapacious mandarins who run it, they still maintain a level of organization and participation that American fans simply do not.  US fans do not have the type of English and European football supporter federations who meet with authorities like UEFA and club officials.  This deserves respect.  English fans are trying to hold onto some semblance of their sport before they lose it completely.  They’ve seen it chipped away bit by bit and they are rightly afraid that this will set a precedent for further erosion into the integrity of their competition. 

That is something I think many of us outside the UK forget:  just because we can watch the PL on TV does not make it ours.  We forget that we are watching a competition deeply rooted in another country’s history, traditions and culture.  It belongs to the English in a way that it never will belong to us; no matter how much we embrace it.  They are already pretty tolerant, even welcoming, of foreign fans who support their game.  I think we should respect their wish to at least try to maintain some measure of integrity of their sport rather than trod all over it just so we can see Cesc Fabregas play in person. 

The PL contest is simple, clear and as fair as possible.  Each team plays the other on each other’s home ground, all in the same country.  The immigrant fans I know here in NYC from Latin countries who follow their own domestic leagues are just as appalled by the idea.  They all say they would never accept such a proposal for their own leagues. 

Finally, there has been some confusion as to Arsene’s position on this proposal.  The confusion can be seen in the following contradictory headlines: 

“Wenger has overseas doubt” / “Wenger worried about motives for games abroad” / “Wenger backs overseas matches” / “Wenger open to international idea” / “Wenger calls overseas games a circus”

The problem is that Arsene’s reaction to the idea was far too nuanced for the press.  I urge you to listen to the relevant interview and press conference on the official website where he talked at length about the idea to get a clearer grasp of his views on the matter.