Cast your minds back to what you were doing in July this year. Chances are you were huddled around a television at home, in a café, restaurant or bar, watching the sports spectacular that is the World Cup.
Whether you are a Saudi, Iranian, German, Brazilian or like me, a long suffering England fan, then catching every game your home nation was playing in became the number one priority in your life during the four-week football extravaganza.
The World Cup does that to you. The media hype, related advertising and promotion that surrounds the event can turn the most apathetic person into a footie nut who would move heaven and earth not to miss the sparkling displays of passing or shooting in the match between South Korea and Togo.
Football is a powerful commodity. Advertisers know it, which is why the biggest brands in the world spend tens of millions of dollars in sponsoring or associating their name with the beautiful game. And it is also the reason why television networks fork out hundreds of millions for the broadcast rights to show the games. Guaranteed viewers means premium rates for advertising spots.
This year, the World Cup was broadcast, as it had been four years previously, on ART. Despite a barrage of complaints about the extortionate subscription rates the network was charging and the poor services offered in return, ART’s management, when they were negotiating the deal to broadcast this year’s World Cup, would have been sure of one thing. People, no matter how much they complain about price, will pay to watch it.
Pay TV operator Showtime will no doubt be hoping the same scenario plays out with it after splashing out in the region of US$120 million to become the official broadcaster of the English Premiership for the next three seasons.
In terms of domestic football leagues, the Premiership is the most watched around the world and a highly prized asset to broadcasters.
When the Premier League was established in 1992, the UK’s pay TV operator Sky Television was awarded the broadcast rights for live games in a deal worth US$362 million over five seasons. Pay television was a new concept in the country and charging people to watch football matches had never been done before. But Sky hit the jackpot when it snapped up the Premier League, and it has been widely credited in helping to establish the satellite network as a major player in British broadcasting.
Along with an increase in subscribers to its service came an increase in advertising revenue which meant that in 2004 Sky agreed to pay US$1.9 billion for broadcast rights as part of a three-year deal, just to fend off other television companies from snatching its most prized asset away.
Showtime will have to significantly boost subscriber numbers if the price it has reportedly paid for the Premier League is true.
For the Dubai-based network, the reason it wanted the Premier League broadcast rights so badly is not about wanting to offer its viewers the very best in international football. They want the young, affluent, predominantly male audience to buy into the entire Showtime package of channels, which will then force advertisers to follow suit.
Showtime’s subscription charges are bound to go up, certainly if you want access to live Premier League games, and it will need to be careful not to set the tariffs too high. While the Premier League may be a premium product, it is not the World Cup. But provided Showtime markets its new crown jewel properly, provides both English and Arabic commentary and suitable pre and post match analysis, it is sure to recoup its outlay and help build the network’s profitability in the longer term.
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