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 Eleven Sports delivers upwards of 30,000 live hours per year to
more than 17 million paying customers in markets including the
United States, Singapore, Myanmar, Italy, Poland and Portugal.
Led by the former head of TV at BT, Marc Watson, Eleven Sports
has also agreed for the global sports, events and talent
management company IMG to take a minority stake in its new
British channels.
By securing the rights to the likes of Juventus versus AC Milan
in Britain, Eleven Sports is taking on Sky and BT which have
battled each other for years to sign up sports viewers, and
cross-sell them other services such as broadband and TV.
Matches in Spain's La Liga had been shown by Sky, while BT had
shown games from Italy's Serie A.
"The time is right for a new entrant," Watson told Reuters.
"We've made a great start with two of the biggest leagues in the
world and we'll be the only place to see matches like El
Classico," he said, referring to the showdowns between Real
Madrid and Barcelona.
The ownership of sports rights has become a key battleground for
media companies in recent years, as it proves one of the few
types of content that consumers will subscribe to in a world of
cheaper online streaming via Netflix and Amazon.
In 2015, Sky and BT stunned their investors when they paid a
record 5.14 billion pounds ($6.8 billion) to show English
Premier League soccer matches over three years, forcing them
both to cut costs elsewhere and miss out on other rights.
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When the most recent rights auction came around this year, they paid
less for their new packages, against expectations of a further hike.
They have also agreed to share content by making their channels
available on each other's platforms.
"The appetite for the local players to hold all of the available
sports content exclusively has reduced and the appetite to spend
ever-increasing amounts of money on sports content has also
reduced," Watson said.
"Because of that, rights fees have started to fall in the UK. That
has created opportunities for players like us to come in and buy
rights for what we consider to be a good price."
Eleven Sports, founded by its chairman Andrea Radrizzani who also
owns English soccer club Leeds United, will make its two channels
available from August. Customers will be able to agree an annual
subscription or pay per month.
The channels will be available online, and the group is in talks
with all the distribution platforms from pay-TV to mobile phone
groups to carry them. Watson said the group has won other content
but was not yet ready to announce it.
(This version of the story changes headline to show IMG is only
backing UK channels)
(Editing by Mark Potter)
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