Local TV stations have had to pay eight-figure sums to acquire the rights to broadcast the English Premier League in the country every year, something which could be avoided if they joined hands instead of competing with each other, a disunity that has sent prices skyward season by season.
Premier League organizers are completing procedures to auction the telecast rights for the next three seasons, from 2013 to 2016, for broadcasters worldwide, and insiders predict that local TV stations will have to earmark at least $30 million for the deal.
TV rights have become increasingly expensive for local broadcasters over the last ten years, which analysts have said is caused by the fact that they don’t cooperate with each other to negotiate to acquire the rights for mutual use at the best prices, instead each has sought to buy the rights for their own benefit.
Applications for the auction will be issued on October 2, and interested broadcasters have one month to consider before submitting their desired prices to the organizers. If necessary, the organizers will open the second and third stage of auctioning to finally determine the winner.
Any domestic or foreign company is allowed to join the auction of the Premier League telecast rights in Vietnam. The winner will be authorized to broadcast or distribute the rights to other TV stations, or pay TV service providers.
The auction procedure has thus thrown Vietnamese broadcasters into a race of fighting against each other to obtain the telecast rights, sending prices to exorbitant levels.
Increasing prices
The Premier League was first broadcast in Vietnam in 1995, and was sponsored by Dunhill, which exchanged the rights for advertisement with TV stations.
Local football fans initially could only watch weekly summary news about the league. Gradually they were able to enjoy match replays, and finally, live broadcasts.
Dunhill’s sponsorship lasted for six years until the 2002 – 2003 season, when national TV station VTV officially negotiated with Singapore-based ESPN Star Sports to acquire the telecast rights for the 2002 – 2003 and 2003 – 2004 seasons at a cost of $900,000. But this ‘cheap prices’ meant VTV could only air matches with the ESPN logo on the screen.
In the next three seasons, from 2004 to 2007, VTV continued the deal with ESPN at a cost of $1.8 million.
In 2007, when the contract between VTV and ESPN Star Sports expired, digital TV provider VTC jumped in and outplayed the national channel to close a deal with the Singaporean company to acquire the Premier League TV rights in Vietnam for three seasons, from 2007 to 2009. VTC spent $4 million for the deal, more than double the prices VTV earlier paid.
The market, however, saw a new player arrive when the telecast rights for the seasons between 2010 and 2013 were put on auction: MP & Silva.
The Italian company earmarked a record $13 million to acquire the rights to broadcast the Premier League in Vietnam, but later raked in up to $19 million by distributing the rights to other broadcasters, who lost the acquisition battle.
From the very first year the Premier League was aired in Vietnam until now, no Vietnamese companies or TV stations have been able to directly acquire the telecast rights from the organizers, but have had to accept exorbitant prices, and aggressively compete with each other to buy them from foreign media firms.
But there doesn’t seem to be any changes coming for the looming auction, as local broadcasters are expected to continue killing themselves and lose on home soil in this TV rights battle.
(To be continued)
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