It has been four months since the FA Premier League announced the results of its tender for three year broadcast rights starting next summer. Five of the packages were sold (four to Sky, one to BT), but two were withdrawn as they did not attract sufficiently high bids (one subsequently went to BT).
The two unsold packages were to simultaneously broadcast all league games across two match days each. BT increased their per-game bid for one package but allowed Sky to drop their per-game price and still win a larger share of the spoils than they currently hold. Amazon were today awarded one of these packages, although no revenue information has (yet) been published.
Those of us who watch our football in a league which was disenfranchised by wealthy cartels, such as the one English and Welsh clubs enjoy, have been loitering in the wings looking for signs that the broadcast revenue bubble was set to burst.
With BT reigning their spend back and Sky soon to be sold, the FA Premier League need to attract competition from new media players like Amazon. Two competitors is enough if both are highly motivated to win substantial rights, but, as we know in Scotland, two is not sufficient is one loses interest.
We can hope the Premier League took a bath for the rights sold to Amazon as they continue to tart the remaining package around tech media players. The worst-case scenario (for those of us on the outside) is that the England and Wales broadcast rights have plateaued. Even a modest reversal in the next auction, due early 2021, would bring about am unprecedented, and unaffordable, revenue drop.
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Amazon, the Jungle, it all works!
Hello
The Prime-ier League?
Free delivery on tickets, yeah?
Etims is an interesting read this morning. I always assumed that there would be a European league in the future. Whether Celtic were involved I obviously don’t have a clue. I suppose one of the main obstacles would be the size of the league. If it was 20 teams I doubt we would get an invite.
E-Tims …
Better than CQN for full on club gossip !!!???!!!
Somebody must have put together a strategy document regarding alternatives for the future.
The one I was the EPL cuckoo plan — buy / control a club in League 1 or 2 and get them to the Championship and then do the big MK Dons switcheroo.
Then their would be the EPL straight invite when the Zimmerframe Derby starts to lose its lustre.
Now we have the Euro league angle.
Then there would be the status quo.
The one missing would be the organic growth version.
Never mind all this Sky/BT/Amazon nonsense!
I want to know more about BRTH’s succulent steak dinner experience with the late Peter Stringfellow – god rest his soul – and that Craig Whyte (future billionaire with wealth off the radar), character!
Such as…
…were the finest wines available?
…who picked up the tab?
…did they leave a tip?
HH!!
An article read Podium on 6/7, it doesn’t get better than this, Ted!
Pass the Factor 50!!
PAUL67
Have a look at these figures,income for each PL side.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/06/premier-league-finances-club-guide-2016-17
Matchday income is an irrelevance for most of them,they are entirely reliant on TV revenue.
Even with that,profits are minuscule. Even the larger clubs,larger profits,are struggling under huge debts.
Looking at it overall,the only club which isn’t a disaster waiting to happen is…
(Drum roll…)
BURNLEY!!!
That sums up the lunacy of the whole venture,IMO.
We’ve been waiting for the “Premier League bubble to burst” for 25 years.
It was born at the dawn of satellite TV broadcasting, and has since grown inexorably through the advent and adoption of three new generations of media technology.
Amazon represents the start of a fourth generation – coupling ubiquitous superfast broadband with digital retail.
Sure, change is coming, change is happening, change always happens. In all of it, the EPL has been the first mover in the football world, and has taken full advantage.
I reckon when George Eastman was hunting around looking for investors in his business there were folk who told him that the photography bubble was unsustainable and would burst, and the grandchildren of those same folk would have been the first to shout “I told you so” when finally Kodak went bust 120 years later.
If you hang around long enough, you’ll see it all.
But there are better things to do in life and in business than hang around complaining about how successful other folk are while waiting for shit to happen. Like getting on with doing something significant yourself, for example.
There’s a thought for Scottish football: Get busy doing something significant.
The magical E Tims gossip sounds a lot like Peter Lawwell’s interview with Harry Brady, where he outlined the Celtic plan for the future and the changes in European football:)))
I guess listening to the actual men involved is not the same as reading it in a gossip column:))
HH
YORKBHOY
It is now being pushed by the ECA. It no longer has only 14 members,it is now 220+
That suggests there will be a number of divisions,with promotion and relegation.
Shooor hope so!
STARRYPLOUGH
Technophobe me has never once listened to a podcast.
I rely on getting a précis on here!
(Or,alternatively,e-Tims)
Paul
Today’s magazine piece on Roddy MacDonald has an error: it says ‘Two years before he left for Tynecastle, MacDonald, now 63, cemented his place in Celtic folklore as one of the ‘Heroic Ten’ who beat Rangers 4-2 to clinch the league championship in one of the most extraordinary Glasgow derbies in history.’
for whatever reason, big Roddy wasn’t actually in the team that day.
‘I know, because I was there …’
PendantsCorner.CSC
The EPL tried to be too clever by half and it failed.
Sky are a one trick pony who are now in the slow lane.
If BT had half a brain they would have sewed up the SPL years ago to test the market for a sports dimension to their TV offering.
Unfortunately they are still a nationalised industry who are scared of their own shadow and want a quiet life organising their tea rosters.
Putting money into the SPL would have allowed them to understand the Sky revenue model before they tried to get into the EPL with sloppy seconds.
Starry Plough
You were in my thoughts the other day. Mrs jimbob71 and myself regularly take the 10 minute walk to Carfin Grotto and take in the peace and calm of the wonderful place.
I’m sure I read on here that you had a memorial to your mum and dad there?
I’m sure it was you, if not, apologies mate.
I’ve been prattling on about a pan-European league for longer than I care to remember.
It WILL happen.
…but not because of UEFA, but because of the ECA and the leading broadcasters.
…and Celtic WILL be part of it, as oppossed to MIGHT be part of it.
There will, possibly, be, eventually, a pyramid like structure with promotion/relegation/play-offs between the divisions.
The lower divisions would probably be on regional lines – north, south, east, west…
…but it may still be some 5 years away.
HH!!
Reading Barcabhoys wonderful post on the Monkeys Euro licence on E-Tims,it just seems impossible for EUEFA to grant them said licence.They meet not one of the criteria to be awarded one,so the real question is how the SFA could grant them a Silver.The nonsense being spouted about all the parts coming together to enable this ,is frankly just waffle.
We will never see fair play regards the SFA,especially when a club like Kilmarnock,who should be awarded the Euro place,and rake in around,600,000 pounds,even for competing in the 1st round,sit back and say nothing.
I think it is only a matter of time before there is a pan-Euro league. Possibly split into conferences similar to NFL and other US sports. Negating the threat of relegation and therefore risk of loss of income to member clubs. The owners of the big clubs will only settle for the guaranteed income option.
SP @ 12.25
I tried to get a discussion going on the future of the club 2 weeks ago and no-one bit.
What I heard was the EPL cuckoo plan.
The scenario where we wouldn’t get an invite and we would have to build the scenario ourselves.
My thoughts are that if we are making plans then we need to rebuild the Main Stand and provide more matchday facilities and plan for another bigger hotel.
New stand = £60mill and possibly more — Liverpool was £75mill to double the size of their Main Stand — for at least another 6K Seats and another £10mill matchday income plus the potential to put 10K seats in the attic for high days and holidays.
That could be the SPL or a Euro League.
Typo alert …
EPL not SPL.
P67 — any chance you could include an edit function in your next system update?
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
Really interesting podcast that one about how the club runs and where it’s heading and like you I rarely listen to them but I’m glad I listened to that one.
The transfer process etc etc..
A lot of info but worth going through!
HH
JIMBOB71 & LITTLE MISS JIMBOB
Thank you that’s kind of you, yes it is the last resting place of my Mum and Dad and my wee sister. We scattered their ashes there and my Mum & Dad have their wee bench where they used to love to sit.
Special place that has never left me no matter where I roam!
KTF
Starry…sorry for butting in…what’s the podcast you refer to?
Paul,
Not sure who wrote the Roddy MacDonald article but assuming that a Great Uncapped Celt is one who by inference should have been capped, then Big Roddy was merely an honest pro. A tryer that wasn’t quite good enough.
With the exception of the Stanton season every season from 75-80 was squeaky bum time as soon as a high ball, a corner, or a breakaway were on. We were decent going forward but embarrassing at the back. We were so bad at the back that Joe Filippi actually looked OK when he came in.
Peter Latchford could be classed as a Great Uncapped Celt – if only because of his wave to the Jungle. Or maybe Joe Miller, or Gary Hooper, or George McCluskey, or Tommy Callaghan, but Big Roddy was only ever an honest pro.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44346990
“Meanwhile, Scottish Premiership revenues increased by 63% to £181m in 2016-17, driven by the on-field success of Celtic, and Rangers’ (sic) participation in Scotland’s top flight.
Celtic’s participation in the 2016-17 Uefa Champions League contributed €32m, more than the amount distributed across all 12 clubs from the Scottish leagues’ own broadcast revenues in 2016-17.
Aggregate match-day and commercial revenues both increased by more than 40%, as Rangers (boak) participation in the top division helped to drive Scotland’s top tier back into the top 10 revenue generating leagues in Europe.”
Sky, BT and Amazon each have entirely different business models, and entirely different reasons for their interest in football.
For Sky, it’s a subscription entertainment business, and the EPL has proven a winner in driving subscriptions.
BT is a telecoms business, and make their money selling telecoms packages. For them, football is an incentive to buy their broadband, fixed line and mobile services.
Amazon is a retailer at heart, and will sell virtually anything that it can shift in sufficient volume. Football is simply another product to retail, alongside Kindle and ebooks.
It’s smart of the EPL to have three different players from different markets in the game. It spreads the risk of changes in one market adversely impacting on revenue from all of them.
England and Wales represents the second largest and wealthiest consumer market in Europe. Football is proven to be a very effective way to get to consumers. It stands therefore that the EPL will be an attractive route to market irrespective of changes in the competitive landscape or in media technology.
While conditions fluctuate over time, and players enter and leave the market, the value of rights rising and falling accordingly, the central proposition holds good. If you’re waiting for the bubble to burst, you’ll be waiting a long time.
Godot will be along sooner.
Madmitch
https://www.spreaker.com/user/harrybradycu
Worth a listen in my opinion..
Don’t think he mentioned the main stand but what he did mention was Celtic as club having to stay relevant in Europe until 2024 when the changes in the CL come around..
HH
THEBATTEREDBUNNET
If you take a swatch at the article from The Guardian in my earlier post,I suggest that the bubble doesn’t need to burst to bring on Armageddon in football…
It only needs to deflate.
Ironically,Scottish football might be largely protected from the fallout since our deal is so poor.
Reminds me of the old Magnox nuclear reactors using Carbon Dioxide as a coolant.
It performed that function so poorly that it didn’t matter if it leaked
Not so worried about the bubble busting BUT it is over value i.e cost vs viewing numbers etc… more concerned with scotland getting in on the act i.e driving up right value, stop underselling self as cost vs viewing shows.
Let them know its all politics or all negative i.e. anti scottish football. No deal equals a Drive inti negative politics i.e fucking their reputation in scotland, negativity kills big business, no more bending over.
We want a partnership not a dictatorship
HH
MADMITCH
I get the sentiment about building in readiness, but I can only see the big ticket stuff, like the Main Stand happening when there is cast iron certainty about what the future holds in terms of football structure and where we will compete.
The hotel development, I’m assuming will be a pertnership/joint venture where some risk and capital spend is shared.
As you say, with a £50/£60m investment required to rebuild the main stand, Celtic would pretty much need it to self-finance from day 1(ie additional 7.5k seats and whatever exec boxes would need to be sold)……….in the SPL that’s probably questionable. Now in a different structure that would be different…….but I guess the timeline and outcome of the structure debate will need to be clear.
They also won’t (and shouldn’t) risk our domestic dominance……!
Erskinetim
https://philmacgiollabhain.ie/2018/06/07/a-wobble-on-the-gerrard-express-and-a-different-way-of-doing-recruitment/
Four new signings (incl. Edouard and McGinn) to be announced at the same time according to Phil.
https://www.ecaeurope.com/eca-members/?page=1&country=Scotland
The ECA website and is quite high quality. The photo of the Warsaw meeting shows Peter Lawwell sitting on the left.
Scotland have 2 clubs as Ordinary members Celtic and Aberdeen but do have associate members in Hearts, Motherwell and Sevco. Peter Lawwell is an executive committee member
In its various Statements it suggests that their proposal is that they would run an elite competition in Europe under UEFA. This is like the original SPL working within the SFA.
The tone is that they expect the clubs to have a bigger say in the post 2024 period involving both FIFA and UEFA competitions.
This would take us away from SFA control in part with Individual clubs being in the ECA for the big stuff but still being under SFA for domestic competition and Internationals
TBB
Let’s cut to the chase.
Is it a bubble or isn’t it? :)
If it’s not a bubble or an invulnerable/immortal bubble how should we describe it?
Is it like a living entity that has developed say from the splitting of two single cells as a result of fertilisation to become a tadpole and later a frog blowing bubbles when it passes wind?
But a frog eventually hops off its mortal plain so maybe not.
On the other hand it does leave behind many eggs that with encouragement from another frog, before she too hopped it, becomes a single cell that again splits to become a tadpole and then a frog.
So one could argue that the TV income fueled bubble is not a bubble, it’s a frog.
I rest my case.
Rivet.
GARY67
Lovely stuff:))
She being a he.
Can’t really be arsed with all these Super league ,at the moment,pie in the sky discussions.FFS,we are now on about rebuilding the main stand !!!!!!!!!.This is what happens when the f antasists start going mental.More interested in the here and now.Phil on revealing some tasty transfer stories.Could be mince,but at least its here and now mince.
But in the immortal words of young Mr Grace,
Carry on,you all doing a wonderful job.
WEEBOBBYCOLLINS
Posted it up there mate, the Harry Brady link:))
HH