Controlling Broadcasting of Sports Entertainment in Europe

Sports Clubs and Their Channels

The operations of opening a channel under a soccer sports club depend on a number of factors such as rights, the broadcasting networks in the operating country, and the events broadcasted. This paper will explain the operations of three sports club channels, one in England, Spain and Italy, and show how the process is different for each and what the individual strategies are.

In England the soccer club Manchester United operates its own TV channel called Manchester United TV (MUTV). It began broadcasting in 1998 and was originally owned by ITV plc, BSkyB and Manchester United. Thus, it was not exclusively a soccer club venture but rather a joint venture between broadcasting giants and the sports club. As the Sky platform began to take over the sporting arena in terms of establishing contracts giving it the right to broadcast first team live events, the relevancy of MUTV began to shift. In 2007 ITV sold its stake in MUTV to Manchester United and in 2013 BSkyB sold its shares, allowing MUTV to be wholly operated and owned by the sports club. Previous to this development BSkyB had enjoyed a veritable monopoly of sports broadcasting rights (Nicholson, Kerr, Sherwood, 2015, p. 119). Following the intervention of the European Commission, broadcasting rights were divvied up yet selling foreign rights by clubs themselves remains a contentious issue.

MUTV is a subscription-based channel, available by satellite, cable and IPTV. The channel is also available via an online platform developed by Manchester United. The rules and regulations of streaming footage is complex with various outlets competing for exclusive rights and/or offering clips and highlights of news and matches, such as The Times. Where MUTV fails to deliver against conglomerates like Sky is in the area of content: content is king and the big media corporations are the ones who can afford to pay the most for it in order to broadcast it globally. Thus MUTV operates primarily on a fan-following basis, offering "premium" content, "reserve matches, replays ... and a mix of phone ins, interviews and features" just like "other clubs' in-house TV stations" (Anders, 2010). Its strategy is to give loyal followers an added insight into the sports club's activities that only they can access through a paid subscription.

MUTV is considered an entertainment channel rather than a Premium Sports channel by Sky TV. In England, Sky charges 7 pounds per month to view the channel and Virgin Media charges 6 pounds per month. In Ireland, MUTV is 9 pounds per month (MUTV Get Closer, 2015). Because its content consists primarily of interviews and is considered a "niche product even in England, with a range of content focused not on live first team action, but interviews, chat and reserves fixtures," MUTV looks to form partnerships with broadcasters abroad, such as PCCW in Hong Kong (Ed, 2013; Anders, 2010). Yet in 2013, MUTV offered pre-season friendlies on pay-per-view, which allowed viewers to stream the match live. Currently, MUTV seeks to expand its foothold in terms of streaming services in a strategic bid to build partnerships such as its one in Hong Kong.

This same strategy is employed by Barcelona TV in Spain and Inter-Milan TV in Italy. These sports clubs must also coordinate with providers in order to have their content broadcast but because the major sporting events in which the clubs participate are part of broadcasting contracts signed by the big media players, the exclusive rights content of the live first team events are beyond their control. Thus, the sports club TV channels act as alternative entertainment channels with behind-the-scenes footage for the die-hard fan and supporter. Essentially, these clubs are linked and given an outlet by Sky Europe, which is a pan-European broadcaster that uses satellites and online streaming in order to share content. Sky has more than 20 million subscribers around the world and some of these subscriptions are purchased for content like that offered by MUTV and Inter-Milan.

Barcelona TV was owned and operated by FC Barcelona until 2015 when Telefonica bought it out and began broadcasting events in HD and in Spanish, English and Catalan. The strategy of Barcelona TV is to revamp the image of the football club by branding itself as being an all-access behind-the-scenes channel like MUTV. The service costs viewers 3 Euros per month and offers the same type of footage that MUTV offers subscribers. The channel's station is in Camp Nou. The channel operates by providing news programs, live matches, commentary, insider access, analysis of the team, and more.

The Italian and Spanish sports clubs differ in that La Liga in Spain "allows each of its member clubs to sell its own individual broadcasting rights" via an integrated bidding system designed in the 1990s in the midst of market deregulation (Nicholson, Kerr, Sherwood, 2015, p. 120). Inter-Milan TV in Italy on the other hand operated under the Italian Football League, which sold "the television rights to all first and second division football" (Nicholson, Kerr, Sherwood, 2015, p. 119). In the late 1990s, however, the Italian Competition Authority began viewing the IFL's operations as a "restrictive process" and the centralization of the selling of broadcasting rights was replaced by individual club selling (Nicholson, Kerr, Sherwood, 2015, p. 120). For a decade this regulation lasted in Italy, until centralization returned to the fore and the distribution of earnings divided up among the different clubs.

In Spain, the individual clubs are responsible for controlling content and broadcasting and thus FC Barcelona is a dominant player in the bargaining department. Mediapro thus "pays FC Barcelona around 160 million Euros per season for control of Barcelona TV" and the rights to broadcast all of the club's league, cup and exhibition matches (Nicholson, Kerr, Sherwood, 2015, p. 120). Collective bargaining disagreements among smaller clubs in Spain however have added tension to the scene and free-to-air matches are now offered by La Sexta, a channel owned by Mediapro, which pays FC Barcelona for content. Barcelona TV is still in a prime position as a mover and shaker in the sports club broadcasting empire in Spain, which makes it quite unique from Manchester United TV. MUTV is very much at the mercy of the still-going strong monopolist that is Sky Sports.