Soccer Club TV Channels: MUTV, Barcelona TV & Inter Milan

Introduction

The operations of launching and running a channel under a professional soccer club depend on a number of factors, including rights agreements, the broadcasting networks active in the club's home country, and the types of events permitted to be broadcast. This paper examines the operations of three sports club channels — one each in England, Spain, and Italy — and explains how the process differs across national contexts and what individual strategies each club employs.

Manchester United TV: Operations and Strategy in England

In England, Manchester United operates its own television channel called Manchester United TV (MUTV). It began broadcasting in 1998 and was originally co-owned by ITV plc, BSkyB, and Manchester United. As such, it was not exclusively a sports club venture but rather a joint enterprise between broadcasting giants and the club itself. As the Sky platform began to dominate the sporting media landscape by securing contracts giving it the right to broadcast first-team live events, the relevance 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 become wholly operated and owned by the club. Prior to this development, BSkyB had enjoyed a near-monopoly of sports broadcasting rights (Nicholson, Kerr, & Sherwood, 2015, p. 119). Following intervention by the European Commission, broadcasting rights were redistributed, though the selling of foreign rights by clubs themselves remains a contentious issue.

MUTV is a subscription-based channel available via satellite, cable, and IPTV, and also through an online platform developed by Manchester United. The rules and regulations governing the streaming of footage are complex, with various outlets competing for exclusive rights and offering clips and highlights. Where MUTV falls short compared to conglomerates like Sky is in the area of content: large media corporations can afford to pay the most for premium content and broadcast it globally. As a result, MUTV operates primarily on a fan-following basis, offering "premium" content such as "reserve matches, replays ... and a mix of phone-ins, interviews and features," much like "other clubs' in-house TV stations" (Anders, 2010). Its strategy is to give loyal supporters added insight into the club's activities through a paid subscription unavailable elsewhere.

MUTV is classified as an entertainment channel rather than a Premium Sports channel by Sky TV. In England, Sky charges £7 per month to view the channel and Virgin Media charges £6 per month. In Ireland, MUTV costs £9 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). In 2013, MUTV offered pre-season friendlies on a pay-per-view basis, allowing viewers to stream matches live. The channel continues to pursue an expansion of its streaming services through strategic international partnerships.

Barcelona TV: Spain's Deregulated Broadcasting Landscape

A broadly similar strategy is employed by Barcelona TV in Spain and Inter Milan TV in Italy. These clubs must also coordinate with providers to have their content broadcast, but because the major competitions in which the clubs participate are governed by contracts signed by major media players, the exclusive rights to live first-team events remain beyond the clubs' direct control. The sports club TV channels therefore function as alternative entertainment channels, offering behind-the-scenes footage for the most devoted supporters. Both clubs are linked to audiences through Sky Europe, a pan-European broadcaster that uses satellites and online streaming to distribute content. Sky has more than 20 million subscribers worldwide, some of whom subscribe specifically for content like that offered by MUTV and Inter Milan TV.

Barcelona TV was owned and operated by FC Barcelona until 2015, when Telefonica acquired it and began broadcasting events in HD and in Spanish, English, and Catalan. The channel's strategy is to revamp the football club's image by positioning itself as an all-access, behind-the-scenes channel in the manner of MUTV. The service costs viewers €3 per month and offers the same type of footage available to MUTV subscribers. Broadcasting from a station at Camp Nou, the channel provides news programs, live match coverage, commentary, insider access, team analysis, and more.

In Spain, individual clubs are responsible for controlling their own content and broadcasting arrangements, which makes FC Barcelona a dominant player in rights negotiations. Mediapro "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 et al., 2015, p. 120). Collective bargaining disagreements among smaller clubs in Spain have added tension to this arrangement, and free-to-air matches are now offered by La Sexta, a channel owned by Mediapro, which pays FC Barcelona for the content. Barcelona TV thus remains a major force in Spain's sports broadcasting landscape, placing it in a distinctly stronger position than MUTV, which remains largely at the mercy of Sky Sports' continuing market dominance.

Conclusion

In every country examined, the rules and regulations governing broadcasting rights and content sales are complex, coordinated among various competing groups and factions — including large and small sports clubs, major media outlets, and government regulatory bodies that seek either to reinforce monopolization or to advance individualized rights frameworks that benefit club autonomy. In each case, the broadcasting agreements, structures, and operations of the sports club channels in England, Italy, and Spain are highly dependent on the relationship between governmental regulation and large financial interests.

In Spain, deregulation allowed Barcelona TV to emerge as a dominant force capable of controlling its own content and sales. In England, regulation combined with media monopoly has effectively limited MUTV to the role of a special-content provider of behind-the-scenes footage — a stark contrast to Barcelona TV, which controls and sells all of its content including match rights and generates significant profits as a result. Inter Milan TV, meanwhile, is caught between a regulatory environment that alternates between monopoly and anti-monopoly stances, meaning that its relationship with broadcasting regulators remains continually uncertain and subject to change at virtually any time.

References

Anders, R. (2010). MUTV: Is this the road paved with gold? Probably not. The Anders Blog. Retrieved from http://andersred.blogspot.com/2010/09/mutv-is-this-road-paved-with-gold.html

Ed, N. (2013). Reds turn to pay-per-view in search of new revenues. United Rant. Retrieved from http://www.unitedrant.co.uk/opinion/reds-turn-to-pay-per-view-in-search-of-new-revenues/

MUTV Get Closer. (2015). MANUTD. Retrieved from http://www.manutd.com/en/MUTV-New/MUTV-FaqsNew.aspx

Nicholson, M., Kerr, A., & Sherwood, M. (2015). Sport and the media: Managing the nexus. Routledge.