Sporting chance for BBC and ITV
In a bid to retain its UEFA Champions League rights, ITV appears to have performed a sophisticated sleight of hand not latterly associated with the UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster.
Much of the talk prior to the contract award had been around the BBC’s purported “all-out” bid to win the rights, having previously lost its FA Cup and England friendly matches to ITV from this August. BSkyB had earlier won the lion’s share of the games until 2012, tabling a blockbuster bid estimated at more than £240m, leaving the Wednesday night first-choice matches up for grabs.
The corporation, suggested observers, needed a prestigious property for its highly-paid roster of football pundits, including Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen. They said the Premier League highlights, a handful of Coca Cola Championship and Carling Cup games, and a European finals tournament devoid of an England team were not enough. Yet the BBC did not bid.
A fearful ITV, whose revitalised schedule has been hit by a number of “flops”, such as Rock Rivals, began looking to position itself as the “home” of premium football on terrestrial, on the back of its FA Cup and England rights. But it seemed to be pursuing a high-risk strategy to get its way.
Under attack
Although other channels, such as Five, were said to be in the running, ITV was way ahead of the competition. It launched a two-pronged strategy focused on the corporation, initially confounding observers. It terminated its Formula One contract two years early, despite the emergence of superstar rookie Lewis Hamilton, and launched a series of attacks on the BBC’s increasingly commercial practices.
The timing was not coincidental according to a source, who also dismisses suggestions that F1 had broken the contract with ITV in order to approach the BBC, which has taken over the rights with digital bundled in.
With the BBC securing F1, it would have been hard pressed to bid for the Champions League, wary of its public duty to deliver “value for money”, says another observer. Moreover, a campaign waged by the BBC’s commercial rivals – including ITV – suggested the BBC would have to pay more for those same rights, due to having to appease tournament sponsors including Ford, Mastercard and Vodafone with payments of up to £10m. The BBC’s practice of allowing brands to sponsor events, with prominent on-air mentions, thus circumventing strict rules governing the corporation’s broadcast output, was also criticised.
All-round benefits
Publicly, the BBC says it is happy with its lot, although some observers suggest that losing the FA Cup and England international rights last year hurt. That the BBC has re-signed its Wimbledon agreement until 2014 without tender, has the Olympic Games until 2012, as well as the Six Nations Rugby, and splits the European and World football tournaments with ITV, helps.
Regaining the rights to screen F1 after an absence of 12 years is also a fillip. Theoretically, it is a win-win situation for all involved. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone gets a guaranteed terrestrial audience, viewers are not interrupted by ad breaks and ITV rids itself of a contract that was becoming increasingly unviable.
Rookie driver Hamilton and his bid for the championship might have ignited interest in the sport, but viewing figures remain low, with many of the races airing in the early hours of the morning. This, says the insider, means that F1 is not profitable for the broadcaster, despite having a positive halo effect on the ITV brand.
“In the long term a poor return on investment was always going to be an issue,” adds the source. “F1 is not a natural fit with commercial TV.”
The sport gives it ABC1 males, but so does the Champions League, suggests one media buyer, who believes that ITV’s struggle to recruit a sponsor for this F1 season added to the broadcaster’s belief that it was not commercially viable, despite executive chairman Michael Grade saying last year how important the property remained.
Easy sacrifice
Yet, for an ITV that has struggled to attract viewers with its “revitalised” schedule and suffered a sliding share price, the chance to sell itself as the home of premium football was too tempting, and F1 seemed an easy sacrifice to make.
With all of its football properties included, ITV will have 23 Wednesday- night live matches, which, according to one person close to its management team, makes it a “crucial” pillar of the schedule. “What any schedule needs is guaranteed blockbusters,” he says. “It gives them the perfect midweek boost. ITV has had strong weekends, but struggled elsewhere in the week.”
The deal gives the broadcaster more room to breathe as it tackles problems elsewhere. Furthermore, it fits “perfectly” into the broadcaster’s strategy of launching event TV, big entertainment shows such as Dancing On Ice, Britain’s Got Talent and The X-Factor. And the multimedia rights give it a hook to relaunch its ITV.com website, which has been over-shadowed by the popularity of BBC catch-up internet service iPlayer and its site.
Some suggest that ITV might have scored an own goal and that focusing on the BBC and its supposed intention to bid for the Champions League pushed up the price. But others argue that ITV did what it had to do to secure a property so crucial to its schedule, and showed commercial cunning in “sacrificing” unprofitable F1 rights.
Football rights
Match of the Day, the BBC’s flagship football show, was expected to secure its ninth year of Premiership coverage when ITV ousted the corporation with a staggering three-year, £185m deal for the exclusive highlights from the 2001 season.
With an estimated £100m sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola in the bag – the biggest in UK television history – ITV set out to inject a heady dose of glitz and glamour into its rights.
U2’s Beautiful Day became the show’s signature tune, erstwhile BBC anchor Des Lynam jumped ship to host the show, with Ally McCoist and Andy Townsend serving as pundits in a 7pm peak-time Saturday show, intending to appeal to a mainstream mass, with a later edition at 11pm.
But all was not well. The Premiership was watched by a peak of 5 million viewers on its first outing, compared to quiz The Weakest Link, which drew an average of 7 million onthe BBC.
A week later, ITV suffered its worst Saturday night ratings for five years, with an average of 3.1 million viewers.
Within three months the show was shifted permanently to a later slot of 10.30pm, with repeats the following morning. Three years later, the rights returned to the BBC.
Crown Jewels
Ofcom last week gave Five permission to bid for rights to broadcast leading sporting events including the Olympics, Wimbledon and the World Cup. Previously Five, despite being a terrestrial channel, was unable to bid for listed events, the so-called “Crown Jewels”, because broadcasters must be both free to air and received by at least 95% of the population. Five is now received by 96%.
Full live coverage events, protected under the Broadcasting Act, or Group A properties, are the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup Finals tournament, the European Football Championship Finals tournament, the FA Cup Final, the Scottish FA Cup Final (in Scotland), the Grand National, the Derby, Wimbledon finals, Rugby League Challenge Cup Final and the Rugby World Cup Final.
Group B events, such as the World Athletics Championship, Six Nations home games and the Ryder Cup, must be available at least in highlights form on one of the qualifying channels.
