BPL: TrueVisions looks to sub-licensing
THAI FOOTBALL fans look set to be able to watch forthcoming seasons of the Barclays Premier League after TrueVisions said yesterday that it was in talks with Qatar-based BeIN Sports over a sub-licensing agreement to air the top-flight English matches.
Despite the absence of official confirmation about it winning the main rights, BeIN Sports has reportedly secured the audio-visual broadcasting rights for the next three seasons of the Barclays Premier League for Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
“We are in discussions with our partner BeIN Sports, seeking a sub-licensing contract for all media rights to telecast 380 live matches to TrueVisions’ subscribers, as well as to True4U’s audience. The negotiations appear to be constructive,” Birathon Kasermsri na Ayudhaya, head of commercial and business development at TrueVisions, said yesterday.
“An exclusive deal is our ultimate goal, but at a reasonable price,” he stressed, adding that a non-exclusive contract was also acceptable for TrueVisions because the company still believed that broadcasting the English Premiership was definitely a good deal to have.
However, an industry source believes a sub-licensing deal would pose a big challenge for TrueVisions or any other prospective broadcasters, because BeIN Sports – an affiliate of Al Jazeera news agency – reportedly offered the Barclays Premier League about US$250 million (Bt8.9 billion) to clinch the main deal.
The relationship between True-Visions and BeIN Sports has been a constructive one since it began last February, when Thailand’s largest pay-TV operator struck an exclusive deal to telecast BeIN Sports channel in the Kingdom.
Last year, BeIN Sports also struck an exclusive deal to broadcast Spain’s La Liga matches for three seasons, beginning with the current season, after TrueVisions had failed in its bid to win the Spanish league broadcasting rights.
Apart from international soccer leagues, TrueVisions is also focusing on local football leagues and competitions, such as the Toyota Thai Premier League, Chang FA Cup and Toyota League Cup.
Last year, the company invested more than Bt4.2 billion to secure those media rights from the Football Association of Thailand.
“After telecasting live matches of the Toyota Thai Premier League for more than five years, the soccer league anticipated good feedback from Thai audiences. According to NIDA Poll, the penetration rate for Toyota Thai Premier League viewers significantly increased to 29.13 per cent last year, from 26.72 per cent in 2013,” Birathon said. To capitalise on this trend, TrueVisions yesterday introduced a new “Sanan Ball Thai” package, targeting fans of Thai leagues and competitions.
With this new package and a related marketing strategy, the company aims to see double-digit growth in terms of subscribers to nearly 4 million this year, from 3.1 million last year, he added.
