Premier League to Interfere in Chinese TV Rights

Remember how in the last post I was worried about the Premier League becoming like the NFL? Well, now I’m even more worried.

Because the English Premier League are apparently plotting to interfere in the Chinese TV bidding rights. Here’s the situation:

The Premier League used to be screened by state broadcaster China Central Television (HQ pictured), which was free to air and exposed the league to about 30 million pairs of eyes.

But in 2007, CCTV decided that buying Premier League TV rights was damn expensive, and so subscription service WinTV stepped in. The problem for the Premier League is that though WinTV pay good money up front, the channel only has about 30,000 subscribers.

Richard Scudamore and friends aren’t happy about this, because they want to sell, sell, sell to 30 million Chinese people, not 30,00. And so they’re going to bend the rules to do something about it.

The new plan is for the Premier League to gather together a bunch of big name sponsors and have them buy the TV rights. Then the sponsors give it to CCTV gratis, in exchange for free advertising.

Here’s how the Premier League’s head of international broadcasting and media operations Phil Lines explained it:

“I have talked to some people who are possibly putting together a consortium of advertisers who would like to buy the product and take it to free to air (on CCTV),” Lines said.

He declined to reveal the companies involved, saying only that they were “world-wide brands” in the sporting goods, soft drinks and alcoholic beverage industries. The contract comes up in 2010. If successful, the bidders would give CCTV the rights in exchange for free advertising during matches, Lines added.

So basically, the Premier League is going to jerry-rig the bidding process in order to get a deal that better suits them.

Here’s why I don’t like this:

It would be one thing if the advertisers had come up with this scheme by themselves (essentially cutting out the TV middle-man and getting their name on the Premier League product at TV rights rates instead of advertising rates). But for the Premier League to be the one that steps in and brokers the deal is a bit scary.

I’m sure the likes of Lines and Scudamore will spin this as them doing a good deed and making sure as many Chinese people as possible have access to televised Premier League games. The people at the Prem PR department wouldn’t be doing their jobs properly if not.

But if the Prem are that concerned about being on CCTV, then why not just offer the rights to them at a more affordable price? Basically because they want to have their cake and eat it. Because they’re the Premier League, and they like cake.

What worries me is the amount of power the Premier League now has, and their determination to achieve maximum commercial exposure in all markets. This bodes well for the Premier League’s profit margins, but not so well for the health of domestic football in China.

So when I fret about the Premier League becoming more and more like the NFL, I’m not really worried about the commercialization of the Prem (because that’s already happened) I’m more worried that – much like the NFL – the Prem is going to trample fledgeling foreign leagues just to sell a few more Man Utd doggeie bowls.*

[story spotted on China Bystander]

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*yep, second link to that post today.

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Category: English Premier League