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What will happen in the television rights auction?

What will happen in the impending Premier League television rights auction? Premier League clubs have become used to regular substantial increases in the income they receive from broadcasting, but can this be sustained?

Sky has become more strategic in terms of where it puts its money. As was noted in an earlier post, BT, which is facing pressures on a number of fronts, has edged away from sports.

A lot of attention has focused on possible new kids on the blocks, in particular hi tech giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook. This blog post looks specifically at the possibilities of a bid by Amazon: The Premier League auction.

The blog provides a number of cogent reasons why Amazon is unlikely to bid. It wouldn't really be a good use of two to three billion pounds. It doesn't really fit in with the Amazon Prime business model. It is even open to question whether the internet infrastructure could cope with a substantial number of simultaneous live streamings. Consumers wouldn't be happy if the match went down at a crucial moment.

It is the case that the number of live matches to be offered will increase and this could justify a higher spend, but it is also diluting the product with more mundane matches being offered.

My hunch is that there will be an above inflation increase in the price paid, but nowhere near as large as we have seen in some earlier auctions.

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