Originally Posted by hendero:
“I get that they would have to pay twice as much, but why would it be more than twice as much? It's not as though they'll get more viewers for the matches they already have.”
One other reason why they'd have to bid more than twice as much as before is because you have to pay extra for exclusivity. If you're just going to offer the same amount of money they paid together for the last tournament it'll be turned down, because under the previous system they got it on two channels, hence double the exposure.
The mention of them not getting any more viewers is the obvious reason why it wouldn't happen, you'd get more big matches but the same viewers watching them all, no new viewers. It's the same as Sky showing all Premier League matches, they're not going to get any more subscribers from showing them all, nobody's putting off subscribing because they don't.
Originally Posted by mlt11:
“The World Cup Finals are literally the BBC's most important sports rights contract (or maybe 1st= with the Olympics).
The BBC will be absolutely desperate to retain its WC Finals rights - it's one of the very, very most important things the BBC broadcasts across literally any genre. If ITV tries to win these rights then BBC will put additional resources into retaining them.”
I absolutely agree with this, it's exactly right. The BBC would lose every other sporting contract before they even consider losing the World Cup and the Olympics (and the Euros as well, which I think are of more or less equal importance to the World Cup). If they ever lost it it would be the blackest ever day for BBC Sport.
Originally Posted by hendero:
“So, the current arrangement works well enough for both parties, although ITV probably aren't thrilled with sharing the final (if I was ITV I might even say to the Beeb "you have the final. we'll take both semis", or something like that).”
But that is ITV's problem, if people prefer to watch the BBC's coverage why should the Beeb be penalised? The channels go into the tournaments with differing perspectives, ITV want the guaranteed revenue so frontload it and go for the attractive group games while the Beeb can afford to take a risk and take the best of the latter stages. They both get what they want out of it. In both 2006 and 2010 the best ratings of the entire tournament were on ITV in the group stages. As far as ITV are concerned the Final is just something they get free.
As for the Champions League, to get back on track, I'm not reading too much into them showing matches on Sky One. As I mentioned on another thread they did that a few years back, when Sky One wasn't on Virgin, seemingly just to rub Virgin's customers' faces into it and make Sky One look more attractive. I think this again has more to do with making Sky One look good in the short term than any long term consequences.