Al Jazeera may not bid for Premier League TV rights in the United Kingdom and Europe after all, according to a report this week on the Football Economy website.
The website quotes a source at Citigroup who revealed that:
“The bidding process [for Premier League TV rights] will potentially have more twists and turns, making the process more complicated to analyse. In general, though, the direction of travel is favourable to BSkyB. The move to pan-European rights, if that happens, would raise the barriers to entry into the auction while reports of Al Jazeera’s non-involvement, if confirmed, suggest the bidding process will stay rational.”
If Al Jazeera doesn’t bid for the Premier League rights in the UK/Europe, then it makes you wonder if the network will instead focus on trying to win the US TV rights to the Premier League for the 2013-16 seasons. Those rights will go into bidding this summer with FOX Soccer expected to mount a serious bid although there are rumors about Univision being very interested in acquiring the rights.
What do you think? Is the news this week a smokescreen? Will Al Jazeera mount serious bids in the United Kingdom and United States to acquire the rights to the world’s most popular league, the Premier League? Share your opinions in the comments section below.
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