Challenging Murdoch’s Soccer Dominance

Rupert Murdoch’s Sky was a money- losing upstart when it plunked down £304 million ($461 million) to air soccer matches from the new English Premier League almost 25 years ago. It proved to be one of Murdoch’s smartest investments: Sky grew into the U.K.’s No. 1 pay-TV provider by allowing customers to watch exclusive sporting events at home and in their favorite pubs. Sky’s dominance in broadcasting live matches went unchallenged for 15 years, until Setanta Sports and later ESPN briefly won some rights. Then in 2012, BT Group, the former telephone monopoly, bought the rights to air some Premier League games, including top Manchester United and Chelsea matches long telecast on Sky. The competition meant that Sky and BT paid a combined £3 billion (Sky’s share was about £2.3 billion) for three seasons—a 70 percent jump from the previous auction total.

Bidding for the next round of Premier League rights is set to close on Feb. 6. Sky, 39 percent owned by Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, could lose even more control as BT and newcomers including Discovery Communications, the U.S. media company backed by John Malone, try to elbow in. After buying control of broadcaster Eurosport a year ago, Discovery has been bidding for soccer rights across Europe, and on Jan. 21 Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav flew to London to discuss his interest with Premier League officials.