Clubs in Argentina’s Primera División, the top tier of football in the country, have put forward a counterproposal to US media companies Fox and Turner for the future media rights to the competition.
It emerged last month that Fox and Turner had put forward a 15-year offer for the rights to club football in the country. Fox and Turner are said to have made an offer worth an initial two billion pesos per year (€122.6m/$130m) from 2017, with the possibility of reviewing the contract every five years and the implementation of annual increases of 10 to 12 per cent from 2020.
Following the latest round of meetings held yesterday (Wednesday), a commission that has been formed to lead the negotiations is said to have made a counter offer worth more than double the proposal of Fox and Turner.
The La Nación newspaper said clubs have demanded 3.5 billion pesos per year for the rights, plus additional revenue based on a number of different factors. It is said that this could increase the annual value of the rights to nearer 4.25 billion pesos per year.
Fox and Turner will reportedly respond to the proposal next week, with two other bidders said to have expressed interest in the rights. The Clarín newspaper said this interest comes in the shape of “Al Jazeera and ESPN” although La Nación added they are not as keen as Fox and Turner.
A decision over the broadcast rights could reportedly be made by mid-January. San Lorenzo vice-president Marcelo Tinelli, who is leading the commission, told the Olé newspaper: “The counterproposal is around 3,500 million but then streaming, social networking and other technologies must be added, to which we must be vigilant. We must also analyse the contract duration – 15 years has been proposed to us and we propose a maximum of five.”