Charles Biétry, the vice-president of beIN Sport, said he would be delighted if the new French pay-television broadcaster acquired rights for the English Premier League, but insisted the Al-Jazeera-owned operation already has enough football rights to succeed.
The rights for the Premier League are expected to be put to the market in the autumn, according to French newspaper Le Figaro, with beIN Sport’s pay-television rival Canal Plus currently spending €24 million ($30 million) per year in a three-year rights deal from 2010-11 to 2012-13.
“If we had English football, I’d be very happy,” Biétry said. “But it [beIN Sport] has everything it needs to succeed. We have 1,600 football matches per year.”
Biétry said that despite suggestions to the contrary from some top Canal Plus executives, financial considerations remained an important part of beIN Sport’s rights acquisitions strategy.
“We are a French company and we are subject to the same rules as the others,” he said. “We need to break even in four or five years. Each euro spent must be justified and explained. I wish we could have other rights such as golf, but it was too expensive.”
Since April, Canal Plus has acquired rights for golf’s Ryder Cup, European Tour, PGA Tour and World Golf Championship events, and earlier this month the pay-television broadcaster launched a new golf channel, Golf Plus, on satellite and digital-terrestrial television platform CanalSat and other satellite and IPTV platforms.