Telecommunications company BT helped to drive up the fees generated by the recently-completed domestic tender for live English Premier League rights by making offers for all seven available packages, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The newspaper said that the 70-per-cent increase in the total UK live rights income generated by the tender for the three seasons, from 2013-14 to 2015-16, was due to the “genuine competition for rights provided by BT,” which emerged as surprise rights-holder by securing two of the seven packages for £246 million (€308 million/$388 million) per year.
Pay-television broadcaster BSkyB acquired the other five packages, comprising 116 matches per season – the maximum permitted for any one company – for £760 million per season to remain the league’s primary live UK rights-holder. However, Sky only secured one of the seven packages in the first round of bidding, leading to “vastly improved bids in the second round.”
The smaller, 12-match packages offered by the league in the tender were thought by some market experts to be attractive to free-to-air broadcasters. But at least one free-to-air broadcaster, the leading commercial broadcaster ITV, did not bid for any packages.
UPDATED ON 21 JUNE 2012 AT 17:19 GMT