http://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/loss-premier-league-r...
New Zealand EPL rights have gone to an Al Jazeera sports subsidiary called beIN sports, which insiders say paid $10 million for the next three seasons as Campbell Gibson reports in today’s print edition of NBR.
Then ten million dollars, or $3.33 million a year, was just too rich for Spark. Lightbox Sport sells PremierLeaguePass.com season passes for $99, meaning it would need 33,333 subscribers just to cover programming costs. The joint venture has never commented on subscription numbers but there are indications it has fewer than 10,000 (PremierLeaguePass has 4301 followers on Twitter and 6783 on Facebook).
Sky TV could potentially get away with a third of that number of subscribers, given its Fanpass.co.nz already charges $299 a year (each) for Super Rugby, NRL and Formula One – but there was obviously a question over price elasticity.
But wait, it's not over yet.
Overnight, a person close to the deal revealed beIN’s real interest was in Australian rights but that, in the convoluted process of pursuing them, it paid an inflated price for the New Zealand rights. The Al Jazeera unit is said to now realise its blunder, and the insider predicts it might on-sell New Zealand rights to Lightbox Sport or Sky for a price below $10 million to recoup some of what its spent. And Lightbox Sport has confirmed that beIN is shopping around local rights. If there are no takers, beIN could launch its own streaming service in New Zealand.
Either way, things will have to be wrapped up by the time the 2016/2017 EPL kicks off in August.