Yes. U heard me, i am going to stop my Astro Subscription if they increase the rental again. Why? I got this info from my remisier.
Sources say TM has hired a third party sports marketing consultant to bid against incumbent Astro for the exclusive broadcast rights to the EPL 2010/2013 season.This could set the stage for a bidding war that could see costs for the winner double to a shopping rm800 million.Total Sports Asia Sdn Bhd will be bidding on TM’s behalf against Astro in a couple of weeks for the rights.If Singapore’s experience is any indication, the bidding war for rights to the mega sporting league in Malaysia is expected to push the bids to well above RM500 million.
It is understood that Astro forked out some rm400 million for the exclusive rights to broadcast the current 2006/2009 EPL season, which was more than what it paid for in the previous season. It was then that Astro, for the first time, faced competition for the rights via a joint bid by TM and Media Prima Bhd. According to unconfirmed reports, SingTel’s winning bid was to the tune of S$400 million. Its win was a blow to Singapore’s incumbent integrated pay-TV provider, Sarhub.
Both TM and Media Prima have so far not ruled out completely the possibility of entering a bid for the EPL rights.TM’s rollout of its high speed broadband (HSBB) network is still at a nascent stage. It plans to cover 1.3 million households in the first three years of the rollout of its HSBB network. It is uncertain how much rollout TM can achieve by May 2010. Conversely Astro’s pay TV subscriber base was 2.78 million of Malaysian households as at end July 2009.
It is believed that Media Prima will be brought in because TM’s limited subscriber reach. Another industry source speculates that TM is likely to sell the EPL content back to Astro, should it clinch the rights (WTF!!!), to boost returns on the huge upfront investment for the rights.
TM has the lion’s share of Malaysia’s fixed line network, but most broadband ready lines in Malaysia can only deliver low definition pictures.
Moreover, the needs for TM to make sure it recoups its investment, should it clinch the EPL rights, given that it needs to generate enough cash flow to pay for the rollout of its HSBB network as well as honour its dividend commitment of at least RM700 million a year to shareholders. Without this dividend promise, there would be little reason to support TM’s current price given the competition it is facing in its traditional market and the uncertainty surrounding the pay back period from its huge upfront investment in HSBB.
And content is an expensive business to be in. Astro’s content cost was Rm1 billion for 2009 ended Jan 31.Come 2010, it will be another expensive year, content wise, for Astro which is spending some Rm200 million on upgrades to offer high definition TV. Besides the EPL rights, 2010 will see the start of the FIFA World Cup.
Considering the circumstances, the winner of Malaysia’s EPL broadcast rights may not have much to celebrate should a bidding war break out, especially when politics makes it hard to pass on all the cost increase to consumers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------This bidding war will not benefit Malaysian as whole, i guess Malaysia consumers is treated like suckers.
2 comments:
Go mamak and watch i guess...heheh
indeed, all costs will be pass on to consumers. but malaysian consumers are fine... we will pay... u just watch. we are the highest paid ppl in the whole world.
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