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Originally Posted by Chad
It will be very interesting to see if a 3rd bidder enters the race for rights.
I think SKY are planning to bid big and are already preparing their war-chest. SKY will still have the money they planned to spend on Champions League rights plus I'm sure the recent carriage deals with Virgin Media and Talk Talk are also about raising revenue. Who knows maybe SKY will also use part of the funds raised from selling their stake in ITV.
The truth of the matter is who knows what will happen. I've seen a lot of speculation over the past 48 hours that moving forward SKY plan to bid for sports rights on a continental basis.
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As we saw with the last Premiership rights bidding, the only companies that can justify the highest bids are those from platform owners. ESPN was blown out of the water by BT as it is not a platform operator so I can't see Discovery/EuroSport winning any Premiership rights either.
Sky can bid on a continent basis but it's up to the rights owners how they sell them. Having the same rights in three countries does open up some savings in covering the events and most TV rights revenue for a sport is raised in its home territory and that's where the key competition for rights will be.
In terms of BSkyB's war chest, it's been spent on the Italian and German acquisitions and the company's debt has substantially increased despite the ITV stake proceeds. So it will probably bid sensibly on the Premiership.