Why piracy means the sports broadcasting rights bubble is ‘about to burst’
The value of sports broadcast rights is on the verge of collapse due to rampant piracy, the head of the world’s largest investor in managed rights has warned.
Yousef Al-Obaidly, chief executive of Qatari media network beIN, said the “glorious media rights bubble” was set to burst due to the large-scale piracy of sports competitions including the Premier League.
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Over the last two years beIn, which oversees a portfolio of broadcast rights worth roughly $15bn (£12.3bn), has been crippled by piracy carried out by an illegal broadcaster dubbed BeoutQ.
beIN has already had to lay off hundreds of staff members due to the financial impact of the pirate activity, which has been fuelled by a Saudi-backed satellite operator.
But in a speech in London today, Al-Obaidly warned the implications of the piracy would spread throughout the industry.
“I’m here to tell you how the endless growth of sports rights is over,” he said. “Not only that, but in certain cases, rights values are going to drop off a cliff, and the very economic model of our industry is going to be re-written.”
The media boss said the sheer scale of piracy meant that his company could no longer view sports rights as exclusive, adding that its future commercial offers would reflect this.
Al-Obaidly accused rights holders such as the Premier League of being slow to react to the threat, saying they were “sleep-walking towards a financial cliff”.
In its latest auction for the 2019 to 2022 seasons, the Premier League saw its global broadcast rights increase eight per cent to £9.2bn.
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However, this was driven largely by overseas growth, with domestic broadcasters shelling out less for the rights to show games.
Despite efforts to crack down on the illegal streaming, the practice still poses a significant challenge for broadcasters. Last year almost 180bn visits were made to pirate sites, according to cybersecurity firm Muso.
Main image credit: Getty