Al Jazeera Fails in Bid for English League Rights

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

Qatar’s Al Jazeera lost out on the live broadcast rights to the English Premier League of football for 2013-16 to BSkyB and British Telecom. BSkyB secured five packages totaling 116 matches while BT won two packages totalling 38 matches in deals worth £3.018bn. Premier League chief executive, Richard Scudamore, refused to be drawn into naming the unsuccessful bidders but told Sky TV that the doors remained open to international broadcasters for future bids. There was no immediate statement from Al Jazeera on whether it was part of the bidding process. Al Jazeera won the rights to cover the French Ligue 1 and Champions League last year.

Scudamore added in a statement: “The Barclays Premier League continues to provide excellent football and enthralling drama as we saw last season. The value this drives for our rights-holders is evident and we are extremely pleased that this has been realized for our UK live rights. As ever, the security provided by broadcast revenues will enable our clubs to continue to invest in all aspects of their football activities and plan sustainably for the foreseeable future.

“The continuing support of BSkyB for Premier League football is significant beyond the revenues delivered; the longevity and quality of their commitment has done much for the English game as a whole. We are very happy to see this relationship maintained for another three seasons. We welcome BT as a new Premier League broadcast partner. They are a substantial British company that is at the leading edge of technology and infra-structure development. I would also like to place on record the Premier League’s thanks to the numerous other highly credible bidders that showed such interest in the live UK rights.”

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