Coronavirus outbreak

Broadcasters take wait-and-see stance

LONDON • BT Sport is not offering refunds to subscribers for the lack of live Premier League, Champions League, Bundesliga and other competitions to which they have television rights, as broadcasters grapple with the mass postponement of sports due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The British pay TV company is planning to fill its schedules with any live sport which carries on, re-runs of matches already played this season, WWE films and documentaries.

Its position is that as, so far, only two rounds of Premier League matches have been postponed - until April 4 - and Uefa has postponed only next week's Champions and Europa League matches, it hopes to resume broadcasting live sport soon.

Its rival Sky, which has the main rights for the Premier League and EFL, the three divisions below it, has not set out its position on refunds.

The move to suspend games in England, Spain and Italy has got media lawyers poring over broadcast rights contracts that are a big source of income for clubs such as Manchester United, Barcelona and Juventus.

Sky, DAZN and other media companies collectively pay more than €6 billion (S$9.4 billion) a year to show Europe's most prestigious football teams in action.

Scrapping the rest of the calendar could expose the leagues and clubs to a liability that is well above €1 billion, said Richard Broughton of media consultancy Ampere Analysis.

However, to deprive them of that income when they are grappling with the virus could be a public relations blunder for broadcasters who have always claimed a long-term commitment to the game.

But, while the broadcasters do not want to be seen kicking the leagues when they are down, the urge to claw back lost revenue will grow if their subscribers start cancelling subscriptions.

THE GUARDIAN, BLOOMBERG

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on March 15, 2020, with the headline Broadcasters take wait-and-see stance. Subscribe