Abu Dhabi Sports Channel
The monthly value of a subscription card for watching Premier League
matches on pay Abu Dhabi Sports Channels will be equal to the price of
a Kentucky Fried Chicken meal and very famous western soccer experts
will be contracted to present, analyse and comment on the games on Abu
Dhabi Sports, a top official from the channel has said.
"The
names of Western football experts will create a pleasing surprise for
our audience once they are officially contracted with and announced,"
Mohammed Najib, Head of Abu Dhabi Sports Channel, told Emirates Business.
Abu
Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) announced on July 3 that it had secured the
exclusive Middle East rights of Premier League football to be broadcast
on its sports channels for three seasons starting from August 2010.
Najib
declined to disclose the value of the deal, but he said: "Whatever the
sum paid for purchasing the Premier League rights was, it is worth
that. I can tell you that Sky Sports, the dominant subscription
television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland, purchased
the rights of the Premier League football for $1.7 billion (Dh6.2bn)
and this happened during the middle of the global financial crisis.
This means that anything can be impacted by the crisis with the
exception of the Premier League."
On the price of the
subscription card, as the Premier League contract prohibits free-to-air
(FTA) broadcasting, he said: "The price of the card will be within the
reach of the public. The aim of the management of ADMC is that Abu
Dhabi Sports Channels arrive at the biggest possible number of viewers
and interest of low-income group will be taken into consideration. The
value of monthly subscription fee will be equal to the value of a KFC
meal."
Abu Dhabi Sports also obtained the rights of mobile and
other digital services. Revealing some of the ideas for marketing
Premier League subscription cards, Najib said: "There are many
different scenarios. We might offer a subscription card enabling its
owner to watch only the Premier League on the encrypted Abu Dhabi
Sports channels and we might include our subscription channels with
other pay channels that can be seen through one card. The audience of
the two free-to-air Abu Dhabi Sports Channels will also have a share of
the Premier League, as highlights from the games will be broadcast on
the two FTA channels.
Abu Dhabi is involved in the Premier
League football in various ways, since the Abu Dhabi United Group for
Development and Investment purchased Manchester City last year and
Etihad Airways sponsored Chelsea and Manchester City clubs.
"Manchester
City will be our favourite club in Abu Dhabi Sports Channels, because
it is a story of success that every Emirati should be involved in. We
will establish London-based analysis studios and have live coverage
from stadiums that will host games. There are very famous Western names
on my mind that we will be contacting to present and analyse the games
on Abu Dhabi Sports Channels. These names will cause pleasing surprises
for our audience. In addition, we will open several subscription
channels to broadcast all games live.
"Showtime Arabia, which is
the current owner of Premier League football Middle East rights, had a
great coverage over the past two years and it used to broadcast all
games at one time. The quality of the coverage was great and foreign
analysts and commentators who attended the English-speaking studios
were excellent and this places us ahead of a huge challenge, especially
since the Premier League is considered the world's strongest football
competition.
On other broadcasting rights that Abu Dhabi
Sports plans to purchase in near future, he said: "The tender of Serie
A, the Italian football league, will be announced soon and we will
strongly bid for the Calcio.
"In addition, we will be strongly involved in any other tender. We have very big projects in mind.
"Abu
Dhabi Sports has come back to restore its glory. We have learnt from
our mistakes in the past and ADMC has started to look at revenues after
it transformed from a government company into a quasi-government firm
and I think this is a correct approach," Najib said.
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