With CBS acquiring the Champions League English-language rights for seasons 2021/22 through 2023/24, the president of Turner Sports recently described his disappointment at losing the rights renewal.
“Our goal wasn’t to let it go,” said Turner Sports President Lenny Daniels. “We really did have a five, six, ten year plan and now we just have to start over.
“UEFA fits perfect with B/R Live. We love it, we love them, we thought it was great. We made a very significant offer to renew it. Somebody else found that they could offer significantly more than our significant offer and they wanted it. So good luck, we’ll see what happens.”
A source to World Soccer Talk said that CBS Sports paid $110 million/year for the rights. In comparison, Turner Sports were reportedly paying $60 million a year.
When asked about the challenge of trying to develop momentum for coverage of the UEFA Champions League on TNT especially when Turner Sports found out it had lost the rights for the next three-year deal 18 months into its current deal, Daniels went into more detail.
“Yes. I think [UEFA] know it and then we know it. I think everybody knows it. There’s a reason they do three year increments. They have an agency called TEAM who actually does it for them. I don’t think they think it’s the best way to operate either. It’s really hard.
“I mean, we’re not even halfway through [our three-year rights deal] and we [were] already bidding on the next one. It makes it really difficult. So I think [UEFA and Team] are going to look at that and figure out a way to fix it. But there’s a very technical reason why they have to do it and how they actually connect with all the clubs that are out there.”
Daniels shared the example of TNT’s rights deal with the NCAA tournament that runs through 2032. Such a long-term agreement allows his teams to invest the time and resources necessary to do the best job at covering that competition.
SEE MORE: Schedule of UEFA Champions League games on US TV and streaming
Looking to the future, Daniels is keeping his options open to rights deals that are attractive to his audience.
“Bleacher Report will look for a different type of audience,” explained Daniels. “They have a different voice, and they’re trying to reach a different group of people. And so for that we will look at different types of rights that may come up.”
“It’s interesting because it’s hard to advertise in soccer, and it’s hard, especially with UEFA, you can’t really produce it the way we would produce it here in the States. It’s produced as a world feed. There are a lot of different things you have to look at when you deal with a league like that, so you have to be driving towards something else.
“In our case, we were trying to, obviously, drive subscriptions through B/R Live. But you have to take a very unique point of view, a longterm view, as to if that will work and how much money that’s worth doing. And we had a very specific way of looking at it, and we bid for it, and CBS bid what they thought.”
🗣️ 'The problem with OTT is making money. You're not getting paid for people not watching your stuff like you are with cable' – Lenny Daniels, Turner Sports president, on monetisation #OTTUSA20 pic.twitter.com/FV9JnnLsuG
— SportsPro Events (@SportsProEvents) February 19, 2020
When asked about some media companies having ulterior motives where they can lose money on the rights they purchase because they’re driving towards commerce or something else, Daniels replied, “Absolutely. We’re jealous of Amazon all day long. I mean, they’re driving towards a different thing that we don’t have. Hopefully, now with AT&T, we have that. And I think that’s what you’re going to see, and a direction that we’re going to go, is to look at how we drive strategies across this company. Whether it’s HBO Max, whether it’s driving people to sign up for broadband, whether it’s reducing churn, there’s a whole host of things that you could do across the AT&T portfolio that will allow you to bid more aggressively for rights than if we were just trying to buy them for a cable network, for example.”
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Azer
March 11, 2020 at 12:37 am
I honestly don’t care about the TNT studio crew and what they have to say. I understand analyses are important and I don’t disagree. As long as I’m able to watch a game live on TV and there are more games on TV I’d be satisfied. I enjoyed watching RB Leipzig vs Tottenham on TNT today. I changed the channel to TNT 5 minutes before kickoff. At halftime, I changed the channel, then came back a minute or so before the 2nd half began. Enjoy the game, then go to ESPN FC for analyses or others on YouTube. I’m sure many of you feel the same. Lets hope CBS Sports will be better.
MicahR
March 10, 2020 at 10:36 pm
Anybody but B/R Live. The Comedy Channel would do a better job. Just hope its the last we see of Holden, Edu and Howard giving us 3rd rate analysis.
Daniel
March 8, 2020 at 4:22 am
Maybe if you would have put matches on TBS,TruTv and Court TV besides just TNT. Not behind a paywall. Broadcast the Europa League too. And most importantly,had studio commentators who knew what the hell they were talking about. Not try to make it personalities but like NBC does in the studio people that have a clue. Not make it like the NBA pre and post show. Thats garbage. Maybe they wouldn’t have lost it.
Jonathan Dunn
March 7, 2020 at 12:05 pm
Yeah I’d also like to know what BR/Live’s plan is for the SPFL. Hopefully ESPN+ gets a chance to take it. That’s the only remaining reason I’ve get BR/Live up to this point.
Christopher Harris
March 7, 2020 at 12:38 pm
The outlook for the Scottish Premiership rights staying on B/R Live doesn’t look good. I don’t believe the SPFL is generating much revenue for B/R Live. Plus, at the same time, Celtic TV and Rangers TV are available directly for soccer fans, so the rights aren’t even exclusive to B/R Live.
If/when I hear anything more, I’ll write an article about it on the website.
Eddy
March 5, 2020 at 10:55 am
Chris I know you mentioned two podcast ago that Turner said they were interested in MLS. What are your thoughts on a potential pairing and I’m shocked that CBS paid so much for rights of Champions League seems like the over payed what could be considered a entree fee into major soccer.
I hope its a big success for UCL and any soccer properties that go on OTA networks, I know we as soccer fans are losing (the battle) some games behind pay wall with CBS all access/ESPN+/B/R Live and NBC Gold, but we are winning (the war) with more league soccer coverage breaking on to National Over The Air TV (OTA) and being widely shown to the US general public on first (EPL) NBC now (UCL) on CBS and MLS on (ABC/FOX). I think over time even though we lost games on pay cable TV to paywall streaming the Free OTA coverage will be bigger all around.
rkujay
March 5, 2020 at 7:46 am
As the coverage of all footy declines, or is pushed behind a pay wall.
RJ Hawkins
March 4, 2020 at 11:51 pm
Turner miscalculated with the fan base. It’s not quite yet ‘must see TV’ in the United States. With previous contracts, people enjoyed selected games of the Champions and the Europa league. Turner went all in and put the bare minimum on their cable network this time around and found out that BR Live’s cost was too steep for what’s almost exclusively midweek/daytime action.
Brian
March 4, 2020 at 4:16 pm
Are they also out of the SPFL rights? If so whats your prediction on where that goes? Probably ESPN+
Ivan
March 4, 2020 at 2:21 pm
Univision keeps the Spanish rights to CL and EL. That’s all that matters.
Turner dropped the bar so low, that the only way is (hopefully) up with CBS.
As to Turner/BR losing the CL/EL rights, bye bye now, don’t let the door hit you on your way out. And don’t come back! Ever!
Bryan
March 4, 2020 at 11:48 am
I really dislike B/R Live. I would have liked to have seen ESPN/ESPN+ get the rights but hopefully CBS will be a good experience.