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Sydney part 3 | Anthony S Casey Singapore

November 17, 2019 by Anthony S Casey

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Sydney part 2 | Anthony S Casey Singapore

November 17, 2019 by Anthony S Casey

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BT Sport Retains Champions League Rights in US$1.5BN Deal | Anthony S Casey Singapore

November 17, 2019 by Anthony S Casey

UK pay-TV broadcaster BT Sport has retained the exclusive rights to the UEFA Champions League, securing a deal worth US$1.5 billion to broadcast European club soccer’s premier competition from 2021 through 2024.

Under the terms of the deal – the most lucrative for European soccer’s governing body in regard to the Champions League – BT will continue to show every game live and air highlights in the UK.

Under the contract’s terms, BT has secured the rights to all of the Champions League, and the second tier UEFA Europa League for a further three seasons as well as adding the new third tier UEFA Europa Conference League for the same period. The deal represents an increase of 77 games from the previous deal, and includes highlights and in-match clips.

The rights fee figure has now been confirmed, with BT’s UK£1.2 billion (US$1.5 billion) winning bid virtually matching what it paid during the last rights cycle. After paying a UK£80 million (US$102.99 million) deposit upon winning the bid, the broadcaster will make six cash payments of between UK£120 million (US$154.48 million) and UK£200 million (US$257.48 million) between August 2021 and February 2024

Marc Allera, BT’s consumer division chief executive, said: “Sport leads the way when it comes to UEFA Champions League coverage, and we’re very excited to continue to bring our world class coverage to one of the most exciting football competitions in the world – whether that’s broadcasting 12 games simultaneously or delivering industry leading images in 4K UHD.

“With increasingly more ways to watch our content, with more games on show than ever before, and alongside our excellent line up of other competitions and sports, BT Sport is going from strength to strength.”

UEFA Marketing Director, Guy Laurent Epstein, added: “All matches will be available across the BT Sport channels and digital services and in addition UK football fans will be able to enjoy club competition highlights for free on social media each match week, as well as the finals to the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and the newly formed UEFA Europa Conference League. Its high quality production and programming standards set the bar for the industry and audiences will continue to enjoy the competitions in new ways via BT’s innovative approach as it showcases new technologies.”

It had been reported that BT would face challenges from commercial broadcaster ITV, pay-TV rival Sky and over-the-top (OTT) subscription service DAZN, but new Chief Executive Philip Jansen has secured a major contract without having to enter into an extortionate bidding race. The competition remains BT Sport’s flagship product and it enjoyed a 26 per cent increase in Champions League viewer hours last season. The final between Liverpool and Spurs saw record breaking 11.3 million people tuning in across all platforms after BT made available for all to watch in the UK on social media.

English teams have contested the last two finals, with Liverpool losing to Real Madrid in 2018 before beating Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur in last season’s showpiece. Whilst the rest of the competition was only available to subscribers, BT has been contractually obliged to make those two games available free-to-air, opting to stream the games via YouTube on both occasions.

The deal comes amid several rights sales processes for UEFA’s sales agency partner, Team Marketing.

Last week, Team secured deals in the United States with CBS and Univision, who will pay a combined US$140 million a season for Champions League rights, an increase on the US$100 million being paid by the current broadcast pair of Turner and Univision.

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Sydney Australia Part 1 | Anthony S Casey Singapore

November 14, 2019 by Anthony S Casey

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How to fund a mega deal: The firm changing the game in the transfer window | Anthony S Casey Singapore

November 8, 2019 by Anthony S Casey

Clubs are taking big deals to the wire on transfer deadline day

The blind panic of transfer deadline day is now upon us, with Premier League clubs having already committed to deals nearing £1.5billion.

Many simply assume managers and directors are presented with a budget in an account at the start of a transfer window and can negotiate from there.

That may have been the case in years gone by, but football finance is growing increasingly more sophisticated.

Where in the past clubs might struggle to secure loans with banks who don’t have a deep understanding of the sport, 23 Capital are taking a different approach.

The international finance and solutions company, who over four years have deployed over £2bn in funds to clients, are becoming increasingly embedded in some of European football’s biggest deals.

Using intangible assets, such as a playing squad, to provide liquidity – or cash to you and me – enables their clients to deliver on goals, which at this time of year means a big-money signing.

From taking frantic calls from finance directors to structuring and advising on deals worth north of £100m, 23 Capital CEO Jason Traub holds a unique place in the footballing world.

“All clubs will absolutely have the same need and challenge around the fact that their intangible assets, the players, suck up all their liquidity,” Traub told Standard Sport.

“If you put that company, which at the end of the day it is, into any other sector that is a massive amount of value sitting on a balance sheet that, traditionally and in the old age, they are unable to raise finance from.

“We provide liquidity for a club, ultimately it is often aligned to a transfer window although we do a lot around broadcast funding, but around this time of year we are busy.

“Like any sector, you have clubs who are wonderful in their financial management, working closely with their sporting team, and you have others who are less impressive.

“In some instances it might be that the sporting director calls up the finance director and says ‘we’ve made a bid for this player’ and then the finance director has to try and make sense of the impact of that, which could lead to a panicked call to us from the finance director.”

A unique place in football: 23 Capital CEO Jason Traub

23 Capital are first and foremost a lender, also working across the entertainment and music industries, but are also there to ease two clubs through an impasse in negotiations, lifting the footballing world from an era of a pair of directors waiting until the 11th hour to shake hands into something far easier for all involved.

“What we do not get involved in is the negotiations around value, that is not our forte. We are there to assist the club,” Traub says. “We do often get involved during the negotiation though.

“If you think around the principles of a transfer you have the selling club who want the money up-front, and why not, and you have a buying club who for a whole range of reasons want to defer the payment.

“In truth, what used to happen in the old days is they would sit opposite each other until the last man blinked at ten to midnight on the last day of the window when everything happened.

“But clubs have got much better at understanding that wasn’t working for anyone, which is why a lot of deals are done earlier.

“We often get involved in that and can say ‘we can solve both your needs, help one have their money up front and help the other defer over five years’, all you need to negotiate is the cost of the finance.

Transfer round up: Who could move on deadline day?

“We can be involved at that stage, before a bid is made or even after an agreement has been reached.”

Traub’s work is not just restricted to the Premier League. 23 Capital work with some of the biggest clubs across Europe, providing their credit is in order, and are also on hand to assist with advice and guidance around broadcast rights, having done a lot of work with Benfica in that area among others.

Broadcast rights are a huge factor in the swelling of fees across Europe’s top five leagues, fees which are often criticised but, for now, 23 Capital see as fair. Whether they continue to increase is a different matter.

While Premier League spending has slowed a little over the past few years as uncertainty grows over the next round of broadcast rights, the European market is only growing. Clubs across the top five leagues, including England, have already forked out over £4bn this summer.

Most continental windows will remain open until September 2 this year, and while they have been slapping on a Premier League premium over the summer for English buying clubs, the tables, after the panic of deadline day, could be about to turn.

“There will always be a little premium on deadline day, because the selling club will find it more difficult to get a replacement,” explains football finance expert Dr Rob Wilson.

“Then it changes when the window closes. The interesting thing there is European clubs always have the edge on English teams when it comes to selling, you always pay a Premier League premium.

“But once the window closes should a European team come in for a Premier League club player, we’ll see a premium charged the other way because they won’t be able to replace them.”

So while the majority of business in the Premier League will die down come 5pm BST on Thursday, the work for directors and 23 Capital does not stop there. However, there remains some enjoyment to be taken from all the madness.

“For this short window it is a great time to be with the clients,” says Traub. “There is nothing better than having been able to assist a client to achieve their big summer transfer, that is immense.”

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Kick off – Rugby World Cup Final. Japan 2019 | Anthony S Casey Singapore

November 5, 2019 by Anthony S Casey

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Owen Farrel kicks a goal for England in World Cup final 2019 | Anthony S Casey Singapore

November 5, 2019 by Anthony S Casey

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England rugby team running onto pitch for World Cup final game 2019 | Anthony S Casey Singapore

November 5, 2019 by Anthony S Casey

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Growth in Spotify subscribers is music to the ears of investors | Anthony S Casey Singapore

October 30, 2019 by Anthony S Casey

Jameela Jamil, the actress and activist, was one of the celebrity DJs at the Hallowe’en costume pop-up event run by the streaming service in New York this week THEO WARGO/GETTY IMAGES

Spotify brought in more paying subscribers than had been predicted in the third quarter and made an unexpected profit, sending shares in the world’s most popular music streaming service up sharply yesterday.

The Swedish company’s shares rose by as much as 18.6 per cent after the results, adding $4 billion to its value. This put its market capitalisation at $25.7 billion, or $3.8 billion less than its initial valuation when it made its stock market debut.

Spotify reported the quarterly figures alongside an announcement that Barry McCarthy, who oversaw its first-of-a-kind “direct” listing in New York last year, will stand down as chief financial officer.

Spotify, founded in 2008, competes with Apple Music, Google Play Music, Amazon Music, Tidal and several others.

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Vivendi third-quarter revenue up 7.2% on strong Universal performance | Anthony S Casey Singapore

October 18, 2019 by Anthony S Casey

PARIS (Reuters) – French media conglomerate Vivendi reported a 7.2% rise in comparable third-quarter sales on Thursday, beating estimates thanks to a continued strong performance by its music division Universal.

The Paris-based group said revenues advanced to 3.97 billion euros ($4.42 billion), beating an analyst consensus of 3.85 billion, according to Credit Suisse.

Vivendi confirmed that it was still looking for other investors in Universal after previously announcing talks with China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd for a sale of up to 20% of the unit. ($1 = 0.8989 euros)

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Sudip Kar-Gupta, Editing by Sarah White)

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