Sky and ESPN to link up for cut price SPL TV deal

[btrev1]

BROADCAST giants Sky and ESPN have teamed up to force the SPL into accepting a cut-price bail-out deal.

Record Sport can reveal the rival firms – who had been expected to bid against each other for the rights to screen Scotland’s top flight after the collapse of Setanta – have, in fact, joined forces to table a single “take-it-or-leave-it” offer.

But the proposal – which would see the complete package of live games divvied up between the two channels – would also force our cash-strapped clubs into accepting a whopping £40million less than they had been banking on from the original Setanta deal.

The Irish pay-per-view company had pledged to cough up £14m tocover the coming season’s SPL fixtures before a new four-year deal worth £125m kicked in next August – a total of £139m.

Record Sport understands Sky and ESPN are demanding a straight five-year contract until the summer of 2014 – but offering less than £100m for the rights.

There is little room for manoeuvre for SPL executive chairman Lex Gold who has already promised to save Scotland’s top 12 from skid row, despite the plug being pulled on Setanta’s coverage.

Gold has been left with no other credible alternative to the joint Sky-ESPN package – and with hardly any hope of talking up the price now the two rival bidders have joined forces to act as broadcast partners. Gold can’t even attempt topersuade Sky to go it alone as there are not enough available slots on their sports channels to squeeze a full SPL season into the schedules.

That is why Sky and ESPN believe a joint bid makes more sense but, by working together rather than bidding against one another,they are also driving the price down at a time when Scottish clubs are in desperate need of cash.

[Steveleedsbee]

If its a take it or leave it deal then I would suspect the SPL dont have a choice