OneSoccer

[JamboAl]

47 minutes ago, narduch said:

Its not uncommon though for a new entrant in a market to overpay to get their foot in the door.

Both the NHL and MLS have benefitted from start-up US cable stations, for past TV deals.

Hell, I would argue even now the MLS US TV deal is way overpaying based on the ratings they get.

Absolutely no problems with that. 

I'm just reminded of how Setanta wound up in the dust bin after they overpaid for English and Scottish football rights.  Scottish football finances have never gotten back to those heady heights. 

[narduch]

1 minute ago, JamboAl said:

Absolutely no problems with that. 

I'm just reminded of how Setanta wound up in the dust bin after they overpaid for English and Scottish football rights.  Scottish football finances have never gotten back to those heady heights. 

We still don't even know if DAZN is viable.

[JamboAl]

13 minutes ago, narduch said:

We still don't even know if DAZN is viable.

Correct.

[Ansem]

1 hour ago, JamboAl said:

In a way, I'm still flabbergasted that a number that high has been negotiated and bandied about; time will tell whether the figure (in cash or value) is legit.  Really hoping this isn't Enron type accounting.

 

Looking at the things I've highlighted below, we have to realized that CSB might have been mighty aware of their ultimate goal  of getting a piece of the USA & maybe Mexico market down the road. CPL was the best way to enter the North American market with the added value of the country co-hosting 2026. Not securing those rights could have been a major blow in achieving that objective, so CSB got as much money they could hope to get in regard to their status as a start-up league.

MediaPro is in a position to show US leagues and potentially Mexican Leagues the added value they bring to the table which could make them a contender for those rights down the road in those countries. Let's not forget that part of the deal is that MediaPro acquired French rights to broadcast the league in France in 2020 while holding the rights to Ligue 1 France. This means that marquee League 1 games will be on their platforms attracting millions of viewers while exposing them to CPL during their off-season. American Leagues & even Mexican leagues would see value in that, USL would definitely kill for something like this.

This deal is a win-win for both parties in my opinion and MediaPro getting in those markets (Mexico & USA) in the future will more than justify the $200M investment in CSB and Canadian soccer.

Those who are highly skeptical of the numbers aren't seeing past CPL. CPL isn't the endgame, it's a door/opportunity that could lead to something much bigger & much more profitable.

If CPL was the endgame then yes, they clearly overpaid for what the league was but if the endgame is the US and Mexican market, that investment, even if it exceeds our expectations makes MediaPro SMART and they did what they needed to ensure they got the rights. They are looking way further into the future than CPL or 10 years.

CPL is a mean to an end and CSB understood that and got as much as they could out of it. Win-Win deal and we need to give CSB the credit they deserve, they aren't amateurs.

 

Toronto Sun (more recently)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/torontosun.com/sports/football/cfl/barnes-cfl-signs-new-six-year-tv-deal-with-tsn/amp

It has been reported, but not confirmed by anyone with the CPL or Mediapro, that the deal is worth $200 million, so $20 million per year. For a fledgling, domestic soccer start-up, that’s really good money.

Mediapro is a major player on the global soccer scene and wanted a foothold in the North American sports landscape, with an eye on moving into the United States from Canada. So they apparently paid dearly for the rights to all CPL games, as well as all Canadian National Team games, for both men and women. Content will be available on desktop, mobile and Smart TV platforms.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Ansem

[narduch]

4 minutes ago, Ansem said:

Looking at the things I've highlighted below....

$20 million per year is probably a rounding error for what they are paying for the Ligue 1 rights.

[Ansem]

Just now, narduch said:

$20 million per year is probably a rounding error for what they are paying for the Ligue 1 rights.

From my understanding from what was reported,

$150M -- >CSB

$50M -->CSA

The $20M roundup is indeed inaccurate. CPL is getting up to $15M a year. I'm putting emphasis on the "up to" because no one knows how the CSB money is split up, so impossible to know what CPL actually gets, let alone the teams / year

[Kent]

On 2/20/2019 at 6:03 PM, saladroit said:

Mediapro is apparently investing $200 million over the lifetime of the deal.

That was the first mention of the $200 million figure on these boards I believe. The link is for a site called "vancourier.com" and the link is dead. Someone quoted the relevant part though as saying this...

A source said Mediapro is investing $200 million into the Canadian project over the lifetime of the deal. Scott Mitchell, CEO of Canadian Soccer Business, calls it "the single-largest commitment any company has ever made in terms of soccer in Canada."

On 2/20/2019 at 6:20 PM, ted said:

My source said the deal is worth $150 Million to the league. So that would mean $15M per year, plus production costs, would easily be $200M.

I think this is the only source for the $150 million figure.

After that same vancourier link was copied 3 separate times it seemed to be largely accepted including someone claiming the number came from "a few of the news articles posted above". So it might have seemed more commonly reported than it actually was.

Those quotes above are from the "CPL TV Contract" thread on February 20th (page 36).

A couple months later this article was posted. https://www.timescolonist.com/islander/pro-soccer-arrives-on-island-it-s-game-on-for-pacific-fc-1.23797550

It mentions "Taking the lead in that regard is the eye-popping — at least by Canadian soccer standards — 10 year, $200-million deal with Spanish sports-TV company Mediapro. It includes the rights to produce all CPL and Canadian national team games."

I also has this quote from Josh Simpson. "We need everybody getting behind the league. We are 50 per cent funded by a Spanish TV giant."

But on the flip side also says this, which seems untrue based on everything we have heard since. "Sources indicate the operating budget for a CPL team will be in the range of $5 million per season, with more than 50 per cent of that going to player salaries."

That is everything I could find in the CPL TV Contract thread. So one article claimed $200 million (I assume the second article got the info from the first one, it didn't mention any source), one poster here made the $150 million claim, and one quote from Josh Simpson about being 50 per cent funded by MediaPro. Perhaps it's all coming from Josh Simpson? Vancourier I assume is Vancouver based, and Ted is from Victoria, so all 3 things I could find are from the west coast, 2 of them with unnamed sources.

[Watchmen]

If there plan is to break in to the US market, I'm not really convinced that the CPL is the way to do it.  Mostly because I don't think MLS or Liga MX would care what MediaPro will have done with the CPL.  I think it's irrelevant to either league.  Hell, if you're one of the people on this board saying "MLS hates Canada and fears/hates the CPL", then they'd actually have more reason not to sign with MediaPro as they'd want to help kill a source of income for the league.

But beyond that, I'll be interested to see if MediaPro can break in to the US market mostly because that's where DAZN is still heading as well.  DAZN really only has boxing down there right now, but is looking to make further in roads.  Interesting article here, with a handy guide as to what rights they have in each country: 

http://www.sportspromedia.com/from-the-magazine/john-skipper-interview-dazn-tv-rights-mlb-nfl-nhl-boxing-ott

Plus, DAZN was the #1 sports app by revenue so far this year:

https://www.ispo.com/en/markets/study-dazn-worlds-top-revenue-generating-sports-app

On top of that, they'd still have to fend of ESPN, Fox Sports, and NBC Sports.  That's a hell of an uphill climb.

[grasshopper1917]

I dunno we are all just speculating as none of us have any concrete info on the MediaPro deal. 

My feeling are as follows:

1 - No existing business in their right mind would pay 200 millions dollars to produce and broadcast a startup sports league that draws a few thousand fans a game and players basically make 10k up to (what maybe 50 grand)?

2 - My feeling is the 20 million 'investment' Mediopro is making is to absorb the production costs associating with shooting, and broadcasting every game live. The costs must be massive. Travel, cameras, technical crews, broadcasting crews, technical crews to run the One Soccer ap......

If Media Pro did give this league money to the league to produce and broadcast their games then all the better. In my mind though no rational thinking businessman (or person) for that matter would pay CPL or Soccer Canada 20 million annually for broadcast rights. The reality is most networks (if not in all in Canada) would never pay a cent to CPL and likely never agree to air a game unless CPL paid for production.

I could be totally wrong on this like I said none of us really know. Im just speculating. However it would seem like insanity to pay such a sum to rights to such a league.

[CanSuffer]

4 hours ago, grasshopper1917 said:

I dunno we are all just speculating as none of us have any concrete info on the MediaPro deal. 

My feeling are as follows:

1 - No existing business in their right mind would pay 200 millions dollars to produce and broadcast a startup sports league that draws a few thousand fans a game and players basically make 10k up to (what maybe 50 grand)?

 

So true that we are all speculating.

It's hard to argue that the first season of CPL is worth 200 mil. But 10 seasons, plus Can MNT and Can WNT for 10 years which includes the 2026 World Cup in Canada that's starting to sound believable to me.  I think creating the CSB packaging all these rights together is genius and might be the business key to make this whole CPL thing work....

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Copying MLS and SUM is sensible rather than genius. It needs to be an original idea to be genius.

The problem with CSB emulating SUM is that access to CMNT and CWNT home games played in Canada is unlikely to be as lucrative as the games SUM has access to, which to a significant extent in revenue terms includes Mexican team games played in the United States, which the USSF has to sanction under FIFA rules. Duane Rollins claimed that the cancelled Rangers vs Benfica friendly at THF was an attempt to test the waters for something similar in Canada and if so that obviously didn't go too well.

FIFA and CONCACAF still handle the rights to the major tournaments where the big money is rather than the CSA, so the package signed over to CSB and then onto Mediapro isn't the games that will draw the highest ratings. In many cases it's the games that in recent years have been webstream only. CTV, TSN and RDS have been reported to already have the WC 2026 rights in exchange for agreeing to WC 2022 being moved to the winter.

Edited October 11, 2019 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[RS]

2 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

CTV, TSN and RDS have been reported to already have the WC 2026 rights in exchange for agreeing to WC 2022 being moved to the winter.

Not just reported. It's been confirmed by Bell Media itself.

[Ansem]

Canada vs USA

[grasshopper1917]

8 hours ago, Ansem said:

Canada vs USA

Wow - so basically the game is not available to 99.99% of the Canadian population. I mean why wouldn't TSN broadcast USA vs. Canada in any sport if its free and someone else is producing it? 

Possibly One Soccer was asking for a substantial fee?

I dunno maybe i'm old fashioned but I like the old days where you could watch sports on TV's. Not have to buy 10 different services to watch games. This is just getting stupid.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

14 hours ago, grasshopper1917 said:

... Possibly One Soccer was asking for a substantial fee? ...

Or dealing with a company like Onesoccer rather than directly with the sports association rights holder is something that TSN and Sportsnet prefer to avoid doing.

[dyslexic nam]

43 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Or dealing with a company like Onesoccer rather than directly with the sports association rights holder is something that TSN and Sportsnet prefer to avoid doing.

To obtain their various broadcasting rights, they deal with associations, professional leagues, other broadcasters, etc.  If TSN and Sportsnet did make a special case out of dealing with OneSoccer, it supports the idea that they are actively fighting the streaming platform rather than treating it alike any other rights-holder.  

[dyslexic nam]

On 10/3/2019 at 7:47 PM, Ansem said:

The service, available at shop.onesoccer.ca/business, allows establishment owners to subscribe to the One Month Soccer plan at a fee of C$75 per month, or to the One Year Soccer annual plan for a single payment starting from C$350 per year.

I was thinking about this in the context of @Olympique_de_Marseille‘s post in the new viewing party thread.   If OS is truly in it for the long game, they should offer this type of service free to bars for a year or two. This would potentially increase their platform’s level of exposure by quite a bit and expose casual sports bar patrons to CPL (and OS’s quite regular self promotion ads).  I know that they would be forgoing revenue, but I wonder how much actual revenue this will generate - and if it would be worth more in the long term than the exposure.

Giving bars a free account would be a strong incentive for them to  throw the feed on at least one TV to satisfy any footy fan patrons.  If I was at a bar and had the choice between watching a footy league I wasn’t familiar with and watching highlights of the goddamn Bluejays, I know which one I would choose - every time. 

[Cheeta]

That's too bad.  Is anyone really surprised though?  We're into the serious end of the CFL season, the NHL just re-started and neither of them has had anything to do with this league yet.  Broadcasting the Championship is a future investment into zero for either of them at this point.  Club soccer is a fading property for cable broadcasters in this country.  

Until the CPL gets a league corporate sponsorship which requires a big, fat, marketing buy from the league broadcaster I don't expect to see the ScotiaBank Canadian Premier League on TSN anytime soon. 

And just a wee hijack

Final home match in 4 days! Wear a scarf (of course).

Go Valour go!.  Allez Winnipeg allez.!

 

 

[hamiltonfan]

3 hours ago, dyslexic nam said:

I was thinking about this in the context of @Olympique_de_Marseille‘s post in the new viewing party thread.   If OS is truly in it for the long game, they should offer this type of service free to bars for a year or two. This would potentially increase their platform’s level of exposure by quite a bit and expose casual sports bar patrons to CPL (and OS’s quite regular self promotion ads).  I know that they would be forgoing revenue, but I wonder how much actual revenue this will generate - and if it would be worth more in the long term than the exposure.

Giving bars a free account would be a strong incentive for them to  throw the feed on at least one TV to satisfy any footy fan patrons.  If I was at a bar and had the choice between watching a footy league I wasn’t familiar with and watching highlights of the goddamn Bluejays, I know which one I would choose - every time. 

I like this idea; you should pass it along to OS. They have a history of listening to their users and adapting accordingly.

great post

[SthMelbRed]

If you're a pub owner, you only need a half a dozen guys to show up for a single match (6 x 3 hrs x 2 beers/hr + food) for the annual subscription to pay for itself.

[dyslexic nam]

1 hour ago, SthMelbRed said:

If you're a pub owner, you only need a half a dozen guys to show up for a single match (6 x 3 hrs x 2 beers/hr + food) for the annual subscription to pay for itself.

For me the question isn’t whether or not it is good value for the bar. It is what is the better value proposition for OS over the 10 year lifecyle of their partnership with CPL.  

[Watchmen]

8 hours ago, dyslexic nam said:

I was thinking about this in the context of @Olympique_de_Marseille‘s post in the new viewing party thread.   If OS is truly in it for the long game, they should offer this type of service free to bars for a year or two. This would potentially increase their platform’s level of exposure by quite a bit and expose casual sports bar patrons to CPL (and OS’s quite regular self promotion ads).  I know that they would be forgoing revenue, but I wonder how much actual revenue this will generate - and if it would be worth more in the long term than the exposure.

Giving bars a free account would be a strong incentive for them to  throw the feed on at least one TV to satisfy any footy fan patrons.  If I was at a bar and had the choice between watching a footy league I wasn’t familiar with and watching highlights of the goddamn Bluejays, I know which one I would choose - every time. 

I've been in far too many bars where most of the staff can't even get the basic TV changed properly.  I can't even begin to imagine them trying to get a streaming service running. 

And it's nice that you would watch any footy league in the world rather than highlights of the Bluejays.  Understand that you are very much in the minority in this country in that regard.

[dyslexic nam]

6 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

I've been in far too many bars where most of the staff can't even get the basic TV changed properly.  I can't even begin to imagine them trying to get a streaming service running. 

And it's nice that you would watch any footy league in the world rather than highlights of the Bluejays.  Understand that you are very much in the minority in this country in that regard.

I get that I am in the minority.   But that is absolutely the kind of potential subscriber base OS needs to tap into.  They are never going to get the mainstream Canadian sports fan that thinks hockey and baseball are the only real sports and soccer is for pussies. There is 0% chance they ever subscribe to a soccer-only streaming service  

But guys who will pay attention to the small TV in the back of the bar.  They are your target audience.  And they are the ones that you want to expose to OS.  

[Aird25]

11 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

I've been in far too many bars where most of the staff can't even get the basic TV changed properly.  I can't even begin to imagine them trying to get a streaming service running. 

And it's nice that you would watch any footy league in the world rather than highlights of the Bluejays.  Understand that you are very much in the minority in this country in that regard.

Is it really that complicated? I don’t imagine the majority of bar staff are from the generation that can’t work the internet. 

[Watchmen]

7 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

I get that I am in the minority.   But that is absolutely the kind of potential subscriber base OS needs to tap into.  They are never going to get the mainstream Canadian sports fan that thinks hockey and baseball are the only real sports and soccer is for pussies. There is 0% chance they ever subscribe to a soccer-only streaming service  

But guys who will pay attention to the small TV in the back of the bar.  They are your target audience.  And they are the ones that you want to expose to OS.  

I don't know who these "guys who will pay attention to the small TV in the back of the bar" are.  That seems like the kind of group that will watch something random but aren't going out to pay for it (especially if it's a streaming service).  That seems like a really, really small demographic to try to hit.  Or maybe I'm misunderstanding you.