Spanish football is too expensive

Yesterday's SCMP had an explanation for the absence of Spanish football from Hong Kong TV screens.  The reason, apparently, is that La Liga want more money for the rights than either PCCW (Now TV) or Cable TV are willing to pay. 

The reality is that subscribers wouldn't pay much to watch the Spanish or Italian or German leagues.  It's the English Premier League and the Champions League that are the big draws, and the pay tv companies are willing to pay for those rights.  Now TV has done well from the EPL, and the Champions League coverage finally gives Cable TV some credibility after they lost the EPL rights, but the other leagues don't really matter.

They also report that Now TV are finally going to offer an HD version of HBO, and (hurrah) they aren't going to charge any extra for it.  This follows their decision to stop charging a premium for Now Sports HD, but (as far as I know) they they are still charging extra for National Geographic HD and Discovery HD - and for the HD version of the History Channel, I suppose, if anyone pays for that oddity.  I don't understand why they don't simply make a one-off charge for HD to include all the channels.  Too simple, I suppose.

Comments

[Roy]

If you read *this report from Sid Lowe in the Guardian, you'll realise how typically short-sighted the local companies are being in refusing to stump up for the Spanish football. Have I already mentioned that Cable TV are a shower of bastards who should never be allowed near any quality sporting event? I hope so.

* http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/oct/05/sevilla-real-madrid-la-liga

[Blue]

This is in the wrong post (it's supposed to refer to your earlier blog entries about real estate developers), but:

There's cause for celebration today - (I didn't read the SCMP today, but it's on the front page of Appledaily) - they finally have some sort of regulation preventing real estate developers from using 'fake'/misleading photos/pictures in their promotional materials. :D