The Lisbon Conservative government is opposed to public television RTP acquire the rights to broadcast the Champions League for the next three seasons. According to the Portuguese press, RTP has offered 18 million euros, a price far higher than four million per season that would have offered the TVI television. Moreover, according to public , UEFA last week accepted the proposal of the RTP, which has yet to provide a financial guarantee but still this is now “binding”, so it becomes a “legal commitment”.
But for now, no officially confirmed the purchase and from the RTP ensure that the price offered for the rights of this competition is less than six million euros per season, as he says the Portuguese newspaper public . In fact, RTP says it is “the lowest bid as usual” and “is budgeted for the grill, so there is no extra financial effort for the company”. Since public television RTP also argue that the Champions League is “a legally qualified competition and widespread public interest.”
The agreement involves the issuance of 16 matches of the Champions League (although there is no -or have few- Portuguese teams ranked), summaries and special programs. The last time the RTP acquired the rights to the Champions League was for 2009-2012. When the contract is terminated, public television thought renew the agreement with a new proposal, but the government of Pedro Passos Coelho stopped him. This time, the executive conservative majority has returned to make clear that it is against the purchase of the broadcast rights.
On Thursday, after the weekly cabinet council, the Minister Luis Marques Guedes, government spokesman, said the executive had “very clear guidelines for the RTP steer clear of this kind of competition with other operators “. “Public money, from the point of view of the Government, should not be used to buy football rights,” added the minister, arguing that “in addition, keep in mind that this is a company in financial difficulties in country also experiencing financial difficulties. ”
The RTP responded to these warnings saying it “is aware of the burden on the Portuguese”, and in a statement said that “never incur extraordinary expenses with the acquisition of programs”, defending the quality of this TV product and ensuring that the revenue from advertising investment will be sustainable. The RTP may issue six minutes of advertising per hour, while private television can emit up to 12 minutes.
In Spain, RTVE has issued the competition until this season, which involved a payment of 35 million a year. Private broadcasters accused the government of overbidding and “break the market”. The case reached the High Court which upheld doing RTVE.
No comments:
Post a Comment