Good web results make soccer clubs attack TV goal

摘要

The popularity of video-enhanced official websites coupled with falling production and distribution costs have convinced several top English football clubs to consider launching television channels. Five-times European Cup winner Liverpool FC is set to announce soon that it will launch a channel before the end of the year and Arsenal is considering a similar move. Reigning Premier League champion Manchester United was the first club in the world to launch a dedicated television channel, back in November 1998. Almost a decade later only four other UK clubs - Chelsea in 2001, Scottish Premier League sides Rangers and Celtic in 2004 and the short-lived (2001-2005) Boro TV (Middlesbrough FC) - have followed suit. Two business models have been used: a standalone monthly subscription (MUTV and Chelsea TV), and integration into a channel bundle (Rangers TV and Celtic TV). Richard Brooke, managing director of Setanta Sports, which owns the Rangers and Celtic channels, said that they were a valid business. "Club channels are a perfectly valid model; the question is establishing a revenue model that works for the club," he said. Setanta pays a licensing fee to the clubs, with additional payments once certain subscriber targets are passed. Brooke pointed out that clubs' online sites used a very different business model from television channels and that the internet offered only limited revenue potential.