Digiturk refuses to relinquish soccer broadcasting rights

In open bidding lasting hours, Digiturk won the right to broadcast the TFF's Super League matches for the next four years (2010-2014), a responsibility it has held for the last 10 years and which it has paid $1.07 billion for over the last decade.

The auction threatened the dominance of Digiturk -- a satellite-based broadcasting service providing premium channels -- and much of its business model, as a large portion of its customers subscribe to Digiturk solely to watch the league matches.

The state-owned Turkish Television and Radio Corporation (TRT) and Türk Telekom, the recently privatized national telecommunications firm, threatened to take the spot at the top of the podium away from Digiturk -- an especially bold move for Türk Telekom, which has no previous experience doing live broadcasting. Türk Telekom was also looking to take advantage of its subsidiary Avea and broadcast the matches live through its third-generation (3G) mobile Internet services.

The auction, which was run by the TFF’s Media Rights Tender Commission, consisted of three broadcasting packages. Package A was for live broadcasting of matches played in the Super League -- Turkey’s premier league -- on television, mobile networks and the Internet. The second package, package B, contained the rights for broadcasting match highlights and live broadcasting rights for the TFF’s first division league on television, the Internet and mobile networks. Package C included rights to broadcast three-minute clips of the matches through mobile networks.

Thousands of people throughout Turkey followed the televised bidding in the tender for the broadcasting rights of Turkcell Super League games.

Digiturk won package A with a $321 million per year bid, in a tender that lasted for four hours with 163 rounds of bidding. TRT did not bid on this package, resulting in a head-to-head bidding competition between Türk Telekom and Digiturk. Bidding started at the minimum price of $214.3 million per year and rose to $220 million after the first round of closed envelope bidding. After this first round, the bidding turned into an open auction, with the offers exceeding $300 million after the 47th round of bidding. The auction saw newcomer Türk Telekom not willing to give up this opportunity to take the reins of this highly profitable and exclusive opportunity. Digiturk Chairman Mehmet Emin Karamehmet joined in the bidding personally, showing the importance of this auction for the company.

Package B was won by TRT for $40.2 million per year with a single bid allowing them the right to broadcast Bank Asya League 1 matches. Türk Telekom did not leave the auction empty-handed, as it won the rights to package C with a $13.5 million per year offer, giving it the rights to broadcast highlights of the league over 3G. Turk Telekom will accomplish this through its mobile operator and subsidiary Avea.

To the winning bids, 10 percent will be added for the TFF’s share, along with an additional 2 percent for operating costs and 18 percent value-added tax (KDV). Of the proceeds, excluding the TFF’s share, 35 percent will be distributed equally among the 18 clubs in the Super League, while 45 percent will be distributed based on the performance of the teams.