November 7, 2012: Bidding for the three-year right to broadcast English Premier League (EPL) soccer matches in Thailand will start tomorrow.
There are at least four bidders: major pay-TV operator TrueVisions, Cable Thai Holdings (CTH), GMM Grammy, and RS. It is speculated that Bangkok Broadcasting and TV (BBTV), the operator of Channel 7, will jointly bid with one of these. They all are in the silent period.
“This bidding round might take one or two weeks, but the final outcome will be known this month,” said a broadcasting-industry source.
The four main contenders qualified last month to bid for the broadcast rights. Among the qualifications are number of viewers, broadcasting technologies, and subscription base.
Given that the competition this time is expected to be fiercer than in the past, it is expected that the winning price could be as high as US$150 million (Bt4.6 billion) for the next three EPL seasons.