Fly on corporate wall

Who'll score the footie TV?

Subscription-TV champ True Visions has reaffirmed its other laurel as the airwaves' "King of Soccer", and none too soon given its shaky hold on the broadcast market. True will show the coveted English Premier League trophy tomorrow and on Sunday outside CentralWorld in Bangkok.

And, since it owns the rights to all the league broadcasts in this country, True also gave its subscribers the privilege of seeing the famous Cup first, yesterday at Siam Discovery.

Now the fight begins. True's three-year claim to those rights expires ahead of the 2012-13 season, and league chairman Sir David Richards has said four other companies are bidding for the Thai stake.

Richards told the newspaper Siam Sports that the right to broadcast the games for the next three years would likely cost nearly Bt10 billion. That's about 30 per cent more than True paid in 2008.

We don't know who all of the other bidders are, but two of them are entertainment giants GMM Grammy and RS Co, both of which have their own satellite TV service. And if you want Thais watching your satellite TV, you need football.

RS this year won the broadcasting rights for La Liga, the top Spanish league, with Thai favourites like Real Madrid and Barcelona. GMM Grammy owns the rights to Germany's Bundesliga. In terms of the "big" leagues, that leaves only … England!

Insiders say the bidding battle looks as if it's coming down to GMM and TrueVisions, since they're the ones with the most cash.

With GMM already in control of Germany and Euro Cup 2012, True (the aforementioned King of Soccer) must be on pins and needles waiting for the verdict in May.

If True misses out, it's going to need an outstanding Plan B to hang on to its subscribers. If GMM succeeds - and if it's allowed to run ads with the footie - its satellite TV will be swiftly turning a handsome profit.

Maybe even better - maybe a soccer king's ransom.

Contact us at ntsoopsip@gmail.com.