FC Barcelona was not interested in La Liga’s agreement with CVC Capital Partners, but the team is doubling down on its own private equity deals.

Barca agreed to sell an additional 15% stake in its broadcasting rights to investment firm Sixth Street, boosting the company’s total stake to 25%. 

• The deal is reportedly worth around $327.4 million, bringing its total investment in Barca’s media rights to $539.7 million.
• Sixth Street will hold its stake for 25 years.
• The firm would rake in around $1.1 billion over that period based on the media rights’ current value, per ESPN, though the annual haul will fluctuate.

Barca president Joan Laporta said in August 2021 that the team held $1.4 billion in debt, including $688.6 million owed to banks.

The team aims to use the fresh capital to register a handful of summer signings.

Going Solo

The team opted out of La Liga’s similar deal with CVC in 2021. The top-flight Spanish league sold an 8.25% stake in its media rights for $2.1 billion.

“We want to recover this asset in 25 years,” Laporta said. “The [CVC] operation that was presented was collective, and Barca have their own special value.”

Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group have been given approval by the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority to merge Eurosport UK and BT Sport.

Under the $773 million agreement, BT Sport will become a Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiary in a 50-50 deal and earn $113.6 million over the next three years. BT Sport will gain up to an additional $660 million based on its performance, and Warner Bros. Discovery will have the option to buy out BT.

Now that it’s approved, the deal shouldn’t take long. 

“We now look toward day one of the new business, which we hope will be in the coming weeks,” Marc Allera, CEO of BT’s consumer division, said.

The companies will remain under their existing brands before merging into one later.

Together, the new network will hold rights to a variety of major sports properties including:

• English Premier League
• UEFA Champions League and Europa League
• Olympics
• Grand Slam tennis tournaments
• Tour de France and other cycling events

Moving Pieces

The deal’s original announcement was made not long after Warner Bros. Discovery became a single company in April as part of a $43 billion deal.

Sports streaming service DAZN was reportedly close to acquiring BT Sport for $800 million in January, but fell through when BT Sport proved “uneconomical” for the business, according to DAZN chairman Kevin Mayer.

Disney lost streaming rights to the Indian Premier League earlier this year —and many of its subscribers could be leaving with it.

“We now expect the company to come in below its 230-260 million guidance with 213 million as Disney+ Hotstar (in India) drops down to roughly a third of subs (versus the 43% estimate previously,” MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson reported concerning the 2024 guidance.

The company added 7.9 million subscribers in its last quarter, totaling 137.7 million.

Not all is lost for Disney. Nathanson noted the company’s direct-to-consumer business will bring in a 2024 profit of $300 million — a substantial increase from the previously forecasted loss of $310 million. 

• Nathanson says the increase is from “removing our estimated jump in IPL costs needed to secure the rights.”
• Disney signed a $3 billion deal for exclusive IPL TV rights.

Price Hike

Star India, which Disney acquired in 2019, paid $2.2 billion for digital and TV rights from 2017-22. This was the first year media rights were split into separate packages. 

“We chose not to proceed with the digital rights given the price required to secure that package,” Rebecca Campbell, Disney’s chairman of international content and operation, said.

Viacom18, a joint venture between Reliance Industries, Paramount Global, and Bodhi Tree Systems, locked in the streaming rights from 2023-2027 for $2.6 billion.