Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) today announced the signing of a long-term agreement with RGE, owner of the Sport 5 channels. Customers of Partner's new television venture will also be offered RGE's five sports channels. The venture is scheduled for launching in the coming weeks. According to the announcement, all of RGE's five sports channels - Sport 5, 5 Plus, 5 Live, 5 Gold, and 5 HD - will be offered, but it is unclear how much the consumer will be charged for them.
Cellcom TV, which entered the market two and a half years ago, began with a small sports package, but later expanded it, and now offers all the main sports broadcasts. Up until recently, the company offered its customers all five of the Sport 5 channels at no added cost for a limited time as part of a general NIS 99 package. Now, however, only the Sport 5 and 5 Plus channels are included in the package; those who also want the premium channels have to pay NIS 52 more a month (the same fee as charged by DBS Satellite Services (1998) Ltd. (YES) and Hot Telecommunication Systems Ltd. (TASE: HOT.B1)).
Partner has not yet disclosed the cost of its package, and the cost of the sports content for the consumer is currently unknown. It can be assumed, however, that the prices set by Cellcom TV will be a benchmark here, and that Partner will want to offer in its launch a package that will be attractive in comparison to what is currently available in the market. Partner also announced today that the two more basic channels, Sport 5 and 5 Plus, would be broadcast with high definition quality.
Sports broadcasting is regarded as one of the main barriers preventing customers from leaving Hot and Yes. At least in the past, the new players in the market, Cellcom and Partner, had difficulty in obtaining this content at reasonable prices. This issue led to a Knesset initiative for establishing an obligation to sell sports content to every new platform. Although this was included in the Economic Arrangement Law, however, and despite unequivocal promises in the matter, the proposal is now stuck in the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee. At the same time, Partner's attempts to buy sports broadcasting rights for itself - the most recent attempt concerned rights to broadcast soccer Champions League games - have created a situation in which the prices of broadcasting rights to all of the main sports events have risen sharply.
The sports channel owns the rights to broadcast many of the attractive sports events, including the featured game in the top Israeli soccer league and content summarizing the week's games, Champions League games, Maccabi Tel Aviv's Euroleague games, broadcasts of games in Israel's top basketball league, NBA basketball games, etc.
Partner CEO Isaac Benbenisti said today, "The addition of sports content from the Sport Channel completes a winning collection of linear channels and a wide variety of additional content that will be unveiled in a few weeks when Partner TV is launched. The excellent content, combined with an innovative interface and the ability to operate Google's Android TV, will bring the viewers superior television service."
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on May 22, 2017
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