Sky Europe: "Unlikely to gain an additional advantage" in buying premium rights (G. Bisson, IHS)

Sky Europe "is unlikely to gain an additional advantage in the acquisition of premium sports rights. These rights are typically awarded on a territory-by-territory basis and Sky faces strong competition from companies like BT (United Kingdom), Mediaset (Italy) and Deutsche Telekom (Germany)," said Guy Bisson, research director of television for IHS Screen Digest, on 25/07/2014.

Sky Europe is the unofficial name given to the future European pay-TV group created by British pay-TV group BSkyB following its acquisition of its Italian and German sister-firms Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland on 25/07/2014.

According to Bisson, Sky Europe will take advantage of its new geographic dimensions in the negotiation of the broadcast rights of "intermediary" competitions, such as rugby or basketball. Indeed, the rights holders are likely to be interested by a broadcast contract for several geographic territories to benefit from better visibility for their events abroad.

For Bisson, the major competitive advantage of the new Sky group will be its ability to create a unified streaming TV offer for…