BeIn Sports has won the 2016-19 Indonesian EPL rights for US$75 million, about US$15 million less than the last cycle when sports agency MP & Silva prevailed.

The victory comes on the back of BeIn’s EPL wins in Thailand, New Zealand and Indonesia. The broadcaster also scooped La Liga rights for Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand last year.

BeIn has already licensed La Liga games to various parties in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, and is slowly building out pay-TV and digital distribution for its channels and content in Australasia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

PACKAGING HOLDS THE KEY

Returns on EPL distribution have often proved challenging in Indonesia, especially for pay-TV.

This year could be even tougher, with economic growth dipping below 5% in 2015. Indonesia’s critical free-to-air TV ad market declined by 2.7% last year, and is expected to grow by only ~2% in 2016, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA).

Pay-TV penetration sits at around 10% of TV homes, with subscriber growth flat to marginal for most major operators.

Clever packaging, however, could allow BeIn to exploit value from the EPL at the lower winning price.

With parties such as MNC, Emtek, Telkom Indonesia, Orange and First Media waiting in the wings, this would leave plenty up for grabs across free, pay, digital and sub-licensed windows.