What can be learnt from failures in the sports media business? A case study of the Mediapro crash in football media rights in France

Feuillet, Antoine, Alem, Amr, Durand, Christophe, Terrien, Mickaël and Scelles, Nicolas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6177-5307 (2023) What can be learnt from failures in the sports media business? A case study of the Mediapro crash in football media rights in France. Journal of Media Business Studies. ISSN 1652-2354

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Abstract

Several bankruptcies have occurred in sports media related to overinvestment in football. This research aims to contribute to the extension of the literature on such failures through a further study of business models. This article consists of a case study about Mediapro's arrival in the French sports broadcasting rights market and its rapid downfall. The theoretical framework is based on the concepts of winner’s curse and business model, and a detailed review of cases of bankruptcy in sports media. The results of this study demonstrate that the winner’s curse is not only the result of the auction process but also the consequence of an unsustainable business model.