“Dont believe everything on Twitter. We will issue a statement later tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest,” MNC’s Hendy Liem told The Jakarta Post on Friday. The MNC Group runs several national free-to-air TV stations including RCTI, GlobalTV and TPI.

Hendy admitted, however, that the company was in the middle of a deal with ESS, which owns the broadcast right for the English Premier League in Asia and the Pacific.

“Tonight, as soon as everything is prepared, we will make an announcement. We don’t want to mislead anyone, that’s all,” he said, but declined to comment further.

Posts on Twitter signaled that the EPL, which kicks off Saturday, will be broadcast by two stations, TPI and GlobalTV, as well as by pay TV operator Indovision, all owned by MNC.

“There has not been a deal. Negotiations are still ongoing. If the deal was already done, we will happily announce it, because it would be great news for us,” Global TV production manager Yoyon Ukhrawinata told the Post.

As of Friday night, free-to-air broadcaster TVOne, which has broadcast the prestigious EPL for the past three years, said it had not received a response to its bid.

“I heard MNC was the bidder closest to making a deal because it is able to purchase broadcasts of all EPL matches, while it the past three years we could only air two out of every 10 matches,” a source at TVOne, speaking on condition of anonimity, told the Post on Friday.

Only 53 live and 10 delayed matches were aired during the 2009/2010 season by TVOne, which started airing the Barclays EPL in 2007.

“However, we are not ruling out any possibilities. We are still waiting to see if MNC has really closed the deal,” the source said.

Free-to-air station Trans 7, which broadcast one season of the EPL in 2002 when it was still named TV 7, said the asking price by the ESS was too high and not worth it.

“The price for airing a single match could not be recouped by the advertisement slots,” Trans 7 executive producer Rahmat Edi Irawan said, declining to specify the bid value. Trans 7 is unlikely to air the matches, he acknowledged.

“For a free-to-air TV station, buying EPL air time is not a matter of gaining profit, but more about prestige, because it is remains likely the winning station will suffer a loss.

“So, it is reasonable if MNC wins the deal because it will be able to cover the costs through its pay TV operator Indovision instead of depending solely on free-to-air advertising revenue on TPI and
GlobalTV,” Rahmat said.

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