Broadcast equipment valued at $10 million headed for UK auction

From camera lenses to trucks, more than 3,000 items of outside broadcasting equipment used to cover major sports and entertainment events are headed for auction next month, with a total estimated value of $10 million.

The lots have been gathered from British outside broadcast company Arena TV, which collapsed into administration late last year, as part of a liquidation sale.

Filling up three hangars at an airfield in southern England, the cameras, outside broadcast trucks and trailers, more than 100 km of cables and other items were used to cover events like the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, Wimbledon and the Glastonbury music festival for major British broadcasters.

The lots have a combined estimate of around 7.5 million pounds ($10 million) and are being put up for sale by firms Hickman Shearer and CA Global Partners on behalf of administrators Kroll LLP.

“I’m already seeing an unbelievable number of people coming to look at the website, we have getting on for 1,000 people registered for the sale (from) … Japan to Mexico, Peru to the French island of Reunion,” Dan Main, EMEA director of CA Global Partners, told Reuters at a preview.

“You never really see a sale on this scale (of television equipment) … so we’re conservatively estimating 7.5 million (pounds) but … it could be significantly more than that with the global buyer base that we’re attracting.”

The auction will take place Feb. 22-24, with the trucks and trailers already on sale. Reuters