Amazon to stream Premier League in UK; club agree TV revenue share deal

Amazon will broadcast live Premier League matches and weekly highlights packages in the UK from the 2019-20 season, the tech giant has confirmed, while English top-flight clubs have agreed for any reform of broadcast revenue distribution to take league position into account.

The three-year deal, which represents the first time that Premier League TV rights have been acquired by a non-traditional broadcaster, will feature every club in the top flight across two full rounds of 20 matches per season, including Bank Holiday fixtures.

Amazon will livestream the matches on their Prime Video service, which also includes US Open tennis, ATP World Tour Tennis events and NFL games, at no extra cost to existing members.

Announcing the deal, Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore said: “Amazon is an exciting new partner for the Premier League and we are very pleased they have chosen to invest in these rights.

“Prime Video will be an excellent service on which fans can consume live Premier League football – including for the first time in the UK a full round of matches – and we look forward to working with them from season 2019/20 onwards.”

The Premier League has concluded the sales process for all its live broadcasting rights in the UK and Ireland for the three seasons 2019/20 to 2021/22

More: https://t.co/TOhZKVVrtp pic.twitter.com/UZMM3t7yM6

— Premier League Communications (@PLComms) June 7, 2018

Jay Marine, vice president of Prime Video in Europe, added: “We are always looking to add more value to Prime, and we’re delighted to now offer, for the first time, live Premier League matches to Prime members at no extra cost to their membership.

“The Premier League is the most watched sports league in the world. Over these two December fixture rounds Prime members will be able to watch every team, every game, so no matter which Premier League team you support, you’re guaranteed to see them play live on Prime Video.”

The best five of the seven UK broadcast packages for the Premier League were sold in February, with Sky paying £3.75 billion to acquire four, a 14 percent discount on its current deal. BT bought the other package for £885m, down from its current £960m and for fewer matches.

BT also announced it had picked up the remaining package of 20 matches on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, Premier League clubs have struck a new deal over sharing revenue from international broadcast deals which will see any future increases divided according to league position.

Currently all the revenue from international deals is shared equally among the 20 clubs but the bigger clubs had been pushing for a greater share of the money, arguing they are the main attraction for foreign viewers.

Under the new agreement, which comes in place from the 2019-20 season, the clubs will continue to share current levels of revenue equally but any increase will be distributed based on final league position.

Under the new formula, the maximum a club can receive is 1.8 times the amount received by the lowest-earning club, the Premier League said in a statement.

Premier League clubs have agreed a new formula for sharing any future increase in international broadcast revenue from season 2019/20 onwards

More: https://t.co/sqKZJSoGka pic.twitter.com/5p4tF2Q5rO

— Premier League Communications (@PLComms) June 7, 2018

Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore said the league’s revenue sharing remained the most equitable in Europe but it was time to amend an agreement dating back to 1992.

“Back then the clubs put in place a revenue sharing system that was right for the time and has served the league well, enabling them to invest and improve in all areas,” he said.

“This new agreement will continue that trend with a subtle change that further incentivises on-pitch achievement and maintains the Premier League’s position as the most equitable in Europe in terms of sharing central revenues.

The revenue from British rights is not distributed entirely on an equal basis with clubs given more according to league position and also the amount of times they feature on live broadcasts.

Source:kwese.espn.com