Premier League agrees record £6.7bn domestic TV rights deal

The Premier League has agreed a new record £6.7bn domestic television deal for Sky and TNT to show up to 270 live games a season.

The deal includes the BBC continuing to show highlights on Match of the Day.

The top flight said the deal, which covers the four years from the 2025-26 season, is the “largest sports media rights deal ever concluded in the UK”.

The Saturday 3pm blackout will remain in place, but every 2pm Sunday kick-off will be televised.

The BBC’s deal includes MOTD2 and Football Focus plus additional digital rights for its online platforms.

Sky has been awarded four of the five packages and will show a minimum of 215 matches a season including Saturday 5.30pm kick-offs, Sunday 2pm and 4.30pm kick-offs, plus evening games on Mondays and Fridays and three midweek rounds.

TNT will show a minimum of 52 matches a season including all 12.30pm kick-offs on Saturdays and two midweek match rounds.

Sky Sports will also broadcast all 10 matches on the final day of each season.

Amazon, which shows 20 matches per season under the league’s current deal, has not secured rights in the new agreement.

This is the first time the Premier League has been through a tender process for its rights since 2018.

The current £5bn domestic TV rights deal, which was for three seasons and expires at the end of 2024-25, was allowed to be extended because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Premier League says the new agreement, which is a year longer, is a 4% rise in live rights value compared to the previous deal and will “provide financial certainty for clubs throughout professional football until at least 2029”.

“The outcome of this process underlines the strength of the Premier League and is testament to our clubs, players and managers who continue to deliver the world’s most competitive football in full stadiums, and to supporters, who create an unrivalled atmosphere every week,” said Premier League chief executive Richard Masters.

Barbara Slater, Director, BBC Sport, said: “Match of the Day remains enduringly popular with audiences and this new agreement with the Premier League is brilliant news for football fans all over the UK.

“For almost 60 years it has been the UK’s most discussed football programme, delivering a complete digest of the weekend’s action and this enhanced deal with more digital content means we can tell the story of the Premier League every day across BBC Sport platforms.”

Sky will show up to 100 more matches a season, and chief executive Dana Strong said: “We are proud of our long history with the Premier League and look forward to delivering more engagement, entertainment, and innovation to the end of the decade.”

Analysis

BBC Sport’s Simon Stone

Even though they are selling significantly more games for marginally more money, the Premier League will be privately satisfied with the figures given they believe additional growth in TV revenues over the medium term will come from the overseas market.

This announcement solidifies Sky’s position as the main Premier League broadcaster partner, keeps TNT in the mix and will deliver more digital content to BBC Sport, which is part of its overall strategy in a period when it will also show highlights of the Champions League.

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We are still to see the true emergence of streaming platforms as a player in the market for weekly content, with Amazon – who this week will screen 10 matches – dropping out after the Premier League opted to put its five midweek rounds into their packages, rather than selling them off individually, as was the case when they last properly negotiated its domestic TV rights in 2018.

The Premier League has confirmed the intention to screen all Sunday 2pm games, most of which involve clubs playing in either the Europa League or Europa Conference League the previous Thursday.

There is no wholesale switch to Saturday or Sunday nights, which had been feared, although there are some weekend matches that have been sold as part of the packages that do not have timeslots. It remains to be seen what happens with them. In Italy, two matches are routinely played with different kick-off times on Fridays and Mondays.

TNT retaining the 12.30pm kick-off slot on a Saturday points towards Sky continuing the current trend of screening EFL matches at that time.

However, there is no additional space created for the Women’s Super League, which is why there have been suggestions it might benefit from using the 3pm ‘blackout’ slot.

Source:BBC