English Premier League agrees record domestic TV deal
The English Premier League announced on Monday it had agreed a record £6.7 billion (US$8.45 billion) domestic television rights deal for a four-year period starting from the 2025/26 season. The current deal is reported to be worth around £5 billion over a three-year cycle and covers 200 matches per season. The English top flight hailed the agreements shared between different broadcasters as the "largest sports media rights deals ever concluded in the UK." Sky Sports and TNT Sports have retained their rights to show live matches, with Amazon, currently showing 20 matches per season, not part of the next cycle. Sky will screen a minimum of 215 live matches per season while TNT will broadcast 52. BBC Sport will continue to broadcast highlights via its Match of the Day programme. A Saturday afternoon blackout, designed to protect attendances in the lower leagues, will remain but for the first time all matches outside of those scheduled for 3:00 pm on Saturday will be screened live. Despite the eye-catching headline figure, the price paid per match by broadcasters has fallen significantly as the Premier League put up more matches per season for sale. The deal will maintain the huge financial advantage Premier League clubs enjoy over their European competitors thanks to far more lucrative domestic and international TV rights deals. International rights for the English top flight overtook the value of domestic rights for the first time last year and are estimated to bring in £5.3 billion between 2022 and 2025. (AFP)