Skip to main content

Premier League secures better than expected TV deal

The Premier League has secured a three year roll over of its broadcasting agreements with Sky Sports, BT Sport, Amazon Prime and BBC TV: https://www.premierleague.com/news/2139168?sf245845494=1

Although it comes at a price, it does represent a win in the current uncertain climate.   It is open to question whether it would have been permitted by competition authorities if Britain was still a member of the EU.  It is certainly a change from getting broadcasters to bid against one another in an auction.

The deal will secure a £1.67bn income from domestic broadcasters and protects the value of domestic rights revenues at a time when many analysts had expected them to fall by perhaps as much as 15 to 20 per cent.  The domestic rights for 2019/22 fell in value by eight per cent compared with the previous three years, though that was more than offset by an increase in overseas TV rights.

In order to secure government approval the Premier League agreed to make a £100m one-off payment to EFL clubs and football further down the pyramid.  This will be spread over three years from 2022 to 2025 and will be on top of the £124m already paid in solidarity payments.

The full Government statement on the deal is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/written-ministerial-statement-from-the-minister-for-sport-and-tourism-on-premier-league-broadcasting-rights

Dr Borja Garcia of Loughborough University commented: 'This is going to be the second time in a row that the value of PL domestic TV rights will go down if calculated per game and in real terms. All in all, a good act of damage limitation.'

'What this demonstrates, once again, is how resistant football/premier league is to wider systemic crises. It weathered incredibly well the 2008 financial crisis, and seems to limit its damages in the even more difficult context of COVID+Brexit.'

Garcia added: 'By the way, £100m of a contract valued around £4.8bn is not that much, to be honest. But will make good PR, I guess.'


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spurs CEO attacks luxury training base

The Tottenham Hotspur chief executive Vinai Venkatesham has issued a withering assessment of the way the club was run under Daniel Levy, likening the state-of-the-art training centre to a five-star hotel rather than a centre of high performance.  Venkatesham was appointed to his role in April 2025, having stepped down as chief executive at Arsenal the previous summer. However, he has said that some aspects of the club were “in a significantly worse state” than he expected.  “Our training centre is amazing, one of the best, if not the best in the world,” Venkatesham told BBC Sport. “But when you look around, it looks more like a five-star hotel than it does a performance environment. That will change over the summer. I think there are many areas where the club hasn’t got the right level of expertise.”  He explained that the football side of operations was the club’s main downfall when he arrived last year. [One Spurs fan wryly observed that it was like a water company sayi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...
Post a Comment
Read more