Two British broadcasters Sky and BT Sport have agreed to pay £4.46bn to broadcast Premier League football games for three seasons from 2019-20, hundreds of millions of pounds less than the previous three-year deal.
Following a five-day auction — during which tech giants Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, or Netflix failed to materialise — Sky and BT won the right to continue screening games but the Premier League were forced to take the unusual step of holding back some matches, saying that bidding for them was continuing.
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The matches that remain up for grabs are for midweek and bank holiday fixtures. Amazon is thought to be interested in securing some of these.
Stephen van Rooyen, Sky’s UK chief executive, said:
We continue to invest in content that our customers value and which complements our strategy to broaden our offer. Not only do we remain the home of Premier League football but also the home of top quality drama, entertainment, comedy and other sports.
Our disciplined approach means we continue to have the flexibility to invest in each of these areas as we choose, underlining our position as Europe’s largest investor in content.
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By GlobalData
As it stands the broadcaster will pay £9.3m per game, whereas in 2015 it paid about £11m per game.
The two broadcasters are paying £4.46bn figure for 160 games in the next three-year package compaired with £5.14bn for 168 live games under the current deal.
It was reported the Premier League had not sold the final two packages as they had failed to hit their reserve prices.
Neil Campling, an analyst at Mirabaud, told the Telegraph:
The simple conclusion is that the broadcasting battle between Sky and BT is over.
Since the decision in December for both companies to sell each other’s channels it became clear that this wasn’t going to be the same nosebleed cost inflation of previous auctions.
Here’s how the latest deal stacks up against other big deals
| Sport | Year signed | Length (years) | Yearly average | Deal total |
| NFL (American football) | 2014 | 9 | $4.5bn | $39.6bn |
| NBA Basketball) | 2016 | 9 | $2.6bb | $24bn |
| MLB (Baseball) | 2014 | 8 | $1.3bn | $12.4bn |
| Premier League (Soccer) | 2016 | 3 | $2.5bn | $7.01bn |
| Premier League (Soccer) | 2018 | 3 | $2.06bn | $6.2bn |
| Bundesliga (Soccer) | 2017 | 4 | $1.43bn | $5.74bn |
| NHL (Ice hockey) | 2013 | 12 | $562m | $5.2bn |
| Serie A (Soccer)Italy | 2015 | 3 | $1.167bn | $3.49bn |
| La Liga (Soccer) | 2017 | 3 | $1.09bn | $3.28bn |
| IPL (Cricket) | 2017 | 10 | $160m | $1.6bn |
Source: totalsportek.com
