Member Article

Premier League in record £5.1 billion TV rights deal

The Premier League has sold television rights to its next 3 years of football games for a record £5.136 billion, 71% above what it charged previously.

Sky paid £4.2 billion for five of the seven TV packages while rival BT paid £960 million for the other two in the record TV rights auction. The deal will run for three years from 2016.

Sky paid 83% more than it did in the last round three years ago.

BT paid 18% more and has increased the number of live matches it will show from 38 to 42 a year.

The last TV rights auction in 2012 was also won by Sky and BT.

According to the BBC, BT will pay £320 million per season, against £246 million per season at present. The communications giant said that equated to £7.6 million per game.

Sky, meanwhile, said it will pay £1.392 billion per year, or £11.07 million per match, for the right to broadcast 126 live matches, 10 more than currently. and the maximum Sky was allowed to bid for under the auction rules.

It means Sky will pay £4.1 billion of the total £5.136 billion deal. The Premier League TV rights auction had been expected to raise as much as £4.4 billion.

Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media’s chief executive, said the auction process was a licence for the Premier League to “print money” and was “hurting fans”.

He added: “You can’t blame the Premier League - they are simply exploiting the sales process. But this is hurting fans and does not warrant an exemption from normal competition law rules.

“There are other and better ways to structure the auction - selling more games gives more value for money and selling non-exclusively to broadcasters would take some of the heat out of auction process.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .