In the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic, the Premier League decide to skip the TV auction this time. Instead, it renewed the broadcasting rights with TV studios for the next three years. Skipping the auction is a relief for PL clubs. Due to financial trouble all across Europe in the wake of the pandemic, a drop in revenue was expected.
The Premier League acted quickly on this one, agreeing on the same financial deal as before. This means that fans can expect top-quality coverage of Premier League matches on Sky, BT, Amazon, and BBC Sport. Read the full article below to give the quick deal extension and what it means for fans below.
New Deal from 2022-2025
The new deal is supposed to cost nearly £5 billion which is exactly the same as before. This is a massive relief for Premier League clubs who were expecting about a 10% drop in value. Clubs were rightfully concerned about a drop in value at the auction that was scheduled for June.
The value of rights for domestic leagues in Europe has peaked, but in light of the economic impact of the pandemic, the value has dropped. To see how they may be affected in future, head to the homepage of betting.co.uk for the latest developments on odds and offers that reflect the market.
So, with the new deal running from 2022-2025 is just an extension of the previous one. It guarantees financial certainty to professional clubs, while also enabling £100 million more to clubs with a place on the footballing pyramid in the next 4 years. The extra funding won’t be for PL clubs only. It was made available to over 1,000 clubs in the National League system as well as women’s and girl’s football clubs.
The extra funding will help other leagues evolve. It will support other football-wide projects as well. Some, for example, are the PL project on head injuries in football, as well as the fan group projects and anti-discrimination projects.
Helping the football pyramid getting back on its feet was saluted by the Premier League, but representatives have also sent a warning. The PL is looking for an urgent revision or a fundamental reset of the game’s financial model in terms of fair distribution of monies and realistic cost measures.
Lucrative TV Rights
The lucrative TV rights in the past have helped boost Premier League ratings. In the past few decades, it became the most lucrative football league in the world and a massive draw for popular players.
In 2018, Sky, a Comcast subsidiary, paid £3.6 billion for PL rights. The deal saw it screening 128 matches per season. In comparison, BT screens 52 games for a deal of £975 million. With fans out of the stadiums this season and for a large chunk of the past, extra matches have been screened. Unlike BT and Sky, Amazon Prime Video has a much smaller number of matches. BBC has also renewed the deal for its popular Match of the Day programme.
The extension of the deal was not received well by some streaming services. With so much money in play, it’s difficult to predict how this will affect the betting landscape, as the football sector is massively lucrative for the big operators.
One operator, DAZN, has declined to comment on the topic so far but there were big rumours that it was set on adding PL matches on its fledgling service. However current talk about a potential bid for BT Sport means it might not have to wait until the next rights auction to become involved with the Premier League.
