Premier League renew TV deals with Amazon, Sky and BT worth £4.8 billion in principle
The Premier League has announced it has renewed a £4.8bn TV rights deal with its existing partners Sky, BT and Amazon. This comes in light of several talks the league has had in talks with its existing partners and the government, which has the power to block direct deals on competition grounds.
The rollover deal, which spans the 2022 to 2025 seasons seems to be very useful as it will include an extra £100m of trickle-down funding. This helped in avoiding an auction that could have led to hundreds of millions being wiped off the value of the next deal especially in light of the problems created by the Super League. Ministers have agreed to the deal in principle in order to help protect clubs’ from further financial strain especially with lost ticket sales and refunds to broadcasters have been estimated to have cost up to a total of £2 billion.
However, the Guardian has reported that the Uk government wanted guarantees that the Premier League will generate more money for severely affected teams in England's lower divisions. The Premier League’s move away from an open auction comes as the league has seen a drop in the value of its rights in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Forecasts from analysts have revealed that in the next auction the total value could fall by anything from £500m to as much as £900m.
This is due to hyper-inflation caused by footballing supremacy power grabs between Sky and BT Sports. Premier League released an open statement highlighting their availability of additional funding and how it would prove beneficial for lower clubs. It saw Richard Masters confirm the same and reveal that the league would like to express their thanks to the broadcasters for their commitment to the Premier League and added that they will increase their financial commitments to the lower leagues.
"The Premier League would like to express our gratitude to our broadcast partners for their continued commitment to the Premier League and support for the football pyramid. We are hugely appreciative of the Government agreeing in principle to allow this arrangement and for their continued support for the Premier League and the English game. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on football, and renewals with our UK broadcast partners will reduce uncertainty, generate stability and promote confidence within the football pyramid," Masters told the Premier League's website.
"We know that, once concluded, this will have a positive impact on the wider industry, jobs and tax revenues and will enable us to maintain and increase our existing solidarity and community financial commitments to the football pyramid for the next four years, even though we are yet to understand the full impact of the pandemic.
"It comes at an important time and will enable us to plan ahead with increased certainty against a more stable economic backdrop. Sky Sports, BT Sport, Amazon Prime Video and BBC Sport are excellent partners and provide fantastic coverage and programming to bring our competition to fans in the UK," he added.
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