The Premier League have agreed a new domestic television deal from 2025/26 to 2028/29, and there are a few points of note in the agreement.
On Monday, the Premier League announced their new domestic rights deal for the four seasons from 2025/26 to 2028/29.
Sky Sports will be the main broadcaster for the live matches, airing a minimum of 215 games per season, at least four per week. That includes three midweek match rounds and all 10 games on the final day of each season.
TNT Sports will also continue to broadcast games, taking 52 matches including the Saturday 12:30pm slot and two midweek match rounds.
However, it seems Amazon have dropped out of the race, choosing not to pick up any games in this cycle. The timing of that decision is rather amusing, with Prime Video set to air the current round of midweek fixtures, including Arsenal’s trip to Luton Town.
The BBC will continue to have highlight rights for Match of the Day.
The new deal is worth £6.7billion over the four years, which the Premier League frame as “inclusive of a four per cent increase in live rights value”.
But some are more sceptical. Football writer Grace Robertson points out that the per-game cost of the new deal is £6.2m, whilst the old deal had a per-game cost of £8.5m. That’s before factoring in inflation.
Yet the BBC’s Simon Stone writes that the Premier League will be privately satisfied, believing additional growth in TV revenues will come from the overseas market. Remember, this deal is only for the domestic rights.
The good news for fans is that they’ll need one fewer subscription to watch all the games, and that there will be more games on TV, including all of the Sunday 2pm games involving teams playing in the Europa League or Europa Conference League that Thursday.
On the other hand, the Saturday 3pm blackout remains for four more years, so fans of top clubs like Arsenal will continue to struggle to watch every game, given the demand for match tickets.
In all, the changes aren’t hugely significant. A few more games on TV, the same primary broadcasters as before, and a deal for relatively similar money.
Anyone hoping for a major shake-up will have been left disappointed.
New Premier League broadcast deal – Key points
- Record Deal: The Premier League has agreed to a new domestic television rights deal worth £6.7 billion.
- Duration: The deal covers four years, starting from the 2025-26 season.
- Largest UK Sports Media Rights Deal: This agreement is the largest ever in UK sports media.
- Broadcasters:
- Sky: Awarded four of the five packages, Sky will show a minimum of 215 matches per season, including various kick-offs and three midweek rounds. They will also broadcast all 10 matches on the final day of each season.
- TNT: To broadcast a minimum of 52 matches per season, including all 12.30pm kick-offs on Saturdays and two midweek match rounds.
- BBC Involvement: The BBC will continue to show highlights on Match of the Day, MOTD2, and Football Focus, with additional digital rights for online platforms.
- Saturday 3pm Blackout: The traditional Saturday 3pm blackout remains in place.
- Sunday 2pm Games: Every Sunday 2pm kick-off will be televised.
- Amazon Exclusion: Amazon, currently showing 20 matches per season, is not included in the new agreement.
- Tender Process: This is the first tender process for Premier League rights since 2018.
- Previous Deal: The current £5 billion deal, extended due to Covid-19, expires at the end of the 2024-25 season.
- Financial Impact: The new deal represents a 4% rise in live rights value compared to the previous agreement.
- Financial Stability: The deal aims to provide financial stability for clubs until at least 2029.
- No Additional Space for Women’s Super League: The deal does not create extra space for the Women’s Super League, sparking suggestions about using the 3pm blackout slot.