Sky Holds On to Premier League Rights

LONDON: Sky will remain as the primary U.K. home for Premier League Football, securing 116 live matches per year for the seasons from 2013-14 until 2015-16.

Sky Sports will show 116 matches per season. BT will show 38 games, while ESPN UK and Al Jazeera will show none. Sky will pay an estimated £760 million per annum for the five packages of live rights for each of the three years of the new agreement.

Sky has been awarded the live rights across all platforms, including satellite, cable, IPTV, online and mobile. Sky customers will then get linear coverage, as well as live coverage through Sky Go. Coverage will also be available on Sky’s new Internet-TV service, NOW TV, which launches later this year.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s chief executive, said: “This is a good result for our customers and for our business. It means that Sky Sports remains the home of Premier League football and that viewers will continue to enjoy our live and exclusive coverage until at least 2016.  
 
“We have never offered greater depth and breadth of coverage on Sky Sports, with unprecedented live action right across the schedule.  At the same time we’re pushing ahead with more original British content, extending our leadership as the U.K.’s favorite triple-play provider, and launching our new internet TV service, NOW TV, which will give us even more ways to distribute our content.
 
“In what was a very competitive tender process, we are pleased to have secured the combination of rights that we wanted, providing certainty for us and our customers. Whilst the cost is higher, we have capacity for this increase through the combination of excellent work on cost efficiency across the business and choices over other future spending. As a result, we remain confident of delivering our financial plans, in line with our expectations, unchanged, in each year of the new deal.”
 
Barney Francis, the managing director of Sky Sports, added: “The Premier League has never been more popular with our customers so it’s excellent news that Sky Sports viewers will continue to enjoy the biggest and best games, including Super Sunday and Monday Night Football. 
 
“Sky Sports viewers have never had so much choice of high-quality action. Alongside the Premier League, we have long-term agreements in place to show the best in live sport, including UEFA Champions League football, European, Ryder Cup and U.S. tour golf, Test and one-day cricket and Formula One. At the same time, we’ll continue to innovate in providing the best coverage possible.”