New TV deal worth €150,000 a minute

The Premier League’s new TV deal will net more than €150,000 a minute — a staggering 70% increase in the value of its British television rights for the 2016-19 seasons, with Sky and BT Sports paying a combined £5.136 billion (€6.92 billion) to show games. 

The new deals will see even more money flood in to the top flight, with the broadcasters paying more than £10m (€13m) to screen each game.

The Premier League’s total television deal could exceed £8bn (€10.7bn) when the overseas rights are completed in a year’s time, leaving the global game in its wake.

Sky has almost doubled its investment to retain five of the seven packages totalling 126 matches including the new Friday night slot, while BT Sport has two packages making up 42 games.

The Premier League will now net £113,000 (€152,000) a minute from their domestic television rights.

It leaves the rest of club football across the world far behind in terms of domestic television income compared to the Premier League.

To put in context, the total prize fund for the 12 teams in the League of Ireland Premier Division was €241,500 last season.

Sky will pay £4.176bn (€5.6bn) for the lion’s share of the rights including the Sunday evening ‘jewel in the crown’ package, while BT Sport will pay £960m (€1,294m).

BT Sport will have the Saturday evening package, however, instead of the Saturday lunchtime slot.

Chief executive Richard Scudamore said the Premier League was confident the rights sale would not be derailed by Virgin Media’s ongoing complaint with Britain’s broadcast regulator Ofcom.

He said: “We remain confident that the Premier League’s live UK broadcasting rights are sold in a way that is compatible with both UK and EU competition law as well as being of great benefit to the whole of English football.”