Premier League football highlights to continue as ‘Match of the Day’ seals new deal

Premier League football highlights will continue to be shown on Match of the Day after the BBC announced it has agreed a three-year deal.

A new contract sees Match of the Day, Match of the Day 2, Football Focus, and the Premier League Show all given rights to show Premier League football until 2021/22.

Match of the Day has been running since 1964 and has shown Premier League highlights in all but three of the competition’s seasons.

Its iPlayer catch-up service also shows repeats of the highlights programmes.

“To keep Premier League highlights on the BBC is testament to the continued success and popularity of Match of the Day,” said Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport.

“Our long-standing partnership with the Premier League continues to flourish and evolve as seen with the recently launched Super Movers initiative.

“The new deal strengthens that relationship even further and ensures the nation’s favourite sport will continue to be seen by the widest possible audience.”

Now presented by Gary Lineker, Match of the Day also boasts a panel of pundits including all-time Premier League top goalscorer Alan Shearer and former Arsenal striker Ian Wright.

“Breaking: @BBCSport retains the rights to show Premier League highlights for a further 3 years. Great news,” tweeted Lineker, who once presented in his underwear after his former club Leicester won the Premier League.

The announcement did not include any indication of what figure the BBC has paid to extend the deal.

Last season, the BBC’s Premier League football programming was watched by 37m people, and there were a further 40m requests for these shows on BBC iPlayer.

“We are extremely pleased that our partnership with BBC Sport will continue through to 2022,” said Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore. “They do an excellent job of making the Premier League available to millions of fans across the UK with a range of high quality programming and content.”