SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Premier League is increasing its live TV coverage from 200 to 270 matches, with all Sunday games available from the season after next, according to reports.
Looking to acquire the ‘best possible deal’ once broadcast rights negotiations begin in 2025, the news may see fans face midday and 7pm kick-offs at weekends – a change from the current two 2pm and 4:30pm time-slots.
Under the new proposals, there could also be another space saved for Europa League competing teams, which are also expected to gain £1m for each Sunday fixture that is televised.
Additionally, the top division is also exploring options to increase the amount of games being televised on Friday and Monday evening time-slots, which under the current rights agreement are typically reserved for Sky Sports.
These fresh proposals are a part of the Premier League’s strategy to boost its negotiating leverage in the next round of broadcast rights dealings, which is due to open in two years time.
The Premier League’s current TV rights deal – agreed in 2018 through to 2024, extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic – is worth £5bn across different broadcasters (such as Sky Sports, TNT Sports and Amazon Prime).
The Daily Mail went on to detail, however, that the number of TV packages available is expected to be reduced in October, with more matches to be involved in mini-packages of 20 games.
This may open the door for more streaming giants, such as Apple TV and DAZN, to place their interest in showcasing lucrative Premier League matches on their platforms, after previously battling to gain rights to EFL fixtures before Sky Sports netted a £935m deal.
The new Premier League proposals will also have no effect over the 3pm blackout rule as the top-flight league has already made its position clear to interested broadcasters that they do not intend to agree to broadcast fixtures during the Saturday afternoon time-slot.
