The Premier League has confirmed that Sky Sports will show a record number of games from the 2025/26 season as part of a new four-year deal.
Sky Sports has secured live rights packages B (50 games), C (66 games), D (44 games) and E (58 games), guaranteeing at least 215 live games per season. This coverage includes over 140 weekend games, Friday and Monday night fixtures, as well as full coverage of three rounds of midweek games.
All matches taking place outside the traditional 3pm Saturday lockdown, including those postponed to 2pm Sunday due to European competitions, will now be broadcast live.
For the first time ever, Sky Sports will broadcast all ten games on the final day of each season. Additionally, several live games are offered on Sundays at 2:00 p.m. on several weekends.
TNT Sports, formerly known as BT Sport, has secured Live Rights Package A, which offers exclusive coverage of 52 games per season. This includes games played on Saturdays at 12:30 p.m. as well as full coverage of two rounds of midweek games.
BBC Sport has secured highlight rights for all 380 games each season. This includes additional digital rights for the BBC’s online platforms to ensure the continuation of its Match of the Day programme.
Amazon Prime Video, which currently broadcasts 20 games per season under the league’s existing agreement, does not reserve the rights for the new domestic cycle, which extends to the conclusion of the 2028-29 season.
The Premier League says the announced deals, worth a total of £6.7 billion, will provide professional football clubs with financial security until at least 2029.
Richard Masters, Premier League chief executive, said: “We are delighted to announce new deals with Sky Sports and TNT Sports, extending our partnership for a further four years and covering more Premier League games live than ever before in 2025-2026 become.” .
“As long-standing and valued partners, Sky Sports and TNT Sports are known for their continued delivery of world-class coverage and programming. We have enjoyed record viewership and viewing figures over the last few seasons and know that their continued innovation will attract more people to watch and follow the Premier League.
“We are also delighted to be extending our partnership with BBC Sport, which will continue to bring weekly highlights of all Premier League games to the widest possible audience across the UK.” Match of the Day has been a fixture for generations of football fans in this country institution and enjoys great popularity among fans of all ages.
“The outcome of this process underlines the strength of the Premier League and is testament to our clubs, players and managers who continue to deliver the most competitive football in the world in packed stadiums, and to the fans who create an unparalleled atmosphere every week.”
What has changed about this deal?
Actually a lot of things that can perhaps be summed up best: more money, more live games, but one less channel.
It is noteworthy that all games outside the “closed” blackout window on Saturday at 3 p.m. will now be broadcast live. So, for example, if a team plays a European Cup game on a Thursday and their game is moved to Sunday at 2pm, this will now be broadcast live (Liverpool’s 4-3 win against Fulham on Sunday is an example from this season where this was the case). ). was not the case).
GO DEEPER
Time to end the blackout at 3pm on Saturday or is it necessary to protect the pyramid?
We’ll go into the financial side in a bit more detail below, but another important point of discussion is that this deal means games will only be broadcast live on Sky Sports and TNT Sports, and Amazon Prime Video will lose its status as a rights holder.
Is this a good deal for the Premier League and its clubs?
This needs to be seen in the context of the domestic deals that every other league (and sport) has struck. This is still a cash increase for the Premier League (value growth is quite modest at around 4 percent per year in total value compared to the previous cycle), and while that’s not a double-digit increase, other sports and leagues would be happy to do so in a similar way be situation.
A good indication is the events in France. Yes, Ligue 1 doesn’t have the commercial appeal of the Premier League, but its domestic rights auction went so badly that it was scrapped. The league is now desperate for suppliers such as Amazon and beIN to offer more after failing to receive bids that met the minimum prices for Ligue 1’s two main live packages from 2024 to 2029.
Italy fared slightly better: Serie A announced a deal in October worth 4.5 billion euros (3.9 billion pounds, 4.9 billion US dollars) over five years (around 900 million euros a year), significantly less than the number required by the Premier League. Both DAZN and Sky secured the broadcast rights.
The other important context is that the Premier League has seen a significant increase in international rights and this trend could continue. This deal applies to domestic rights only, foreign rights are negotiated separately.
This domestic deal is broadly more similar to what we’ve seen before. There is an argument that it is actually more old-fashioned than the one it replaces. Here we have two pay TV giants, loads of games but still not all of them, and the 3pm blackout is still four years away. It could be the last deal of its kind.
However, the Premier League still has a ways to go to compete with the amounts paid for NFL rights in the US. A deal that began earlier this year will bring the league more than $100 billion over 11 years.
GO DEEPER
English football’s 3pm blackout must be protected and maintained
Who are the broadcasters’ winners and losers?
There’s a big winner here: Sky. There are a lot more games, but you don’t pay significantly more for them.
How many more? Up to 100 additional games per season, increasing the number of games broadcast exclusively live on Sky by 70 percent.
Sky will continue to show Premier League football (Photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
There was some speculation as to what TNT Sports would do, as this was the first domestic auction since entering the market following its takeover of BT Sport. Some wondered whether UEFA’s huge investment in rights (for the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League) and the cheaper content the company retains or acquires (Ligue 1, NBA, English club rugby) is for the company would have a large enough audience. It has clearly concluded that to be relevant in the UK it also needs live action in the Premier League.
It’s no surprise that Amazon Prime Video isn’t getting anything – in fact, it hasn’t made an offer this time. The packages given to them – gift wrapped, with bows and glitter – were not offered this time and so the company decided not to compete with Sky and TNT Sports for the available offers. The absence of these smaller packages this time was an important indication that they would not be included at the time of the announcement. It’s worth noting that Amazon will show Champions League games starting next season.
Amazon actually got very lucky when it joined the rights landscape. The Premier League was desperate for a streamer, so every December it gave away 20 games at a bargain price that could be used to sell Prime subscriptions. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, England’s top flight also decided to extend this contract for a further three years.
It’s likely that Amazon figured out that it got all the Prime subscribers by getting a little Premier League action, and the additional subscribers it would gain by trying to outbid Sky/TNT Sports for a package, are not worth it.
DAZN is interesting. In recent months the country has been very cautious about its British plans. His approach seems to have been: “We’re not really there, but we wouldn’t say no.” However, that won’t really be enough for the Premier League. The prevailing impression is that DAZN simply cannot afford the live Premier League rights in the UK.
Incidentally, Viaplay has effectively halted most of its foreign expansion plans, and so far no one has been able to convince Netflix to offer live sports at this level.
Apple is the fascinating one. They were in negotiations with the NFL about the league’s Sunday streaming package, but backed out because they decided it was too expensive. They have, of course, signed a global streaming deal with Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States. From a British perspective, perhaps one for the future.
(Photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)