New top-flight TV deal

THE Premier League have announced a rollover of their existing £4.7billion broadcast deals for a further three years and pledged an extra £100million in support for the football pyramid.

The new deal with Sky Sports, BT Sport, Amazon Prime Video and the BBC will run from 2022-25 on the same terms as the existing arrangement, agreed in 2018.

The Government approved the deal “in principle” with an “exclusion order” under the competition act, which allowed the League to renew without the normal tender process.

The value of the League’s deal dropped by 10 per cent three years ago and there was concern among clubs that there could be another fall if the usual open market auction went ahead, amid fears that the value of domestic leagues in Europe has reached a peak.

In return for the Government’s cooperation, the League have pledged an extra £100m to the football pyramid over the next four years on top of their existing commitment to spend £1.5bn on the wider game over the three-year period of the new deal.

In a statement, the Premier League

said: “The additional funding will be available to more than 1,000 clubs in the National League system, women’s and girls’ football, League One and League Two clubs and the Football Foundation. It will also support a number of football-wide projects, which will include the League’s work looking at head injuries, anti-discrimination and fan groups.”

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters (right) claimed the deal would ensure the wider game could make a strong recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

“We know that, once concluded, this will have a positive impact on the wider industry, jobs and tax revenues and will enable us to maintain and increase our existing solidarity and community financial commitments to the pyramid for the next four years, even though we are yet to understand the full impact of the pandemic,” he said. “It comes at an important time and will enable us to plan ahead with increased certainty against a more stable economic backdrop.”

The deal consists of 200 live matches, with Sky showing 128, BT 52 and Amazon 20. The BBC would retain the nonlive rights to Match of the Day and its spin-offs. Meanwhile, BT Sport has confirmed that it will not ask Champions League teams who feature on Wednesday night to play at 12.30pm on Saturdays, with the slot to be pushed back to 7.45pm during the new cycle. Some managers were critical of the existing arrangement, but the new slot is unlikely to please supporter groups, with away fans now potentially facing overnight stays or difficult journeys home.