Premier League announces audio-visual rights
Live audio-visual rights in the UK for 2013/14 to 2015/16 are revealed by Premier League
BSkyB secured packages totalling 116 matches, with BT securing packages totalling 38 matches
The Premier League has concluded the sales process for the seven packages of live audio-visual rights for transmission in the UK during seasons 2013/14 to 2015/16.
The seven packages – five of 26 matches and two of 12 matches – totalling 154 matches were awarded on the following basis:
- BSkyB has secured packages B, C, D, E and F totalling 116 matches.
- BT has secured packages A and G totalling 38 matches.
The overall value delivered for the seven packages following the structured and independently scrutinised sales process is £3.018 billion.
Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore, said: "The Barclays Premier League continues to provide excellent football and enthralling drama as we saw last season. The value this drives for our rightsholders is evident and we are extremely pleased that this has been realised for our UK live rights.
"As ever, the security provided by broadcast revenues will enable our clubs to continue to invest in all aspects of their football activities and plan sustainably for the foreseeable future. This deal allows them to keep delivering what fans want; top quality football in some of world’s best club stadia and an increasing focus on and commitment to areas such as Youth Development.
"The continuing support of BSkyB for Premier League football is significant beyond the revenues delivered; the longevity and quality of their commitment has done much for the English game as a whole. We are very happy to see this relationship maintained for another three seasons.
"We welcome BT as a new Premier League broadcast partner. They are a substantial British company that is at the leading edge of technology and infra-structure development. They are clearly investing in quality content to use on their platforms and when combined with the reach and pull of Premier League football they will deliver new ways in which fans will be able to follow the competition.
"These are exciting times for both the football and media worlds and we should all be proud of the value both industries contribute to the UK culturally and economically.
"I would also like to place on record the Premier League's thanks to the numerous other highly credible bidders that showed such interest in the live UK rights."
The deal represents an increase of £1.25bn on the current broadcast settlement, which shares rights between BSkyB and ESPN.
After the TV rights announcement, Scudamore expressed his belief that the revenue generated by the deal will help the Premier League continue to have competition from top to bottom.
"The money is not just put into the hands of the top three or four clubs," he added. "The way this money is divided means our smallest clubs are able to compete and, on a match-to-match basis, take on the big clubs.
"In our league that happens more than anywhere else and as long as we can still have teams in the bottom three beating teams in the top three every season then we have a compelling competition. And as long as that continues, people will continue to want to invest in buying that content."
Scudamore also said this news will assist Barclays Premier League teams when they compete against clubs from other countries which do not have the same method of selling television rights.
“Our challenge under a collective selling model is to try to make sure that our top clubs are able to compete with the top clubs that have got an individual selling model,” he said.
“I am pleased that this will take our clubs up a notch closer to those clubs who benefit from that individual selling model, say in Spain.”
Scudamore added that one of the major benefits of the new contract will be to provide financial security for Premier League clubs until 2016.
"The idea that you can plan with some certainty what your revenues are going to be for the next four years is a very, very useful thing in terms of creating stability," he said.
"You need money in football to invest, firstly in playing talent and therefore an element of this of course will enable clubs to do that.
"But I think we are entering a new era in football, with Financial Fair Play and with general attention to cost constraint, and therefore I am really hoping that it will get invested in other things besides just playing talent, things like stadia infrastructure and youth development.
"It will enable some teams to retain and attract talent but it should also be able to achieve sustainability. That’s the most important thing, that clubs can become ever more sustainable on the basis of this."
(source -http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2012-13/jun/premier-league-announces-audio-visual-rights.html)
