Izuchukwu OkosiThe Premier League has agreed a new groundbreaking record broadcast deal worth £6.7bn for Sky and TNT to show up to 270 live games a season.
The deal also includes the BBC continuing to show highlights on Match of the Day.
The top flight said the deal, which covers the four years from the 2025-26 season to the 2028-2029 season is the “largest sports media rights deal ever concluded in the UK”.
Curiously, the Saturday 3pm blackout for the English audience will remain in place, but every 2pm Sunday kick-off will be televised.
The BBC’s deal includes MOTD2 and Football Focus plus additional digital rights for its online platforms.
Sky has been awarded four of the five packages and will show a minimum of 215 matches a season including Saturday 5.30pm kick-offs, Sunday 2pm and 4.30pm kick-offs, plus evening games on Mondays and Fridays and three midweek rounds.
TNT will show a minimum of 52 matches a season including all 12.30pm kick-offs on Saturdays and two midweek match rounds.
Sky Sports will also broadcast all 10 matches on the final day of each season.
Amazon, which shows 20 matches per season under the league’s current deal, has not secured rights in the new agreement.
This is the first time the Premier League has been through a tender process for its rights since 2018.
The current £5bn domestic TV rights deal, which was for three seasons and expires at the end of 2024-25, was allowed to be extended because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Premier League says the new agreement, which is a year longer, is a 4% rise in live rights value compared to the previous deal and will “provide financial certainty for clubs throughout professional football until at least 2029”.
“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 world’s most competitive football in full stadiums, and to supporters, who create an unrivalled atmosphere every week,” said Premier League chief executive Richard Masters.
Barbara Slater, Director, BBC Sport, said: “Match of the Day remains enduringly popular with audiences and this new agreement with the Premier League is brilliant news for football fans all over the UK.
“For almost 60 years it has been the UK’s most discussed football programme, delivering a complete digest of the weekend’s action and this enhanced deal with more digital content means we can tell the story of the Premier League every day across BBC Sport platforms.”
Sky will show up to 100 more matches a season, and chief executive Dana Strong said: “We are proud of our long history with the Premier League and look forward to delivering more engagement, entertainment, and innovation to the end of the decade.”
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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