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Premier League could cost Sky another £1.8bn

August 14, 2017

Sky could have to pay extra £600 million (€660m) per season for the next Premier League deal as Amazon emerges as a potential competitor, according to Citi Bank.

Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Netflix are all emerging as potential competitors for the rights, which are currently split between Sky and BT under a three-year deal.  An auction involving the cash-heavy tech firms has led analysts to estimate that Sky might have to pay a premium of up to 45 per cent on the near £4.2 billion it paid last time – an increase of £1.8 billion, or £600 million annually.

“We expect Sky to pay 40 per cent to 45 per cent more in the next Premier League rights auction,” Thomas Singlehurst, an analyst at investment bank Citi, who has rounded up his peers’ forecasts, told The Guardian. “The base case consensus [of Sky analysts] is that payments go up by £600 million a year from the 2019-20 season.”

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