EPL TV: £100m more for lower leagues
May 12, 2021
The English Premier League (EPL) has agreed UK government demands to boost funds for lower leagues in return for permission to roll over its existing £5 billion (€5.8bn) broadcast rights deal with Sky, BT and Amazon.
The top division approved a deal designed to underwrite their lockdown-hit finances, reports the FT. The Premier League wants to sell its domestic rights for seasons 2022 and 2025 to its existing partners on roughly similar terms to those in the current deal that was signed in 2018.
The EPL is playing safe rather than risk pitting broadcasters against each other in rights auctions, helping to stoke the steady inflation of its multibillion-pound television deals. It must have been nervous some platforms would bow out cratering rights values, as has happened in some continental markets.
England’s top tier clubs accepted a government-brokered compromise as the new media contract guarantees TV income over the coming years. Approval was conditional on the lower league subsidy ‘solidarity payment’ boost of £100 million taking the total to £140 million.