The Premier League has opened the bidding process for the next set of television rights covering the 2016-17 to 2018-19 seasons, which will see Friday night TV matches to return as part of the biggest ever package of live top-flight games ever offered.
In total, 168 live matches per season will be put on offer for the next three-year rights cycle, with the volume of live Premier League football set to increase from the 154 matches shown by Sky and BT under the current deal.
As under the previous deal, seven separate rights packages will be made available, but it is understood that the Monday night package will also include up to 10 games to be played on Friday nights.
The Premier League issued its tender document to all major broadcasters for the UK rights on Friday (December 12), which includes the sale of live games as well as free-to-air highlights.
The next domestic rights cycle will see an unprecedented 44 per cent of all Premier League games broadcast live on UK TV, with the auction set to herald another bumper pay-day for top-flight clubs.
168 live matches available in total – 14 more than are currently shown between Sky and BT, with the games divided into five packages of 28 matches and two packages of 14 matches.
No single broadcaster will be able to win more than five packages, or 126 matches in total, while there is also a guarantee that the second broadcaster must claim at least two packages and 42 games.
The announcement will fire the starting gun on what is likely to be a hard-fought contest between current live rights holders Sky Sports and BT Sport, but another factor could potentially be the entry into the bidding war of Qatar-based beIN Sports and US media giant Discovery, which owns Eurosport.
Whether or not another broadcaster steps into the battle for the UK rights, the stakes are likely to be raised even higher than the current recession-busting £3.018billion value of the current domestic TV rights, ensuring another record rights deal for the Premier League.
Alongside the bidding for rights to live matches, the Premier League’s tender document will also include bids for the free-to-air highlights package, with ITV expected to challenge the BBC, which has held the rights since 2004.
Despite the ongoing Ofcom probe into the sale of Premier League TV rights, which could take up to two years, the bidding process for live rights and the terrestrial highlights package is expected to be completed within the next four months, with a decision expected in March.
A separate bidding process will take place later for two other key Premier League packages – a ‘near-live’ package of 212 matches for on-demand, currently held by Sky, and an internet-based clips package for all matches, which are currently owned by News UK, though there is speculation that technology firms such as Apple and YouTube could enter the fray for these rights.
The Premier League has confirmed that the new rights sale would see the continued protection of the traditional Saturday 3.00pm ‘blackout’ period, which has been in place since the 1960s, whereby no games can be shown live on TV during the 2.45pm-5.15pm period.
Following rumours of Sunday night top-flight games being introduced, the new tender will include Friday TV matches for the first time in the Premier League era, though top-flight games were occasionally screened by the BBC and ITV on Friday evenings back in the 1980s.
This includes the famous 1989 title decider at Anfield when Arsenal stunned Liverpool to win the Division One title, a match which some consider to be the starting point for the exploitation of the untapped commercial potential of live football on television.
With most weekend slots taken for TV games, the Premier League is set to go head-to-head with Football League and other sports such as rugby union and rugby league which hold regular games on Friday nights.
Commenting on its new tender process, the Premier League said: “This creates an attractive offering for broadcasters and fans, whilst allowing the continued protection of the Saturday 3pm “closed period”, the purpose of which is to encourage attendances and participation at all levels of the sport at the traditional time at which English football takes place across the country.”
Top-flight TV football rights have soared since Sky paid a staggering £304m in a five-year deal back in 1992, comprehensively beating a rival bid from ITV, when the new Premier League was formed.
The 2014/15 season marks the second year of both broadcaster’s three-year multi-billion pound TV deal with the Premier League, with Sky again screening 116 live games from England’s top flight and BT showcasing 38 live matches during the course of the season.
Sky paid a record £2.3 billion for 116 live Premier League games for three years from 2013-2016, including 20 first picks from the 38 rounds of matches, while BT paid £758 million for 38 games, including 18 first picks, although Sky gets to choose when it wants to exercise its first pick choices.
As the rivalry between Sky and BT continues to intensify, the former will be desperate to maintain its more than two-decade-long stranglehold on Premier League football, having been ambushed BT Sport last for the rights to screen UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches, with the telecoms giant paying an eye-watering £897m.
ITV also lost out to BT in the battle for European football rights and it is thought the free-to-air channel, which held the rights between 2001 and 2004, is looking into putting up a strong challenge to take the terrestrial Premier League highlights rights away from the BBC.
The bidding process for both live rights and free-to-air highlights is set to run during early 2015 and football fans can expect an announcement in early March.
.
.
