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indiantelevision.com Team
MUMBAI: The English Premier League has reaffirmed its position as the most popular football league in the world following a record breaking television deal worth ?3.018 billion with pay TV broadcaster Sky Sports and British Telecom for the UK market.
BSkyB, which has built its British sports broadcasting business on the back of Premier League, has secured five of the seven packages totalling 116 matches while British Telecom has secured two packages totalling up to 38 matches for seasons 2013/14 to 2015/16.
The deal represents an increase of ?1.25 billion on the current broadcast settlement, which shares rights between BSkyB and ESPN, which has lost out on the rights this time around despite a strong bid. Sky will fork out ?2.3 billion for the audio-visual rights over the three year period, while BT will pay ?738 million.
ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has the exclusive rights to broadcast the Barclays Premier League (BPL) on multiple platforms in 18 markets across Asia including: India, Indonesia, East Timor, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, North & South Korea, The Philippines, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and in partnership with Astro for Malaysia & Brunei.
Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore said, "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."
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