The English Premier League is one of the most popular leagues in the world. Its popularity not only spans the United Kingdom and Europe, but into Asia where millions of fans watch the league’s fixtures every weekend. Of course, the EPL has a loyal legion of fans here in the United States.
Every three years, the EPL puts its TV rights to bid and it causes a frenzy among the TV networks in the United Kingdom. It announced that it’s adding a series of 10 Friday games to its packages beginning in the 2016-17 season which would make the league even more money. The league puts seven TV packages out to bid with no one network allowed to win more than five. In the UK, Sky Sports and BT Sport share the broadcast rights in the United Kingdom. As you’re aware, NBC has the rights in the United States.
From the Daily Mail:
From August 2016 broadcasters will be able to show 168 games live, a huge 44 per cent of all top flight matches throughout the season.
The announcement is an increase from the current deal, which allows 154 matches per year, and ran from the beginning of last season.
Under the new offer no single broadcaster will be able to show more than 126 of the live matches, with at least two of the seven packages of games to be shown on other channels.
One interesting thing is that of the 380 games that are played in the EPL each year, only 154 are available on TV across the UK. The new package of games would increase that amount to 168, but the policy of blacking out the 3 p.m. UK/10 a.m. ET fixtures will continue. We’re not affected here as NBC airs those games via NBCSN and the Extra Time overflow channels and all of the 380 fixtures over its platforms.
The Friday game would be a revolutionary idea and be similar to the NFL’s Thursday night package which opens the week. However, with many European competitions including the UEFA Champions and Europa league games plus various international friendlies, the Friday games won’t be played every week, but for English football fans, it would add another night to watch their favorite sport.
The UK round of bidding is expected to be completed by February with Sky, BT, and even Al-Jazeera Sports ready to submit their proposals. Once that is done, the EPL will then focus on its global rights.
NBC’s rights expire after the 2015-16 season and once the bidding for the United States contract begins, NBC will not only look to retain the rights, but ESPN and Fox which previously held the contract will also look to bid once again. An NBC Sports spokesman told Awful Announcing that it anticipates the next round of bidding, “We have an excellent partnership with the Premier League and look forward to continuing the relationship.”
When asked by Awful Announcing to comment about the upcoming bid, ESPN said it would not comment and Fox did not respond to an e-mail seeking a statement.
The bid for the new set of rights will certainly bring plenty of cash to the EPL’s already full coffers. In addition to live games, the league has an agreement for a highlights program with the BBC (Match of the Day) and is also expected to put those rights to bid pitting the venerable network against its rival ITV.
So as the English Premier League looks to the next round of three year contracts, it knows there will be plenty of perspective bidders not just in the UK and the US, but all over the world. It will be interesting to see if the EPL elects to go with the US incumbent in NBC or decides to return to ESPN/Fox.
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