PL games to shown on new channels next season after BT Sport rebrand
EXCLUSIVE BY MATT HUGHES: Sportsmail has learned that BT Sport and Eurosport will on Tuesday announce the creation of several new channels which will pool all their live sports rights.www.dailymail.co.uk
Not quite. The next rights sale will be for the 2025/26 season onwards and it's unlikely that the PL will sell to more than 3 broadcasters, at least it was reported in a recent Times article that the PL wouldn't sell to more than 3 broadcasters. The danger comes with the possibility of the PL selling to different broadcasters to those that have the CL rights.
I heard that DAZN/Apple tv were going to be trying to get the rights for PL matches in the UK , DAZN already has PL rights for live matches in North America and are just wanting to expand that to here. I could foresee the PL being Sky, DAZN and Prime, then if BT/EURO, Amazon and Apple end up with European games in some breakdown, for UK fans who want to have full coverage of PL and Euro matches it would mean payments to Sky, Prime, DAZN, BT/Euro and Apple. Not next year but sooner rather than later and inevitably so imo.
DAZN certainly do want PL rights, that was the main topic of the Times article I mentioned in my post however there's no guarantee that they'll get them. They were in negotiations to buy BT before BT and Discovery agreed their merger - ultimately the price proved too much for them and within the Times article I mentioned, they admit again that the numbers need to add up for them. There's an assumption that Apple will get involved too having recently agreed a deal for the MLS rights but it's far from certain that they'll bid, let alone outbid Sky, BT or Amazon.
I do think that Apple will struggle to make in roads into securing matches, DAZN I think are much more likely to be the company who move in, they've already got that PL connection and they have a vast number of subscribers and deep pockets, large enough on those two thing to rival SKY given half the chance. I suspect that by 2025 we'll be looking at 3 main channels for PL football (Sky primarily and then DAZN and Prime) , the other channels will probably chop up the Euro matches in some fashion. I could feasibly see one ending up with CL and one with the other Euro matches or something. I'd be willing to bet cash that by 2026 , if you are a football fan and want to see all comps, you'll end up needing 5 subscriptions. Would be nice really if they could all come together and do some sort of PL , Euro or PL + Euro subscription types , where you just get the matches across all the channels for 1 sub.
They certainly will and no doubt, as is the way, the huge monies involved on yet more TV companies dipping their fingers in will increase the effects of Sky et al financial input over the last couple of decades, on UK football
Must admit that I dont really. I usually hear the argument that it stops people going to the games but thats just not true, stadiums are still packed (unless you are Man City
) on matches that are televised and besides that only x number of people can fit in a stadium anyway and that x is hugely less than the number of people who want to see a match. What is the reason why 3pm kickoffs arent televised in the UK?Strictly speaking it was the attendance of the lower league teams that would suffer according to the dude the lobbied for the blackout when it was introduced in the 60's.Must admit that I dont really. I usually hear the argument that it stops people going to the games but thats just not true, stadiums are still packed (unless you are Man City
