[devo22]

in other news, that new TV deal is ridiculous. More than £5bn over 3 years ... wow.

Premier League football clubs and players were left rubbing their hands at another huge hike in income after competition between rival media companies Sky and BT drove an increase in their TV rights to more than £5.1bn.

The latest TV deal, which covers the three seasons from 2016-17, means that the two companies will pay an average of £10.2m per match, a 70% increase. Under the current deal they pay an average of £6.53m per game. BT will pay £960m over three years, a modest increase on their current £738m outlay, and Sky has paid almost £4.2bn, almost double the £2.3bn they paid last time. The total outlay from both companies is £5.14bn.

Sky, the pay TV giant that has seen its success umbilically linked to live top flight football since 1992, retained the greater share of matches – it will show 126 matches per season, the maximum allowed under the rules, and has retained its coveted Sunday afternoon and Monday night slots. It has also won the package that includes up to 10 Friday night matches for the first time.

But BT Sport, the challenger that drove a 70% increase in value under the current deal when it paid £738m over three years, increased the number of games it will be able to show from 2015-16 from 38 to 42. While Sky’s cost per a game has increased 70%, BT’s has only gone up 18%. Its packages include the Saturday tea-time matches, including nine “first picks”, and a mixture of midweek evenings. Its executives immediately claimed they had given Sky a bloody nose by forcing up the price it had to pay. But Sky will be relieved to retain its dominant position.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore refused to divulge how many bidders there had been but said it had been a “dynamic” process and that that it was “presented to by lots of people who would distribute in different ways”.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...-rights-sky-bt