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I don’t know whether this is good news or bad news.

It has been reported that Sky Sports will now air a minimum of 215 Premier League matches a season as part of a new domestic rights agreement which is worth a record £6.7billion writes Michael Talbot.

The broadcaster secured four of the five packages on offer in the Premier League’s latest domestic rights tender which will start in 2025-26, with TNT Sports netting the other package of 52 games.

PA News Agency understands Amazon – who show 20 matches per season under the league’s current deal – elected not to bid for any of the new packages  which run through to the end of the 2028-29 season.

The Premier League said the value of the agreements being announced, which also cover non-live rights, was £6.7billion !!, the largest sports media rights deal in UK history.

The current live TV deal, which runs through to 2024-25, has been reported to be worth £5billion over the three-year cycle.

Sky’s deal means it will screen up to 100 matches a season more than it currently does, the broadcaster said. It keeps hold of the key Super Sunday 4.30pm slot and will broadcast all 10 final-day matches for the first time.

TNT’s deal means it retains the 12.30pm Saturday slot and full coverage of two midweek match rounds. Inevitably SKY and TNT will probably put their subscriptions up, pricing more fans out of the market.

The deal also takes no account of the ancient decision to retain a blackout on Saturday afternoon games, engineered in the 60s by and large by Burney chairman Bob Lord.

The latest deal demonstrates this to now be a somewhat ridiculous scenario.

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

1 comment

  • Legin says:

    I don’t watch football on TV; doesn’t interest me as it doesn’t provide a full experience of the team performance. Although I enjoy the benefits of a season ticket I am getting a little tired of the game kowtowing to TV.

    Although only living 40 miles away all the Sunday matches mean I have to allow 2-3 hours to get to matches, 2 hours to get home (less frequent trains). Mid-week I’m crawling home at 12:30-1:00 am; great if you’re a 20 year old used to clubbing not so good when you are pushing 67!

    The timings are to accommodate TV, we play Thursday in Europe to accommodate TV, 12:00, 14:00, 17:00 on a Saturday or Sunday all to accommodatee TV. Changes to dates and times prevent long term planning for other activities, all to accommodate TV.

    All of this just reinforces that the supporters who attend matches are the least important people to the sport. All that matters is the TV money.

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