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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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