BSkyB have secured five packages of domestic Premier League rights, with BT surprisingly taking the two other sets of live rights on offer, reports SportsPro. The total rights revenues was announced as £3.018 billion by the Premier League, a massive uplift of some 70 per cent on the previous UK£1.78 billion TV rights deal.
The figure is hugely impressive, despite 40 more games being on offer in this cycle, and means significantly more revenue for all Premier League clubs even before international rights deals, which are expected to be lucrative in their own right, are concluded.
The announcement means ESPN will no longer broadcast Premier League games in the UK beyond next season and that Al Jazeera, widely tipped as a contender, has failed to secure any rights for the 2013 to 2016 period.
BT, which will likely launch a new sports channel to broadcast games, has won the rights to 38 live games including Saturday lunchtime kick-offs. It will also broadcast bank holiday and midweek games. The company will pay £246 million per season for its packages.
BSkyB, meanwhile, has committed £760 million per year for the rights to 116 live games and will continue as the major television partner of the Premier League, a relationship that stretches back to the formation of the league 20 years ago.
It has won the rights to Saturday evening games, two packages of live Sunday matches and Monday evening fixtures meaning the continuation of its established 'Super Sunday' and 'Monday Night Football' brands.
The Premier League had released an Invitation to Tender (ITT) at the start of May for the domestic rights for three seasons spanning 2013 to 2016.
In May the BBC retained its Premier League highlights package until the end of the 2015/16 season in a deal worth £179.7 million), a 4.5 per cent increase on the previous equivalent agreement.
