The Premier League will switch back to its normal UK broadcast model from next season, despite stadiums being expected to remain at least partially shut in the coming months, according to the Athletic, reports, www.sportspromedia.com/.
Having resumed on 17th June behind closed doors, the league reached an agreement with its live game domestic broadcast partners, pay-TV's Sky Sports and BT Sport, as well as streaming platform Amazon Prime, to show every one of the 92 remaining games live across the three broadcasters.
As part of the deal, 25 of Sky's matches were made free-to-air (FTA) online and on the Sky Pick channel. The BBC also got four live games, with Southampton's win over Manchester City on 5th July becoming the most watched Premier League game ever attracting a peak audience of 5.7 million viewers for the public service broadcaster.
However, the Athletic reports that this was a one-off move and despite Covid-19 likely restricting fans attending live Premier League matches it will go back to its pre-pandemic broadcast model for the next campaign.
It means Sky, BT and Amazon will retain their live games as per their original deals, with the BBC also continuing to televise highlights. The Premier League's domestic broadcast deal is worth UK£5 billion (US$6.3 billion) for the 2019/22 cycle.
