Premier League TV rights sell for over £5bn

The Premier League is already the richest league in the world, and from 2016, it’s going to get even richer. The latest round of television rights, for the three seasons from 2016-19, have been sold for £5.136bn to Sky and BT.

To put that in some sort of perspective, this represents a 70 percent increase on the £3.38bn paid by both companies for the rights to games between 2013-16, and amounts to just over £10m per live game. Daily Mail journalist Nick Harris estimates that this will mean the bottom club in the Premier League, in 2016-17, will receive approximately £99m in prize money, while the champions will receive £156m. And this is before the rights to foreign broadcasts have been sold.

To put this in some other kind of perspective, last season — that’s before this new deal kicks in — Cardiff City, who finished 20th and were relegated, earned £74.5m in television money. That’s more than all top three Serie A clubs, more than all Spanish clubs except Barcelona and Real Madrid and more than every club in Germany and France.

How does this break down across the weekend and the season? Sky Sports will show a total of 126 live games, including Saturday’s lunchtime kickoff, two games on Sunday, one on Monday night and will also break new ground with Friday night fixtures. Meanwhile, BT show a further 42 Saturday evening and midweek fixtures, meaning that UK viewers will have access to a total of 168 games beginning in 2016-17.