World’s most viewed league, Premier League has gone to make a new record in football history by fetching £ 5.14 billion as a part of its new TV rights deal courtesy of Sky and BT Sport. The new deal is nearly a 71% increase to the present running deal. This deals ranges from seasons 2016-17 to 2018-19 for a period of 3 years.
The deal was made to telecast 168 games in the league as a whole, in which 126 games of the season will be broadcasted in Sky and the remaining 42 games will be broadcasted by BT Sport. Sky reportedly paid £ 4.18 Billion for their 126 games and BT Sport paid £960m for their reported 42 games deal. The deal meant i will cost around £10.2 Million for every Premier League match. Having already retained Champions League and Europa League for the next season for a whopping £ 897m, BT Sport paid enough to have a command over premier league games too. So what does this lucrative deal mean to Premier League and its clubs?
A bigger deal means bigger money for each club included. This deal would also mean that bottom placed club in 2016-17 Premier League season will earn nearly £99 million whereas champions get £156 million. This means that the bottom tier teams may not compete with the likes of Bayern, Dortmund on the pitch but can outscore them when it comes to income from the league.
This deal also means that Burnley is now economically bigger than Ajax. More money means clubs can play star players and the league will only get bigger day by day. With Premier league, standing just above Bundesliga in UEFA member associations rankings, the money inflow might be a major boost for English clubs to perform well at European level and dominate Champions League and Europa League.
This deal can also make fans pressurize clubs to reduce the ticket costs. Ultimately, the goal of the clubs should not be just the income but to manage good fan support in their stadiums during match days. Especially, the tickets for away fans in premier league are always sky-rocketing. This deal might just be ideal for clubs to lift some burden from the shoulders of their fans.