IN A sign that English football remains immune to the global financial crisis, satellite broadcaster BSkyB has retained the main domestic broadcast rights to live Premier League games in a three-year deal reportedly worth more than £1billion.
The Premier League announced late on Tuesday that Sky – controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation – had been awarded four of the six rights packages for 2010-13.
The league did not disclose the fee, but British media said the figure was ex
pected to be close to the £1.314billion Sky paid for the 2007-10 rights.
The four packages allow the subscription-television company to broadcast live coverage of 92 of the 138 matches available.
Bidding for the two other rights packages, which cover 46 games, will go to a second round.
Ireland-based Setanta, which currently holds the secondary rights, is reportedly competing against Disney-owned US giant ESPN. Sky could also be in the running for one of the remaining two packages.
Setanta paid £392 million for the two secondary packages in the current deal. Under European Commission rules, no single broadcaster can hold more than five of the six packages.
Under the latest deal, Sky will retain the first pick of matches and keep its premium slot, including games kicking off at 4pm on Sundays. The other two packages include late Saturday afternoon and Monday night matches.
Television income – which totalled £1.7 billion in domestic rights fees for the current three-year period – has swelled the league's coffers and helped clubs attract some of the world's highest-profile stars to England.
Last week, the league reached a deal with BBC for the 2010-13 highlights package for £173million, slightly above the current fee.
The overseas broadcast rights, which are also up for renewal in 2010, generated a total of £625million over the same three-year period when they were renegotiated in January 2007.
More than £5 billion has been poured into England's top-flight by TV companies since the formation of the Premier League in 1992, including Sky's initial rights deal of £304 million.
Sky has been the dominant broadcast player in the 17-year history of the Premier League, which bills itself as the most popular and lucrative domestic league in world football. Sky currently has about nine million digital satellite subscribers in Britain.
While some English clubs are saddled with debt and feeling the pinch of the recession, the latest television deal is further evidence that the Premier League's financial future is secure.
The 20 clubs spent a record £160 million during the January transfer window. The biggest spender was Manchester City, which is bankrolled by the oil-rich Abu Dhabi United Group and paid more than £50 million for players. It failed, however, in a world record £100 million bid for AC Milan's Kaka.
"The Premier League rights were every bit as important to Sky as Sky was to the Premier League," said Dan Jones, the head of business advisory firm Deloitte's sports business group. "It's a very good balanced relationship that has worked well for 15 years or so."
Jones said the new contract reflects England's successful policy of selling the rights collectively, with all Premier League clubs sharing the revenues.
"Right across Europe rights are holding up generally well, but the Premier League is starting from a position that is so far ahead of everybody else," he said.
