Premier League 2020/21

[Lineker]

Quote

The Premier League has announced it has renewed a £4.8bn TV rights deal with its existing partners Sky, BT and Amazon, avoiding an auction that could have led to hundreds of millions being wiped off the value of the next deal.

The league has been in talks for months with its existing UK broadcast partners and the government, which has the power to block direct deals on competition grounds, as the cooling market for sports rights left it facing a £500m-plus drop in the value of the next deal if it went to auction.

The rollover deal, which spans the 2022 to 2025 seasons, will include an extra £100m of trickle-down funding. “This additional £100m will be provided over the next four years only, and will extend support to areas of the football community particularly vulnerable to the impacts of Covid-19,” the league said.

“The additional funding will be available to more than 1,000 clubs in the National League system, women’s and girls’ football, EFL League One and League Two clubs and the Football Foundation. It will also support a number of football-wide projects, which will include the Premier League’s work looking at head injuries in football, anti-discrimination and fan groups who receive funding from the Premier League.”

Ministers have agreed in principle to the deal to help protect clubs’ finances from further strain. Lost ticket sales and rebates to broadcasters over cancelled matches are estimated to have cost clubs up to £2bn, but the government wanted guarantees that the Premier League will funnel more money to harder-hit teams in lower divisions.

“It comes at an important time and will enable us to plan ahead with increased certainty against a more stable economic backdrop,” said Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive, who added that the league was “hugely appreciative” of the government’s position. The deal also includes non-live rights with BBC Sport.

The Premier League’s move away from an open auction comes as the League has seen a drop in the value of its rights. Analysts had forecast that in the next auction the total value could fall by anything from £500m to as much as £900m, following a decade of hyper-inflation as Sky and BT battled for football supremacy.

At the last auction in 2018 overall takings came in about £600m lower than the previous record of £5.1bn, the first decrease since the 2004-05 three-year cycle of rights.

Comcast, which took over Sky in a £30bn deal three years ago, has accelerated the TV company’s move away from bidding big on sports rights.

Philip Jansen, who succeeded Gavin Patterson as BT chief executive in 2018, has also made it clear the telecoms company wants to focus on its £12bn rollout of full fibre broadband and on a new 5G mobile network over controlling expensive sports rights.

Last month the company confirmed it is seeking a strategic partner for the pay-TV business BT Sport, which has lost an estimated £2bn and is barely profitable, to defray the cost of sports rights deals and focus on its core business.

Three years ago Sky and BT ended a nearly decade-long dispute to strike a channel-sharing deal so customers could watch all Premier League games without being forced to buy separate TV packages. This reduced the need to bid big or miss out on the best games, and BT declared it was happy to operate as a “viable second” competitor to Sky in sports broadcasting.

The Premier League has attempted to attract new, deep-pocketed Silicon Valley bidders; at the last auction it offered rights to packages of games designed to appeal to a streaming company. But the initiative failed with Amazon finally stepping in to pay only £90m over three years to stream 20 live games a season.

Last month, the sports streamer Dazn, owned by the billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik, agreed a €2.5bn deal for Italy’s Serie A rights from 2021 to 2024, ousting Sky Italia as the main broadcaster.

The German Bundesliga saw the total value of its TV sports rights drop by about 5% in deals struck last summer for the four years from 2021.

 

[Hobo]

3 hours ago, Tigerstyle said:

So, I just read some click bait. Apart from Man City, every league winner since 2014 hasn’t made the following seasons top 4, that’s mad.

Add to that the fact that when Man City retained the title in 18/19 they were the first team to do so since Man Utd in 08/09.

I think it demonstrates just how hard the league is to win and that its even harder to retain the title.

[Szumi]

I hate that the talk is now Liverpool can qualify for Champions League if we win our last 4 matches. I don't think we've won 4 straight league matches this season. It's like, has anyone see us play this season? 😞

[DavidMarrio]

Can we have our 3 points please? 

[Baddar]

 

[Gazz]

Man Utd vs Liverpool is going to end up being played in Portugal too.

[DavidMarrio]

12 minutes ago, Baddar said:

 

Only when it's against Liverpool. Don't do protests on Tuesdays apparently.

5 minutes ago, Gazz said:

Man Utd vs Liverpool is going to end up being played in Portugal too.

Take it to Bucharest. Got an unbeaten home record there 

[Hobo]

So, there's Utd fans protesting their owners by... singing songs about Liverpool fans...

Not sure how that one works, lads.

[Benjamin]

3 hours ago, Szumi - A Polack said:

I hate that the talk is now Liverpool can qualify for Champions League if we win our last 4 matches. I don't think we've won 4 straight league matches this season. It's like, has anyone see us play this season? 😞

Well, we are the only team that hasn’t lost a match in our previous five match span 😒

[DavidMarrio]

58 minutes ago, Hobo said:

So, there's Utd fans protesting their owners by... singing songs about Liverpool fans...

Not sure how that one works, lads.

Tory Tory Man United!!!!! 

Fuck them. Was all for supporting them in their protests... Moan about your owners, sing about poverty. Cunts

 

[Szumi]

Just no confidence in front of goal. Can't believe Bobby didn't shoot that.

[The Lusophone]

Fuck those fans for singing that, but let's not pretend it reflects all or most of those there protesting.

[Baddar]

I legitimately don't get the fuss about that. Bailly kicks the ball away and his leg is planted after the momentum, and apparently that's a pen? Is it because he's usually a bit rash that it should automatically be given?

[Benjamin]

I fucking love Nat Phillips

[Colly]

Just now, Baddar said:

I legitimately don't get the fuss about that. Bailly kicks the ball away and his leg is planted after the momentum, and apparently that's a pen? Is it because he's usually a bit rash that it should automatically be given?

I thought the same, nothing more than a coming together and he only really taps the side of the Liverpool players shin pad. Baffled by the commentary.

[Liam]

2 minutes ago, Baddar said:

I legitimately don't get the fuss about that. Bailly kicks the ball away and his leg is planted after the momentum, and apparently that's a pen? Is it because he's usually a bit rash that it should automatically be given?

I mean, he clattered the player after getting the ball. Getting the ball shouldn't be the be all and end all of a challenge, which it often has become. 

I don't think it is a stonewall one by any means, yet I do think that once you give it, the touch on the ball (which I'm going to assume the ref saw) shouldn't be enough to overturn it.

[Baddar]

I don't know where he's supposed to go or what he's supposed to do after winning the ball. He can't stop his momentum completely dead. If a more assured defender makes that tackle I don't think there's this much fuss being made tbh.

[Nerf]

I'm genuinely baffled as to how people aren't seeing Bailly going studs up at shin height. It's a red card challenge anywhere else on the pitch.

[Summers]

IMO that was never a penalty. 

Not even close to being a foul.

[Colly]

7 minutes ago, Liam said:

I mean, he clattered the player after getting the ball. Getting the ball shouldn't be the be all and end all of a challenge, which it often has become. 

I find this a really strange take, if anything the game has gone in completely the opposite direction in recent years. This new obsession with still images and super slow motion without seeing the context of the couple of seconds of play means we've had ridiculous decisions like the Balbuena one the other day.