English Premier League Signs New UK TV Deal with No Streaming Partners
Prime Video didn’t see value in pursuing more EPL soccer rights in the league’s next deal, which takes hold in 2025.
The English Premier League (EPL) has a new TV deal! Its broadcast rights in the United Kingdom have been locked up by Sky Sports, with a smaller package of games heading to TNT Sports. Notably absent in the new deal are streaming partners; unlike its current deal, which runs until 2025, the EPL’s next agreement won’t send any games to Prime Video.
- The EPL will get more money overall in its current deal, but less on a per-game basis.
- Apple was reportedly interested in pursuing English EPL rights, but backed away after reevaluating its sports strategies.
- Lack of streaming partners suggests perhaps more companies have taken Apple’s view about international exclusivity in sports rights.
No Amazon, No Problem?
The new EPL TV deal in the U.K. will run from 2025-2029, which is one year longer than its current deal. The league will collect £6.7 billion over the four-year course, which represents a 4% increase over its current pact. But the price per game has fallen significantly; the league will make £5.95m per match in the deal, as opposed to the £9.3m it currently collects.
Bucking a current trend in global sports rights, the deal will mean that EPL games are spread between fewer broadcast partners in its country of origin in its next deal. Games themselves be split only between TNT Sports, which will have a minimum of 52 annual games, and Sky Sports, which will show at least 215 matches per season, with the BBC retaining rights to show some highlights.
“The outcome of this process underlines the strength of the Premier League and is testament to our clubs, players and managers who continue to deliver the world’s most competitive football in full stadiums, and to supporters, who create an unrivalled atmosphere every week,” said Premier League chief executive Richard Masters.
Will Exclusivity be the New Pivot Point for Streamers?
One of the big reasons that Apple was not a serious player for EPL rights in the U.K. during the current bidding cycle was because it could not get the rights to stream games outside the U.K. as well. Initial reports from this spring suggested that Apple might want to get its hands on EPL games, but a few months later Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue told English newspapers that the company wasn’t interested in sports deals with such a singular audience.
“We’re a global company, we have customers in every country in the world, a large number of customers, and it’s not exciting for me to have something that [some] can have but [some] can’t have,” Cue told the Daily Mail. “I can’t justify throwing what I think are the best engineers in the world on a small subset product.
“In general, are we going to sign something, any league, that is to a specific country or a small subset of countries? I highly doubt we would ever do that,” he continued.
It’s possible that Amazon has adopted that philosophy as well, as it seems to have pivoted to UEFA Champions League rights in Europe as its next target. Amazon secured a small package of Champions League rights in the U.K. last year, and has held some rights to that league in Germany since 2019. It also streams UCL games in Italy, so it’s reasonable to assume it perceived the England-only prospects of a renewal with the EPL as just not enough of a value without a wider European audience.
The economics are somewhat different in the United States, where the size of the national broadcast audience is much bigger than in European countries. But live sports rights are expensive, and it is likely more streaming services will adopt the attitude that unless they can get some kind of exclusivity in deals, they will stay out of the bidding. Such an attitude will likely become more prevalent when Disney launches a streaming version of its ESPN family of channels in 2025, as none but the largest streaming outlets will see themselves as able to compete with the ESPN brand.
Amazon is also reportedly very interested in taking a big swing at NBA broadcast rights in the United States in 2025, so there are myriad reasons it could have decided to take a step back from EPL matches after 2025. English fans will likely enjoy having to seek games from fewer sources in the next deal, but it’s still a surprise to see a sports deal with no primarily-streaming partners in 2023.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.