The Premier League has this evening announced their new TV rights deal beginning in 2016. While the Premier League has long been the big fish when it comes to raking in TV money, this new deal firmly blows everything else out of the water.
Premier League domestic TV rights sold for a, frankly astonishing, £5.136bn. Wow.
— Ben Smith (@BSmith) February 10, 2015
The Premier League were selling seven separate packages that were open to bidders and once again it is Sky and BT who dominate. Of the seven packages up for grabs, Sky have secured five, with BT securing the final two.
Sky will show 126 live games of the 168 up for grabs. The 42 games that BT have secured the rights to is an increase on their 38 games at the moment.
Sky will have the first ever Friday night games as well as Saturday afternoons, Sunday afternoons and the now traditional Monday Night Football. BT will now broadcast the late afternoon games on Saturdays as well as some midweek fixtures.
Under the previous deal Sky paid £2.3bn for 116 matches with BT paying £738m for 38 games. Now, Sky will pay £4.176bn, with BT's bill coming in at £960m. All told the Premier League are increasing their domestic TV revenue by an astonishing 70%.
