English Premier League: Sky secures additional tv rights
By Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw
It has been announced on 6 November, 2015 that SKY, the UK Pay-TV broadcaster, has secured additional TV rights to the English FA Premier League.
For the three seasons, 2016-17 to 2018-19, SKY has been granted the near-live extended TV highlights of association football’s most popular and lucrative League.
Under the new deal, SKY will be able to show extended highlights of 212 Premier League matches that are not shown live on television and, for the first time, fans will also be able to view these highlights on demand. In other words, on ‘catch-up’.
The new deal is in addition to SKY’s newly acquired mobile ‘clips’ from all 380 Premier League matches, as well as the live rights they already hold to 126 matches. These live rights are shared with BT Sport.
No figure has been disclosed for these SKY new TV rights!
This has been hailed by SKY Sports Managing Director, Barnet Francis, as providing fans with more ways of watching extended highlights of the League on TV.
But, the question has to be asked whether, from a competition law point of view, too much sports broadcasting power is being concentrated into too few hands!
Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw is an International Sports Lawyer, Academic and Author and may be contacted by e-mail at ‘This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ’
