The Premier League have announced the renewal of the league’s broadcast deal and an ‘additional £100m of funding’ for areas of the sport most impacted by the ongoing pandemic.
The announcement has confirmed a three-year renewal with broadcast partners Sky Sports, BT Sport, Amazon Prime Video and BBC Sport, with Premier League clubs having ‘unanimously agreed’ to the proposal.
In a statement on their official website, the Premier League has outlined its commitment to providing financial support to clubs throughout the professional pyramid and revealed the broadcast renewal allows the division to continue providing funding, thus giving ‘security and continuity throughout the pyramid until at least 2025′.
The broadcast renewal comes following approval in principle from the Government, whilst the approval from the Government will be ’embodied in an Exclusion Order under the Competition Act 1998, which will enable the Premier League to conclude the renewals without conducting its normal broadcast rights tender process’.
The agreement is the ‘same overall value as the current arrangements’ which sees the Premier League rake in around £4.8 million, and prevents a potential drop in broadcast income as recently seen in Germany and Italy, with some having suggested a potential drop of £500 million if the usual auction process would have gone ahead.
“The Premier League would like to express our gratitude to our broadcast partners for their continued commitment to the Premier League and support for the football pyramid,” said Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters.
“We are hugely appreciative of the Government agreeing in principle to allow this arrangement and for their continued support for the Premier League and the English game. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on football, and renewals with our UK broadcast partners will reduce uncertainty, generate stability and promote confidence within the football pyramid.
“We know that, once concluded, this will have a positive impact on the wider industry, jobs and tax revenues and will enable us to maintain and increase our existing solidarity and community financial commitments to the football pyramid for the next four years, even though we are yet to understand the full impact of the pandemic.
“It comes at an important time and will enable us to plan ahead with increased certainty against a more stable economic backdrop.
“Sky Sports, BT Sport, Amazon Prime Video and BBC Sport are excellent partners and provide fantastic coverage and programming to bring our competition to fans in the UK.”
Meanwhile, the £100m of ‘additional funding’ will be made available to ‘support to areas of the football community particularly vulnerable to the impacts of COVID-19’.
The statement says that more than 1000 clubs in the National League system, League One and Two, women’s and girl’s football and the Football Foundation and receive the additional funding over the next four years.
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