BSkyB on Friday concluded negotiations with the Premier League, scooping the rights for five of the six live rights packages available - the maximum it can acquire under the bidding guidelines – while rival Setanta acquired the remaining package.
The agreement allows BSkyB to show 115 matches each season, up from 96 under the present deal. It will pay £1.623 billion over the three years, up from £1.314 billion. The five packages include 38 first-choice matches as well as the large majority of second-choice matches.
Setanta has been awarded one package of 23 matches per season, including eight second-choice matches and 15 fourth-choice matches, which will be shown on Saturdays at 5.15pm. It is paying £159 million, a big drop from the £392 million it pays currently. Setanta shows 46 matches under the present deal which expires at the end of the 2009-10 season.
Overall, the Premier League will bring in £1.782 billion for live rights over the three-year period, 2010-11 to 2012-13, a 4.5-per-cent increase on the present three-year deals, a good result for the league considering most observers had considered that the league would do well to bring in the same amount.
"The higher content costs are an incremental 80 million pounds per year on our forecasts, if we assume Sky can generate an additional 10 million per year in advertising, this would translate to around 8 percent cut to our 2011 EPS forecasts," RBS said in a note to clients. "Overall, this is positive news from a competitive stand point, extending Sky's grip on football content ... but it's more downgrades."
