Q: On December 4th the English Premier League announced new deals with Sky, TNT and the BBC for the next cycle of domestic rights. The combined value of the three deals will generate a total of £6.7bn in the four seasons between 2025 and 2029, including a 4% rise in the value of the live rights compared to the current cycle. What does this mean for Sky's role in the UK market?

Sky will no doubt be thrilled by the outcome of the auction. Sky has long held the rights to the bulk of the Premier League games available in the UK; under this deal, it’ll be able to show 215 live games per season, or 81% of all the games made available – a record high. There were no indications that Sky might have been dethroned in this auction; but being able to consolidate its position and offer customers more live games, without breaking the bank, will provide stability to the leading UK pay TV operator for the second half of the decade, as it continues to adapt its business model to the evolving TV and video market.

Q: Is the absence of Amazon Prime Video or DAZN among the successful bidders a surprise?

Amazon has generally been very tactical in selecting the sports rights it has acquired so far. The set of Premier League rights it currently holds – 20 live matches, all taking place in December – was perfect to further its strategic interests in the UK, particularly by driving growth in Prime memberships and boosting usage of its retail service at a crucial time of the year for shoppers.

For this cycle, however, the Premier League re-structured its packages in a way that no longer entailed a “December-only” deal. That, combined with the fact that Amazon had previously acquired the UK rights to a minority package of UEFA Champions League rights, meant that Premier League rights were possibly no longer seen as indispensable for the giant tech platform.

For DAZN, while it would have been thrilled to be able to show live Premier League games in the UK, the additional investment required would have complicated its plans to achieve profitability in the short term. What could be worrying DAZN, though, is how rivals have been careful to ward off attempts by new entrants to gain market share by getting the rights to major properties in the UK. Including this new Premier League deal, 80% of the sports rights market in the UK by value has already been acquired until 2027 – meaning that the likes of DAZN will need to find innovative ways to grow their portfolios and subscriber bases.

Q: How does this outcome in the UK market compare to other major football leagues’ recent domestic renewals?

While the 4% increase obtained by the Premier League in the upcoming rights cycle doesn’t sound that impressive –it pales in comparison to the ~70% increases that the league was able to secure in the early 2010’s – this is a positive outcome if compared to major football leagues around Europe, and if we look at the long-term trend. In Italy, for example, Serie A recently announced its new domestic rights deal, which saw a 3% decline in the headline figure, while LaLiga in Spain reported just a 1% growth in the value of its domestic rights almost two years ago. The Premier League had an ace up its sleeve, in that – unlike most other top football properties around the world – it has never made all of its live games available to broadcasters in the UK. This meant that it could increase the number of games on offer to galvanise bidders.

But what is becoming increasingly clear is that major sports rights holders in Europe are struggling to maintain the level of competitive tension required to spark bidding wars that would result in significant growth in the value of their rights. Those hoping that major streaming services would reignite growth in the value of sports rights in Europe will have to wait a few more years before meaningful opportunities for disruption in the domestic rights markets come up again.