Premier League Chairmen Meet For TV Rights Carve-Up

The chairmen of the top twenty English football clubs are meeting today to discuss the future of the Premier League’s broadcasting rights. It has been predicted that the price of the renegotiated terms could reach as high as £2bn.

The proposals under discussion today are expected to split TV rights into 18 parts, with parties able to bid for matches played on a particular day of the week. There are also likely to be options for rights to highlights and pay-per-view. This will see an end to the monopoly on TV broadcasting held by BSkyB for the past four years.

BSkyB is likely to be amongst the media groups bidding for the new rights packages. Other expected bidders include ONdigital and NTL, but the terrestrial channels have not been ruled out, especially for highlights packages.

Another topic up for discussion will be online rights. It would benefit the larger clubs if these, along with rights to show highlights, were unbundled. This would allow clubs like Manchester United to enhance revenue from ventures such as websites by showing clips. However, smaller clubs would benefit if the rights remained bundled and revenues shared.

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