FOR the first time the Premier League could show entire rounds of matches live on telly.
The league has issued the tender document for the TV rights to its fixtures for the 2019-22 seasons – and it will see Saturday night matches rival the likes of Strictly and The X Factor.
The deal could see all ten Premier League games in a weekly round of fixtures shown on television simultaneously.
reports that those games will be on a midweek or Bank Holiday round of fixtures.
So the gloves are definitely off in the battle for a share of the massive and lucrative weekend audience.
It seems the Premier League will make 200 of its 380 matches a year available – that’s 42 more than at present.
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Three rounds of midweek and one of Bank Holiday games will account for all but two of the additional fixtures.
The 2019 season will see the start of regular Saturday night Premier League football.
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Eight matches per season will be on offer under a three-year contract in which clubs are targeting an increase in the already sky high £5.14billion they earn from and for the existing rights.
Basically, the Telegraph says that 200 matches have been divided into seven packages, A to G, with the first five featuring traditional kick-off times and the eight Saturday 7.45pm games.
Packages A and B each feature 32 matches at Saturday 12.30pm and 5.30pm, respectively; C has 24 games at Sunday 2pm and eight at Saturday 7.45pm; D contains 32 matches at Sunday 4.30pm; and E is made up of 24 matches at Monday 8pm or Friday 7.30pm-8pm and eight at Sunday 2pm.
THE SEVEN PACKAGES AVAILABLE IN 2019-22 PREMIER LEAGUE TV DEAL
Package A
32 matches – Saturday 12.30pm
Package B
32 matches – Saturday 5.30pm
Package C
24 matches – Sunday 2pm. 8 matches – Saturday 7.45pm
Package D
32 matches – Sunday 4.30pm
Package E
24 matches – Monday 8pm or Friday 7.30-8pm. 8 matches – Sunday 2pm
Package F
All 20 matches – from one Bank Holiday and one midweek fixture programme
Package G
All 20 matches – from two midweek fixture programmes
Package F features all 20 matches, from one Bank Holiday and one midweek fixture programme. Similarly package G includes all 20 games from two midweek fixture lists.
This season there are only three midweek rounds at the end of November, mid-December and the end of January, with Bank Holiday rounds falling around Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
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Last month clubs gave the go-ahead for league executives to include both single rounds of midweek games and Saturday night fixtures in the tender for a probable auction in February.
At its quarterly shareholders’ meeting the league agreed to make at least half of their games available following an investigation by Ofcom into how it sells its television rights.
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The outcome is that using most of the extra games up in entire midweek rounds has emerged as its preferred method of doing so, with executive chairman Richard Scudamore ruling out additional Sunday slots.
It follows that midweek matches should help the league wrestle even more money out of its domestic broadcast partners, following 70 per cent hikes in each of the past two auctions.
Internet companies like Amazon and Facebook could rival Sky and BT in a bidding war that last time saw Sky pay £4.2 billion to keep the lion’s share of matches.