THE Premier League has announced the sale of five of its seven TV packages to Sky and BT for a whopping £4.46billion.
And with two more up for grabs, it appears that a couple of fresh faces are about to come on the radar for British football fans.
Here SunSport takes you through what has happened and what the TV deal means…
What is this new Premier League TV deal and when does it come into affect?
The corporation that runs the top flight of English football has sold the rights to show its matches for a three-season cycle running between 2019 and 2022.
Seven packages were up for sale, with Sky Sports taking four so far and BT Sport landing another.
Sky have committed to pay £3.579bn in total to show 128 live games per season – two matches more than they do at present.
BT will pay £885m to show 32 Premier League matches a season, which is ten games less than they currently do.
It means a stonking 200 out of 380 games will be televised each season.
The new TV deal sees Sky and BT swap their slots on Saturday, with Sky also landing the new batch of Saturday night games.
The total figure of £4.46bn is less than the combined £5.14bn the duo forked out for 168 live games in 2016 for a three-year period – but there are two packages still unsold…
NEW PREMIER LEAGUE TV DEAL
Sky Sports – four packages totalling 128 games
– 32 games on Saturdays at 5.30pm (Package B)
– 24 games on Sundays at 2pm and eight games on Saturdays at 7.45pm (Package C)
– 32 games on Sundays at 4.30pm (Package D)
– 24 games on Mondays or Fridays at 8pm and eight games on Sundays at 2.30pm (Package E)
BT Sport – one package of 32 games
– 32 games on Saturdays at 12.30pm (Package A)
Still to be sold – four packages totalling 40 games
– 20 games from one Bank Holiday and one midweek programme (Package F)
– 20 games from two midweek fixture programmes (Package G)
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Does this mean Amazon and Facebook can still take a slice of the pie?
Absolutely – the remaining two packages look perfect for streaming specialists.
The as-yet-unsold packages (F & G) essentially allow broadcasters the opportunity to show every game across four match nights.
While Sky could possibly buy them to offer as a red-button interactive service, the fact they have not already done so suggests a new player is set to come into the market.
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Amazon and Facebook look the key players, but Twitter and Netflix could also bid.
Amazon has already made a move into the tennis market with UK Prime members able to watch 37 World ATP Tour events and the US Open tennis.
Facebook unsuccessfully bid to show five years of Indian Premier League cricket and has showed the ICC Champions Trophy in some countries.
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