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The Premier League has kicked off a multibillion-pound auction of rights to show its football matches in the UK, with a revamped offer of five packages covering about 270 games per season designed to boost income.
The move comes as fresh setbacks in the rights auctions for French and Italian football have raised concerns over broadcaster appetite to show the sport and dashed hopes among clubs for a bumper financial windfall.
The Premier League on Wednesday said it would sell five live-rights packages of between 42 and 65 matches every year for a four-season term. No single buyer will be allowed to acquire more than four of the packages, which will span Friday to Monday. The longstanding 3pm “blackout” on Saturdays — when no games are broadcast to encourage attendances at lower league matches — will be kept.
Broadcast and club executives said the plans to extend the duration of the deal from three to four years, and have fewer, bigger packages were designed to boost the money raised. Income from a sale will be split largely between the clubs that comprise the Premier League.
The previous auction, which was rolled over during the pandemic, raised about £5bn. Bids are expected from Sky, DAZN and TNT Sports, which is jointly owned by BT and Warner Bros Discovery.
Even so, the price per game may still fall, according to broadcast executives, who point to the struggles French and Italian football authorities have had in selling their rights for next year.
The French football authorities have received no bids that hit the reserve price for the auction of packages of its football rights, according to multiple broadcast executives involved in the process.
Potential broadcasters including streaming service DAZN, Qatari-owned pay-TV channel beIN Sports and Amazon are now expected to enter direct talks with the Ligue de football professionnel to try to strike a deal outside of the formal auction process.
The LFP may also try to coax pay-TV player Canal+, its one-time biggest broadcast partner, back to the table despite tension in the relationship in recent years. Canal+ declined to comment.
Two people familiar with the matter said the French league operator had hoped to generate more than €1bn a year from its domestic and international rights, but analysts reckoned that was always a stretch.
The French football authorities called for “qualitative offers’‘ and details of financial packages from DAZN and beIN this week, but neither reached the level set for the auction to begin. Amazon did not submit a bid either but was not required to as the current rights owner.
One broadcast executive with knowledge of the process said the French league had been “too ambitious” in its objective to raise money from the sale of its rights.
He added: “The steam has really come out of the market for European football rights — these are mature markets, and there are challenging financial circumstances for both bidders and customers.”
Meanwhile, a decision on offers made by broadcasters Sky and DAZN to show Italian football domestically has been delayed by another week.
An auction of Italian football rights broke down over the summer, again leading to direct talks between the broadcasters and the football league. Serie A clubs met this week to evaluate the offers but have again delayed the decision until Monday. Two people familiar with the process said the current offer was lower than the existing deal the clubs have with the two broadcasters.
Italian clubs have also received several offers to create their own dedicated TV channel, said two people involved in the process.
The LFP and Serie A declined to comment.
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