In early February, the EPL’s fortunes will become clear when the first tranche of new Premier League TV rights within the UK for 2019-2022 will be announced.
Last October Richard Scudamore, EPL, Executive Chairman failed to persuade clubs that 65% (instead of 100%) of overseas TV rights should be split among the 20 clubs, with the rest allocated on the basis of league performance.
The top six clubs wanted more and there has been debate that without a performance-linked distribution those clubs might look at establishing a breakaway league
The league wants an increase on the current £5.14bn UK television deal.
There are still to be seven packages (right now Sky holds five of the packages while BT has two) but there will be an increased number of matches available for live broadcast, up from 168 to 200 out of a total of 380.
The new rights are also composed in a different way to before. There will be three rounds of 10 live matches broadcast midweek, as well as one set of Bank Holiday matches and eight individual Saturday primetime games.
The seven packages are made up of five packages of 32 matches and two packages of 20 matches per season, with no single bidder allowed to buy more than 148 matches per season.
