Premier League Tries to Exit Media Rights Auction

The Premier League is asking British authorities for approval to skip out on this year’s scheduled media rights auction and keep its $6.53 billion deal in place for the next three years.

Rolling over the deals would mean keeping current terms set with Comcast’s Sky Sports, BT Sport, the BBC, and Amazon. 

Those terms, agreed upon in 2018, are worth 10% less than the media deal before it. Avoiding the 2021 auction would provide a bit of security for a league expected to lose roughly $2.8 billion by the end of the season.

But the proposed rollover may draw complaints from networks and could even violate competition law.

In March, Kevin Meyer, chairman of DAZN, told CNBC that the company is interested in Premier League rights after acquiring domestic Serie A rights in Italy. Sky, which previously held the contract, bid $2.65 billion; DAZN beat them out with $2.95 billion. 

DAZN recently denied any involvement in the short-lived European Super League.

Last year, in response to a move that was, like the Super League, heavily protested by soccer fans, the Premier League removed its pay-per-view systems with BBC and Amazon and returned to only airing live broadcasts.