Premier League Reviewing Russian Media Deals

The Premier League is considering terminating its media rights deal in Russia as companies continue to pull out of the country over its assault on Ukraine.

League CEO Richard Masters said that its deals were “clearly under review.”

• The Premier League’s current deal, which runs to the end of this season, is with Rambler Media, a subsidiary of state-owned Sberbank. Sberbank is under sanction in the U.K. and U.S. following the invasion of Ukraine.
• The deal, which brings games to streaming platform Okko Sport, is worth a reported $7.7 million annually.
• The Premier League has a six-year deal beginning in the 2022-23 season with Match TV, owned by Gazprombank, which is also under sanction in the U.K. and U.S.
• That deal is reportedly worth around $54.7 million in total.

International Draw

The Premier League has enviable international appeal: Its foreign broadcast rights deals will total more than its domestic ones for the first time in the 2022-25 cycle.

Its six-year U.S. rights deal with Comcast, reportedly worth $2.7 billion, helped bump the league’s international set to $7.2 billion, compared to $6.9 billion in domestic rights.

The league is also auctioning off its NFT licenses for around $600 million.