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Comcast Renews English Premier League Soccer Rights for U.S.

Comcast Renews English Premier League Soccer Rights in the U.S.

Comcast Corp. renewed its U.S. rights to broadcast English Premier League matches starting in 2022, agreeing to pay almost three times more in a bet that soccer will continue to gain popularity.

The six-year contract is valued at more than $2.5 billion, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified, and reaffirms the league’s status as the most valuable soccer circuit in the world. Other bidders included Fox Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN.

Comcast, based in Philadelphia, is banking on continued growth in soccer audiences. Matches on its NBC stations averaged 879,000 viewers last season, up 2% from the previous year, according to figures from NBC Sports. Eight matches each averaged more than 1 million viewers during the season. The deal, which includes Spanish-language rights, covers all 380 matches per season.

“NBC Sports’ Premier League Mornings programming is now a real institution among supporters in America, with fans getting up early to come together and cheer on their favorite club,” Richard Masters, the league’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. 

While Comcast will air the biggest matches on traditional TV networks such as NBC and USA, the company is also relying on the EPL to draw millions of customers to its nascent streaming service, Peacock. The EPL has been one of the few consistent draws for Peacock, which has just a few million paid subscribers. EPL has been partnered with Sky in the U.K. since its inception three decades ago. Comcast bought Sky in 2018.

The contract will boost the EPL’s total domestic and overseas revenue next season, after domestic contracts with Sky, BT Sport and Amazon were rolled over. The only blemish for the EPL has been in China where a lucrative distribution agreement there came to a premature end. 

These new contracts will allow the EPL to give more money to clubs in lower leagues.

The Comcast deal should ensure that the EPL’s overseas rights will increase overall from 2022, according to Francois Godard, media analyst at Enders Analysis.

“This, and a couple of other notable licenses, including NENT in Scandinavia, Poland and Netherlands, and Telekom Srbija, more than make up for the drop in China,” Godard said.

Unlike its rivals at the Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A, the EPL managed to extend its lucrative contract in the Middle East with Qatar’s BeIN Sports. The Qatari broadcaster agreed to pay about $500 million for the right to broadcast EPL games, Bloomberg News reported in December.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.