- New agreement to run until 2031
- International rights fuelled growth of Premier League commercial revenue for 2025 to 2028 cycle
The Premier League has reportedly signed a UK£450 million (US$610.7 million) media rights extension to its South American and Caribbean rights arrangement with ESPN until 2031.
According to the Guardian, the new agreement represents a 25 per cent revenue uplift on the current deal, which was signed last year and expires at the end of the 2027/28 campaign.
The Premier League informed clubs about the new agreement with ESPN at last week’s shareholders meeting, where it also presented a proposal around centralising in-pitch advertising and expanding its roster of commercial partners.
The extension comes as the league looks ahead to its next media cycle, with most international broadcast deals set to expire in 2028. The English top-flight recorded a revenue increase of 17 per cent for global and domestic commercial and broadcast deals for the 2025 to 2028 cycle, achieving a total of UK£12.25 billion (US$16.62 billion).
Growth in the current cycle was largely fuelled by international media rights, with the cost per game falling in its domestic agreements with Sky Sports and TNT Sports, which are worth UK£6.7 billion (US$9.09 billion) over four years.
Despite the fall in its per-game value, this was still a record deal for the Premier League, which increased the number of games made available for domestic broadcasters from 210 to a minimum of 268.
Going forward, the Guardian reports that the Premier League has since started talks with the English Football League (EFL) about lifting the Saturday 3pm domestic blackout for its next domestic broadcast cycle from 2029 onwards. This would allow the league to sell all 380 games in its season and increase the value of its contracts.
SportsPro says…
The Premier League many only be in the first year of a new media cycle but it has no intention of resting on its laurels. While domestic growth might be harder to come by, this lucrative deal with ESPN for South America suggests that broadcasters around the world are still willing to pay significant sums for its rights, given the global fandom of the league and its teams.
Larger deals similar to this agreement with ESPN will help separate the English league from other European domestic soccer competitions, who lag significantly behind in international media rights revenue.
The Premier League will now be able to turn its attention elsewhere, including to the US, where it has a lucrative deal with NBC worth US$450 million per season that is set to expire in 2028.
As platforms multiply, audiences fragment and media rights deals plateau, it’s time to understand what’s really going on in sports media. Join us at SportsPro London this April to learn more.
