Sky awarded exclusive live UK rights until 2016

The Premier League today confirmed that Sky has successfully secured
116 live matches per year for the seasons running from 2013-14 until
2015-16. As a result, Sky will continue to be the UK’s leading
Premier League broadcaster with more live matches than ever before.

Sky will pay £760 million per annum for the 5 packages of live
rights for each of the three years of the new Premier League
agreement. These start in August 2013 after the remaining year of
the existing agreements.

The deal means that Sky Sports will have the very best live Premier
League coverage for another four years. Viewers will continue to
enjoy Super Sunday and Monday Night Football, with Sky Sports able
to offer more of the best matches than any other channel, feature
more of the big head-to-head fixtures, and cover every club at least
four times a season.

The Premier League deal complements a series of recent rights
acquisitions and renewals – including the Football League, UEFA
Champions League, Formula One and England’s domestic and
international cricket – to ensure that Sky Sports remains the home
of sport, with the best line-up of sport on UK television.

Sky has been awarded live rights across all platforms – including
satellite, cable, IPTV, online and mobile. This means that, in
addition to TV, Sky customers will continue to benefit from live
Premier League coverage through Sky Go on PCs, laptops, smartphones,
tablets and games consoles. Coverage will also be made available on
Sky’s new internet TV service, NOW TV, which launches later this
year.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s Chief Executive, said: “This is a good result
for our customers and for our business. It means that Sky Sports
remains the home of Premier League football and that viewers will
continue to enjoy our live and exclusive coverage until at least
2016.

“We have never offered greater depth and breadth of coverage on Sky
Sports, with unprecedented live action right across the schedule. At
the same time we’re pushing ahead with more original British
content, extending our leadership as the UK’s favourite triple play
provider, and launching our new internet TV service, NOW TV, which
will give us even more ways to distribute our content.

“In what was a very competitive tender process, we are pleased to
have secured the combination of rights that we wanted, providing
certainty for us and our customers. Whilst the cost is higher, we
have capacity for this increase through the combination of excellent
work on cost efficiency across the business and choices over other
future spending. As a result, we remain confident of delivering our
financial plans, in line with our expectations, unchanged, in each
year of the new deal.”

Barney Francis, Managing Director of Sky Sports, adds: “The Premier
League has never been more popular with our customers so it’s
excellent news that Sky Sports viewers will continue to enjoy the
biggest and best games, including Super Sunday and Monday Night
Football. “Sky Sports viewers have never had so much choice of high
quality action. Alongside the Premier League, we have long term
agreements in place to show the best in live sport, including UEFA
Champions League football, European, Ryder Cup and US tour golf,
Test and one-day cricket and Formula One. At the same time, we’ll
continue to innovate in providing the best coverage possible.”

– ENDS –

Notes to editors

1) LIVE MATCHES:

Sky has been awarded the following packs:

B: 26 matches (mainly Saturday at 5.30pm)

C: 26 matches – Sunday at 1.30pm

D: 26 matches – Sunday at 4pm

E: 26 matches (mainly Monday at 8.30pm)

F: 12 matches – Saturday at 5.30pm

Total – 116 matches each season.

Sky will show 115 live and exclusive Premier League matches next
season (2012-13) in the final year of the existing Premier League
rights agreement.

2) RECENT RIGHTS:

Other recent rights agreements or renewals for Sky Sports include:

Formula 1 – all live races plus practice & qualifying sessions until
2018

UEFA Champions League – 129 matches per season until 2015

Football League – 90 Football League, Play-off and Carling Cup
matches per season until 2015

Scottish Premier League football – 30 matches per season until 2017

European Tour Golf – 28 Tour events and 4 World Championship events
each season until 2018

Ryder Cup – the Ryder Cup tournaments in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018

ECB Cricket – all England Test matches, one-day and Twenty20
internationals, 60 days of county cricket per season, and one-day
England Women fixtures until 2017

ICC Cricket – Men’s and women’s ICC Cricket World Cup, World
Twenty20 and Champions Trophy events until 2015

Rugby Super League – 30 matches per season until 2016.