Current domestic broadcasters Sky and BT "could face competition" from the likes of Google and Apple pushing cost of each screened match to £7M ($11M), according to Andy Dunn of the London DAILY MIRROR. In six months’ time, the Premier League will sign another record-breaking TV deal and the "scramble to stay in the Premier League will take on a fresh, desperate dimension." The figures "look certain to boggle the mind." The current agreement does not expire until the end of the '15-16 season, but TV companies "are already preparing themselves for an auction" that is set to shatter the £4B ($6.4B) barrier. That would mean "Premier League matches being sold domestically for a staggering" £7M per game. Exact details of the process have not been formally announced but broadcasters and Premier League execs are getting ready for the bidding war, which is likely to start "very early in the New Year." Industry experts "expect it to be a showdown between Sky and BT Sport, with the aggressive spending of the latter pushing the value of the domestic rights" above that £4B figure. That would mean "the reward for a club staying in the Premier League would grow" beyond the £100M ($160M)-a-season mark. It is still possible that "other companies might join the fight for rights but the most likely scenario is that it will be a question of how the deal is divided between Sky and BT Sport." Currently, Premier League policy "is that no single buyer can have all the matches." In the existing deal, "there are seven ‘packages’ of games -- BT Sport have two and Sky have five" (DAILY MIRROR, 10/11).
TAKING A BREAK: In London, Jason Burt wrote in January, the process "will begin to agree the next set of multi-billion pound Premier League television rights." It is the ideal time for the Premier League and the FA "to push forward a plan that they both are prepared to agree on -- but have not yet discussed." The Premier League is willing to agree to it, "provided the FA scrap replays for the FA Cup." This season the FA Cup third round "is on Jan 3." If it was concluded that weekend, Premier League matches "could be pushed back a week, with the season finishing a week later -- or starting a week earlier -- to create a fortnight’s break." Neither the FA nor the Premier League, it seems, "are opposed to a two-week break which would be introduced after those Christmas and New Year fixtures." Contrary to some reports, the FA "is understood to not be fundamentally opposed to scrapping replays for the FA Cup third round, at least." Across Europe, leagues "play their last league games over the weekend before Christmas and then deliver a two-week winter break which allows players to rest." In France "it is three weeks and in Germany it can be up to five weeks" (TELEGRAPH, 10/12).
