BBC And Talksport Retain Premier League Rights
The BBC and commercial station talkSPORT have secured new radio rights deals covering football’s English Premier League for the next three seasons, from 2019/20 to 2021/22.
The BBC acquired four of the packages on offer, while talkSPORT retained the other three, with the two broadcasters maintaining their positions as the league’s radio rights partners in the UK.
The BBC, which will exploit the rights on its Radio 5 Live station, will continue to air the bulk of the matches, with around 140 games set to be offered per season. The BBC secured exclusive rights for Sunday afternoon matches at 2pm and 4.30pm and will also have the first pick of Saturday 3pm games. Additionally, the broadcaster will cover fixtures that take place on Friday, Saturday and Monday evenings.
BBC Sport Director Barbara Slater said that acquiring the four packages represented “excellent news for the BBC in an increasingly competitive radio marketplace.”
TalkSPORT, which will split coverage across its main station and talkSPORT 2 sister station, has become the exclusive rights-holder for Saturday 12.30pm matches – a commercial radio first. TalkSPORT also snapped up rights for 3pm and 5.30pm Saturday kick-offs and will have exclusive rights to matches that start at midday on Sundays.
Scott Taunton, Chief Executive of TalkSPORT’s parent company Wireless said: “We’ve consolidated our position as the Premier League’s only national commercial radio partner, winning more games and a key new slot on Saturday lunchtime, meaning we’re the only radio network delivering live coverage from the first kick to the final whistle on Saturday.”
TalkSPORT already has an exclusive global rights partnership with the Premier League that will run until the end of the 2021/22 season, with the station able to provide live and on-demand audio coverage of all 380 matches per season around the world, excluding the UK and Ireland.
The Premier League deal follows the arrival in January of Lee Clayton – formerly Head of Sport at the Daily Mail Group – as Head of talkSPORT, with a remit to consolidate and grow the stations’ rights portfolio. TalkSPORT also recently moved into new studios in The News Building of Wireless’ owner News UK.
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