News International Obtains Football Rights
The Premier League has awarded domestic near-live clip rights to News International for all 380 league fixtures from next season, until the 2015/16 season. The UK package includes internet and mobile rights to audio-visual clips from all the games, all of which can be shown in-game except for matches that begin at 3pm on Saturdays – with highlights of those games available from 5pm that day.
The rights are likely to be syndicated to newspaper websites, but according to media reports, it remains unclear if News International will keep them in-house.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: ‘We are extremely pleased with this exciting development that sees News International, traditionally a newspaper publishing organisation, move further into the digital media space through the acquisition of our UK Near-Live clip rights.’
‘In a world in which all forms of media are looking at their digital offerings, and given the extensive coverage that News International publications give to the Barclays Premier League, we believe this partnership will see football fans able to consume the best Premier League action in innovative ways.’
It is the first time this package has been sold in this form, with mobile and internet clip rights previously split between ESPN and Yahoo respectively.
Mike Darcey, chief executive officer of News International, added: ‘This is a major breakthrough for the company, allowing us to combine our rich heritage with cutting edge technology to transform the experience we are offering our subscribers. They will now have access to the most compelling moments in the most competitive football league in the world at a time, place and format that suits them.’
‘In a rapidly changing industry, this is an unprecedented moment and a testament to the pioneering attitude of which we can be proud. Once again we are leading the way with innovative technology, drawing on our journalistic heritage and our unrivalled world-class content.’
News International-owned BSkyB has also retained rights to extended highlights to 226 Premier League matches not shown live from the 2013/14 season, an offering currently packaged as the Football First show.
