British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) has been awarded ‘near-live’ rights to 242 soccer games per season from the Barclays Premiership in a three-year deal covering the 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons. BSkyB has acquired the rights in a joint bid with British Telecom. These rights enable BSkyB to offer full delayed coverage or extended highlights of all Barclays Premiership matches not broadcast live.
Vic Wakeling, Managing Director of Sky Sports, said: “These near-live rights, added to the live matches, give Sky Sports unrivalled Premiership coverage. We can now promise Football First [the existing package of delayed coverage and extended highlights] until the end of the decade and new ways of watching games, on demand, through broadband. Our recent live deal brings more live Premiership matches to Sky Sports with the best games and biggest head-to-heads.”
On 5 May the FA Premier League awarded BSkyB four packages of live rights, each of 23 matches, for seasons 2007-08 to 2009-10. All 92 matches each season will be shown live on Sky Sports. Rival broadcaster Setanta won the live rights to a further 46 matches.
