Amazon has emerged as the mystery bidder that has picked up 20 unsold Premier League matches left on the table following the auction process earlier this year.
BT Sport has already confirmed it has secured the rights to a further 20 Premier League matches, taking its total to 52.
It means that BT will, for the first time, be able to screen show multiple midweek Premier League matches on the same evening.
Earlier this year, BT secured 32 matches that will be broadcast on Saturday lunchtimes.
Today’s announcement also confirms that BT Sport has won the rights for the same 52 Premier League games in the Republic of Ireland.
In February, Sky and BT were between them awarded five of the seven packages in for 2019/20-2021/22 at a total bidding price of £4.464 billion.
However, two packages went unsold because they failed to reach their reserve price, despite the League saying there were ‘multiple bidders’.
The 20 additional matches will cost the telco £90m, bringing the total cost for 52 games to £975 million over three years.
Throughout the auction period there has been the suggestion that online players would join the bidding for at least one package.
The result means that the Premier League rights will for the first time be split between three separate companies. Although Sky has the greatest number of matches, only BT has an agreement with both Sky (through NOW TV) and Amazon Prime, allowing its subscribers to view the matches through a single source.
But Paolo Pescatore, VP, Muliplay and Media, CCS Insight said it was generally bad news for the football fan: “For consumers this is disastrous as it means another provider that they will need to sign up. In contrast, the Premier League will be delighted with this outcome after having secured a leading online giant.
With Amazon’s rival, this could well be the last time that both BT and Sky own the live Premier League rights in the UK, with Richard Scudamore keen to attract more online players to the table.”
Separately, the Premier League clubs have agreed a new formula for sharing any future increase in international broadcast revenue from season 2019/20 onwards.
The League currently distributes all international broadcast revenue equally between the clubs.
From season 2019/20, clubs will continue to share current levels of international revenue equally, but any increase will be distributed based on where they finish in the League.
