The Manchester United vice-chairman has said he expects Amazon and Facebook to pursue Premier League broadcast rights.
The next round of English Premier League TV rights will be negotiated later this year, with United’s Ed Woodward predicting the tech giants will make an offer.
“Absolutely, I think they will enter the mix and we would appreciate your interest,” Woodward said, during an investor conference call to discuss his team’s full-year results.
The reportedly said there had been anecdotal talk of “very big numbers” offered by Facebook for the Indian Premier League (IPL), noting “with interest” the social network’s 22-match deal with Major League Soccer for its 2017 season campaign. .
Facebook’s £445m bid for the digital rights to IPL fell through and the auction went to broadcaster Star India. Meanwhile, Amazon managed to grab the streaming rights for NFL games from Twitter in April and the ATP tennis rights for the next five years from Sky in the UK.
That last deal cost Amazon about £10m, but expect the shopping titan to pay considerably more for a Premier League deal. Woodward said he hopes to see “increasing engagement from these organizations,” noting that it will be “increasingly important to engage with fans digitally.” So will Amazon or Facebook challenge Sky for UK and European rights to the Premier League? With the Premier League being a core part of their portfolio, don’t expect Sky to go down without a fight.
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