Kelvin Stuttard from Pixabay"/>The Premier League is hell-bent in finishing the remaining matches of the 2019-20 season since they will have to return around £762 million to various broadcasters if they fail to wrap up the league in its entirety.
Out of this money, most will be owed to Sky Sports and BT Sports while others will have to be paid to international broadcasters.
But now it seems like Sky Sports is ready to offer the Premier League a much-needed relief since the Daily Mail has been reporting that Sky Sports will not demand their share back.
The report states: “Sky Sports will not demand to be repaid the £371 million they are owed by the Premier League if the season is cancelled.
“The talks between Sky and the Premier League have indicated that almost half of the £762m exposure is not at risk.
“The figure of £762m was the figure the Premier League calculated would be owed to Sky, BT and overseas broadcasters in the event of the season being voided and was the figure presented to players when asking them to take a 30 per cent pay cut.
“It is hoped that relationships with long-standing overseas broadcasters mean that, in a worst-case scenario, the Premier League would only have to repay at most £150m.
“Among the ideas being discussed with Sky if the season were voided are:
- Extending the current rights for another season, until the end of the 2022-23 season;
- Awarding Sky and BT extra live games next season so they can show football from Monday to Friday and at the weekend.
- However, given that it is still expected that the season will resume and accepted that it will be behind closed doors, there is also discussion over showing all the 92 remaining Premier League fixtures live on TV.”
As far as the international broadcasters are concerned while some companies will demand their money back, a lot of them are willing to sit down for negotiations.
This will be a big boost for the Premier League authorities since they are desperately trying to wrap up the season for this one big reason. But if Sky Sports can genuinely help out the league at this time of crisis, the clubs might finally agree to scrap the 2019-20 season and move on to the next one.
But having said that, the EPL will still have to pay off a huge sum of money in case they choose to abandon the 2019-20 season but £371 million off that massive list, they can surely afford to shoulder the rest of the loss.
Sky Sports have refused to comment on these discussions but they have now been associated with the Premier League for 28 years and as per the Daily Mail, the last thing they wish to do is ruin such a long relationship.
