Big news: The English Premier League (EPL) has agreed to a 6-year deal with NBCUniversal for the U.S. media rights valued at $2.7B.
Why this matters #1: Soccer has “finally arrived in the United States” as the fifth major sport.
Why this matters #2: Sports rights are a global game. For example, see NBA/China or F1/U.S.
Share of soccer games with 200K+ viewers in the U.S. according to Nielsen:
1) Premier League (EPL) – 72%
2) Major League Soccer (MLS) – 10%
3) CONCACAF – 5%
4) USWNT – 5%
5) Other – 8%
Share of global sports media rights according to Sports Business Consulting:
1) Soccer – 40%
2) American football – 15%
3) Basketball – 9%
4) Baseball – 8%
5) U.S. college sports – 6%
6) Motorsports – 4%
7) Ice hockey – 3%
8) Cricket – 3%
9) Multi-sport events – 2%
10) Golf – 2%
Key details for U.S. EPL media rights deal:
1) 2022-28
2) 380 games per year
3) ≈ $1.2M per game
EPL media rights per year according to Variety:
1) 2013-16 – $84M
2) 2016-22 – $167M
3) 2023-28 – $450M
Big question: Who else was bidding?
Bidders on U.S. EPL media rights included:
1) Amazon
2) ESPN/ViacomCBS
3) Fox
4) NBCUniversal
5) WarnerMedia
