Friday, January  19 2007
 

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Premiership in new £625m TV deal
The winner of football's Premiership will net an extra £50m from next season after the league agreed a new £625m deal for overseas television rights.
Income from the deal means even the team finishing bottom of the pile will claim £30m - about what current title holders Chelsea won last season.
The money adds to income from domestic broadcast and internet contracts.
"This deal really does take us on to another level," said Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore.
The new contract covers coverage of the 2007/8, 2008/9 and 2009/10 seasons in 208 countries worldwide.
The £625m raised is double that from existing overseas television deals and takes the Premiership's earnings from media rights over the three seasons to more than £2.7bn.
Mr Scudamore said the largest increase in payments for rights had been in the Middle East and in Asia, with the battle to show live games particularly fierce in Hong Kong.
"We have a cosmopolitan approach to players and a cosmopolitan approach to ownership and that is paying off," he said.
"No territories have gone down but in some cases the rights have ended up being sold for three or four times the current amount."
BSkyB and Setanta are sharing the domestic television rights for Premiership matches from next season.
The rivals were successful bidders in an auction to show top-flight games, beginning in the 2007/8 season.
The domestic TV rights auction generated £1.7bn ($3.1bn) for the Premier League, with BSkyB paying £1.3bn for its four packages of games and Setanta £392m for its two.
Setanta broke Sky's monopoly and has rights to 46 live matches a season, while BSkyB has won the rights to 92 live matches, including the "A" package of games on late Sunday afternoons.
The Premiership's appeal overseas has gone from strength to strength, thanks to high-profile players and the league's reputation for excitement.
BBC sports editor Mihir Bose said that the big winners of the new deal would be top-flight players and their agents, with supporters and lower league sides unlikely to see any real benefits.