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New entrant BT to launch sports channel, as Premier League hails 71% income boost from live TV rights auction

The Premier League has claimed that an exciting climax to the season, combined with intense competition between rival broadcasters for live TV rights, has fuelled a huge 71% increase in its income to more than £3bn over three years.

BskyB, which has built its pay-TV business over 20 years on the back of live top flight football, retained the majority of the rights, securing 116 matches a season. But telecoms giant BT sprung a surprise by winning the rights to 38 live matches per season, including almost half of the "first pick" games on offer, ending ESPN's association with Premier League football.

The Premier League has increased its UK live TV rights income to £3.018bn – a remarkable £1.254bn boost on the current deal.

This increase will equate to at least £14m more per year for each club, with the bottom club in the league from 2013/14 onwards likely to receive more than the £60.6m Manchester City received this year for ending the season as champions.

Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, said the fact BT had secured 18 of the 40 coveted "first pick" matches would be a "game changer". The fact that the Premier League increased the number of games on offer from 138 to 154 and re-ordered the seven packages helped contribute to the surge in income, which even Scudamore said was a "surprise".

"[BT chief executive] Ian Livingstone and his colleagues have hugely ambitious plans. They have not invested in all this [superfast broadband] fibre for nothing, they want to establish a direct relationship with consumers," said the Premier League chief executive.

BT – the latest in a series of challengers to Sky after Setanta and ESPN – is expected to launch a new sports channel that will be available on a variety of platforms, but use the rights to push its high speed broadband offering.

Sky secured five of the seven rights packages for three seasons from August 2013, totalling 116 matches a year, while BT, ousting ESPN, acquired the rights for 32 games. Its package includes 18 of the 38 first-choice picks.

With Sky paying £760m a year for 116 games, that represents £6.6m a fixture – a huge increase from the current £4.7m. BT is paying £246m per season, or £6.47m per game.

After announcing the deal on Wednesday afternoon, Scudamore pleaded with clubs not to simply use it to rack up losses and fuel wage inflation.

While he said he wanted Premier League clubs to still invest in the best talent, he also made a plea to invest in infrastructure and youth development.

"We are entering a new era with financial fair play, I'm hoping it will get invested in things other than playing talent. It should also be able to achieve sustainability," he said.

"It allows people to plan and gives us a degree of financial security. I don't underestimate that. The idea you can plan with some certainty your revenues for next four years is a big thing."

The first TV deal of the Premier League era was worth £304m over five years. Under the new deal, clubs will be guaranteed £3bn from live rights, plus £180m from the BBC for Match of the Day highlights.

Once internet rights and overseas sales, which brought in £1.4bn under the current deals, are taken into account, the total is likely to easily top £5bn over three years.

Scudamore refused to elaborate on other bidders but ESPN, the US sports giant that entered the UK market when Setanta went bust in June 2009, and al-Jazeera are among those believed to have ratcheted up the price for Sky and BT. Read More

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