The Premier League has sold television rights to English football for a record £5.136bn. Sky paid £4.2bn for five of the seven TV packages while rival BT paid £960m for the other two in the record TV rights auction. The deal will run for three years from 2016. Sky paid 83% more than it did in the last round three years ago. BT paid 18% more and has increased the number of live matches it will show from 38 to 42 a year. BT will pay £320m per season, against £246m per season at present. The communications giant said that equated to £7.6m per game. Sky and BT secured the previous round of TV rights in 2012. Premier League TV rights £5.136bn Cost of rights 2016-19 71% Increase on 2014-16 £10.19m per game 168 games to be shown live 126 will be shown by Sky 42 will be shown by BT Source: Premier League Sky, meanwhile, said it will pay £1.392bn per year for the right to broadcast 126 live matches. The price is an 83% increase over the cost of its existing contract. It means Sky will pay £4.1bn of the total £5.136bn deal. The Premier League TV rights auction had been expected to raise £4.4bn The total cost of the auction means it will cost an average of £10.19m per game for the right to broadcast a Premier League match. 'Good causes' Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said the money raised from the auction would be invested by clubs in making improvements to stadiums as well as "youth development and good causes" and said clubs would continue to "put on the best matches that they can". In 2012, Sky and BT paid £3bn, using live football not only as a way to encourage new customers to pay for their services but to defend other parts of their empire, particularly the sale of broadband packages. The bidding process has pushed up the price for the right to broadcast Premier League matches substantially in recent years. The results of the latest auction sees BT and Sky pay more than double the £1.77bn paid for the right to broadcast Premier League matches in 2011. So the first round of auctions has seen the cost more than double in just four years. Credit: BBC News
