This week the 2025-29 domestic broadcasting deal for the English Premier League was revealed. Sky Sports continue to dominate the agreement - winning 4 of the 5 packages on offer - with the 5th package going to TNT Sports (formerly BT Sports).
While the sums involved and the number of games to be broadcast live dominated the media coverage, it was interesting to note that the market has moved back to a duopoly. This may be good news for customers who in recent years had to increase the number of subscriptions they had to have to watch all live games from 1 to 2 to 3. The exit of Amazon Prime means that just two subscriptions are now required.
The data below is an extension of our 2019 paper in the Journal of Sports Economics. In the paper, we demonstrate how "competition" - or the allusion of same - caused prices to rise from 2007 when Sky Sports' monopoly of the English Premier League ended. The table below shows that the 2025-29 agreement is the first time there are only two broadcasters since the 2018-19 season.
The 2022-25 season saw a return to normality with just Sky Sports, TNT Sports and Amazon Prime. However, from August 2025, three will become two. One has to wonder what will happen from 2029.
Will we return to a monopoly? Could the games all be streamed live via one provider? Might it even be done in-house and remove the need for 3rd party broadcasters?