⚽️ Premier League, Chasing TV $$, to Show More Matches in New Time Slots

Good morning. The Premier League obviously believes you can never have too much of a good thing. For you, the fan, that means more matches televised on more days and in more time slots. For the league, that means MONEY. And a lot more of it.

In the email today:

Give the Premier League this much: It’s not waiting around to boost its own value to the networks and streaming services.

• Premier League clubs are engaging in high-level talks regarding a new broadcasting rights plan.

• The league previously negotiated six-year overseas TV deals, including a significant deal with NBC, which generate around £2B through 2028.

• Domestic TV deals with Sky Sports, TNT, and Amazon Prime will expire in 2025, which prompted the EPL to explore ways to maximize these contracts which are currently valued at over £5B.

• One approach to generate more revenue is to increase the number of live matches, potentially by up to 50, creating more available time slots for broadcasting.

• Premier League CEO Richard Masters clarified that there are no plans to broadcast matches in the UK at 3 p.m. their time on Saturdays, a time currently subject to a TV blackout in the UK to encourage fans to buy tickets.

• Alternative time slots, including Friday and Monday night matches, as well as Saturday and Sunday late evening matches (8 p.m. UK time) could see increased usage to optimize broadcasting opportunities.

Our take: It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see where this will eventually end. In all seriousness, there is no real reason that the Premier League shouldn’t have at least one match being played on every day of every week (save for Championship Sunday). They’ll start slowly, of course, occasionally dropping in a Sunday night match and a Saturday night match as needed. This only finishes one way, though it might take a long time to get there.

2) ❗️ There Are Some EPL Owners Unhappy About Everton’s Pending Sale to 777 Partners

Selling a Premier League club isn’t like selling a car or a house. Those assets are almost innumerable and they all have easily determined market value. Conversely, there are only 20 clubs in the EPL, and unlike your annoying neighbors who might try to disrupt your open house, when an EPL club goes up for sale there are 19 owners who will probably have an opinion.

• A number of Premier League owners are set to express concerns about Everton's proposed sale to 777 Partners at the season's first clubs’ summit meeting. The discussions, it is thought, will be informal.

• Concerns from other clubs revolve around uncertainty regarding the source of 777's funding for the £500M deal and potential reputational damage due to the outfit’s involvement in US court cases.

• The Premier League cannot provide official guidance to the clubs as Everton and 777 have not disclosed specific terms of the deal.

• 777 has not disclosed how they will fund the Everton purchase, but it is believed that they may use their own capital among their 60 companies, making it challenging to trace the money's origin.

• Due diligence on the takeover is expected to take months, potentially causing cash flow issues for Everton before the end of the season.

Our take: That last bullet point is the one that should send chills down the spines of Everton fans. The Toffees are one of the worst teams in the league right now, with one point from five matches. They barely avoided relegation last season. If cash flow issues cause further instability and/or keep Everton from acquiring needed players in the January transfer window, Everton could end up in the Championship. At that point, the club would arguably not be worth $500M. Maybe that’s what these “concerned” owners are trying to do….

3) ❌ Tweet of the Day: If the Queen Had Balls, She’d Be King

4) 🗳️ Poll: Excluding Manchester City, Which Premier League Team Will Go Furthest in the Champions League?

Have additional thoughts? Reply directly to this email to comment, and see if we include your response tomorrow.

5) 🔗 Links Roundup

• 🔮 As the future of the club remains in doubt, one pundit thinks Wayne Rooney could return to manage his boyhood club some day.

• 🔫 Shots fired by Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy, saying that hiring Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte to manage Spurs constituted “mistakes.”

• 🦵 Speaking of Spurs, star gadget man Ivan Perisic will miss the remainder of the season with a right ACL injury.

• 🚀 Arsenal’s Champions League endeavors started with a 4-0 blasting of PSV Eindhoven at the Emirates.

• 😶‍🌫️ At the other end of the happiness spectrum, Manchester United’s first CL group stage match ended in a narrow 4-3 loss to Bayern Munich. At least it was on the road?

The newsletter today was written by Phil Keidel. Follow Phil on X @philkeidel.

Thanks for reading!