Premier League radio rights to remain with BBC Sport
The Beeb will continue to broadcast Premier League coverage on its 5Live radio service until 2022.
“This is excellent news for the BBC, in an increasingly competitive radio marketplace. Live radio coverage of the Premier League is a key element of the BBC’s audience offer for football fans. The quality of our production, commentary, analysis and presentation is unrivalled and it’s something we are immensely proud of.” – Barbara Slater, Director of BBC Sport
The BBC has secured live Premier League radio rights for a further three seasons, ensuring listeners can follow the biggest games and best match coverage until May 2022. Securing four of the seven packages on offer, the new contract ensures that Radio 5 Live will continue to have more Premier League matches than any other radio broadcaster, with around 140 games, and will be the only place to listen to Premier League football on a Sunday with games at 2pm and 4.30pm.
In addition, the station will have first pick on Saturday at 3pm, along with a raft of games which will be played on Friday, Saturday and Monday evening.
While over on the iPlayer BBC Sport have announced that the content streaming service from the Beeb will bring football fans the Manchester City v Brighton FA Cup semi-final (6 April) and the final (18 May) live in Ultra HD and HDR for the first time. Those watching on compatible Ultra HD TVs can watch the live stream on BBC iPlayer by pressing the Red Button during the BBC’s coverage, or directly through the BBC iPlayer app on their TV.
Due to the experimental nature of the FA Cup trial and the high bandwidth required, there will be a cap of tens of thousands of people watching live at a time, as there was during the World Cup. Audiences will need an internet connection of at least 40Mbit per second for full 3840 pixel Ultra HD or 20Mbit per second for 2560 pixel Ultra HD. Wi-Fi performance can vary greatly, so a wired internet connection to the TV may provide a more consistent Ultra HD experience. Footage will be played at 50 frames per second.
“Our Ultra HD and HDR programmes have been streamed millions of times on BBC iPlayer, making them some of the most popular Ultra HD programmes in the world, and BBC iPlayer is one of the only streaming services to offer them live in such high quality. It’s an excellent example of how we’re reinventing BBC iPlayer, making it an even better place for watching live events, and giving people the best programmes to enjoy in the best possible quality.” – Dan Taylor-Watt, Head of BBC iPlayer
