4 May 2010

Yahoo Secures Online Premiership Rights

Yahoo have secured exclusive UK online rights to the Premiership for the next three season. The deal will put five-minute highlight packages of every match on Yahoo.co.uk.

Highlights will be available from midnight on Sunday after weekend matches and at midnight the same day for midweek fixtures. Yahoo! will also own the rights in the UK to syndicate all or part of the Premier League highlights content to third parties, allowing Yahoo! to put together advertising packages for major brands. We imagine online betting companies will be all over this opportunity to access premium video content.

Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, said: "The way fans access Barclays Premier League action is growing ever more diverse and sophisticated. The online highlights package is an important medium for supporters of all our clubs to be able to follow match action."

This is a bit of a surprise as most were expecting Sky to re-secure the rights after it was widely felt that Virgin failed to suitably promote (or sell) their EPL assets so it will be interesting to see if Yahoo! can do a better job.. Either way, it launches Yahoo! firmly back into the video market from a fairly low current position.

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