Neil Doncaster Reveals SPFL Has Received TV Rights Bids from Broadcasters Ahead of Next Season

The Scottish Premiership is poised for a significant shift in its television broadcast landscape starting from the 2024/25 season, with the potential for it to get even greater.

Sky Sports has extended its contract to show live Premiership games until 2029, increasing its annual coverage from 48 to 60 matches. However, the SPFL is further broadening its media presence by tendering an additional 20-game package, potentially diversifying the platforms through which fans can watch football.

SPFL Chief Executive Neil Doncaster revealed that the league had received multiple bids for this new package during a BBC Radio Scotland interview.

“We have the ability to take a further 20 games to market. We’re currently in that process at the moment. We issued an invitation to tender, that’s gone out to various broadcasters and we’re working through the responses.

“It went out two weeks ago. We’ve had a couple of rounds of bidding and we had a closing date yesterday. We’ll be working through that over the next couple of weeks.

He continued:  “Sky will have the first picks. Sky, who currently has 48 games, from the summer will have up to 60 games. They’ll have the first pick in each fixture round.”

Potential bidders for the new package include Amazon, who recently exited the English Premier League broadcasting scene, DAZN, known for its extensive Sports coverage in Europe, and Premier Sports, who hold domestic cup rights and are making their UK comeback. TNT/Discovery is also mentioned as a possible contender. Of course, BT Sports, who rebranded to TNT, previously held the rights.

Doncaster said: “We’d love for Apple and Google to be bidding aggressively for our rights but we’re not quite in that space.

“Amazon are going to be out of the English Premier League market, they didn’t succeed in the recent Premier League auction. Other potential bidders – you’ve got DAZN who by volume are one of the biggest Sports broadcasters in Europe. You’ve got Premier Sports who currently have the cup rights. You’ve got the likes of TNT/Discovery. There are certainly people out there who may be short of Football content who may have an interest”