The English Football League has agreed to pay domestic incumbent broadcaster Sky a £7m (€7.7m/$8.7m) rebate for the 2019-20 season disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is reported.
The Daily Telegraph reports that the rebate will take the form of reductions to pay-television Sky’s rights fees in the last three seasons of its current five-season deal: 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24. That deal, which has been the subject of controversy, began in 2019-20 and is worth £119m per season.
It is claimed that the total cost to all broadcast rights-holders, including Sky, was initially feared to be £42m if all three leagues had been curtailed.
The EFL wrote to its clubs on Friday afternoon to inform them of the settlement. The clubs will discuss the agreement with Sky Sports at a shareholders’ call on Wednesday.
In return for the lower rebate, the EFL has given Sky rights ten additional live matches this season from the EFL Championship, the second-tier of English football. This takes Sky’s total number of live Championship matches to 30.
In addition, the 78 remaining Championship matches not broadcast by Sky will be available for clubs to stream on their own websites to their season ticket holders or for £10 to other fans.
Sky will show exclusively live all 15 EFL end-of-season play-off matches.
EFL season is scheduled to resume behind closed doors on June 20.
Last week, Sky reportedly also reached an agreement with the Premier League to defer to collective rebate worth more than £170m (€190m/$212.8m) until the 2021-22 season.
The top tier of English club football has targeted June 17 as the behind-closed-door resumption date for the 2019-20 season.
English football has been suspended since mid-March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.