Russian Premier League chief executive Sergey Cheban has said an agreement in principle has been reached for pay-television broadcaster NTV Plus to extend its rights deal for the top division of domestic football.
NTV Plus’s previous rights deal for the Premier League expired at the end of the 2014-15 season, but the two parties are close to agreeing a new three-year contract running from the 2015-16 to 2017-18 campaigns.
Russian news agency Tass said NTV Plus originally offered R2.2bn (€35.4m/$39.6m) per season for the rights before later revising this offer to R1.9bn per season.
Cheban told Tass that the beginning of the 2015-16 Premier League campaign is set to run under the terms of the old deal, adding an agreement in principle has been reached on a fresh contract. He said: “We discuss the details. The talks will continue in the near future.”
In 2012, the Premier League elected to sell rights to its games through its subsidiary Liga TV. NTV Plus paid around $110m under its contract for the three seasons running from 2012-13 to 2014-15.