SPFL and Sky discussing new £29.5m TV deal to show 60 Premiership matches

The Scottish Professional Football League is close to extending its deal with Sky Sports until 2029, at which point the broadcaster would be entitled to show up to 60 Premiership matches a season for a total payment of £29.5m.

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Sky’s existing deal with the SPFL, which allows a maximum of 48 matches a season, is due to expire in 2025. Under the revised terms, Sky will continue with that limit this season and next at a cost of £25.7m and £26.7m respectively. From the 2024-25 season the 60-match limit triggers a £27.6m payment which will increase by almost £2m for the next four seasons. Sky will have the option of further 10-match SPFL bundles at the cost of around £4m from 2024-5.

In each of the past two seasons Sky have opted to stop well short of showing 48 live matches; with the new commitment, their contracted minimum would rise to 42. With 60 games would come the option to visit each top flight club’s ground five times, as opposed to the current maximum of four.

On the table for Scottish clubs as an added incentive is scope to sell up to five of their home matches each season on a pay-per-view basis, but only if the fixture has not been chosen for live Sky broadcast and does not – pending special dispensation – fall in the UK blackout window between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on a Saturday. As an example, Ross County could in theory have switched last weekend’s visit of Celtic – which was not selected for television coverage – to an early or late kick-off for this purpose.

Whether or not Sky appropriately value the Scottish game is a source of ongoing debate among supporters and in boardrooms. Stewart Robertson, the Rangers managing