Cyprus-Forum.com

[Paul ZKTV]

BBC and TalkSPORT secure further Premier League football rights

The rights to broadcast Premier League football on UK radio have been settled for another three seasons, starting from the 2016/17 season.

BBC Radio 5 Live has the rights to broadcast the most games - a total of 144 Premier League games a season, including matches at Saturday lunchtimes, Saturdays at 3pm, Sundays at 4pm, and some on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. The new deal means BBC Radio 5 Live will be able to broadcast more live games than before.

TalkSPORT has hoovered up the rights previously held by Absolute Radio, which has withdrawn from live football coverage. TalkSPORT has the rights to broadcast coverage of 28 Sunday afternoon matches each season, plus 28 Saturday late afternoon matches, which usually kick off at 5.30pm, in a retention of its current rights.

Additionally, a selection of Saturday afternoon 3pm matches will be broadcast on DAB station TalkSPORT2, although due to the station's lower UK DAB coverage, some listeners will be only be able to listen online.

The rights deal covers the three-season period between August 2016 (start of the 2016/17 season) and May 2019 (end of the 2018/19 season).