EFL opens bids for international rights

The English Football League (EFL) has issued a Request For Proposal (RFP) for its international broadcast rights.

Following its domestic rights deal with Sky Sports which begins from the 2024/25 season, the EFL is opening bids from international broadcasters for the rights of the league during the period spanning 2024 to 2028.

Sky Sports secured a £935m deal for the broadcasting rights to EFL across a five-year period with over 1,000 matches each season aired across the network’s channels. Running from the 2024/25 season to the 2028/29 season, the agreement is made up of guaranteed payments of £895m and £40m in marketing benefits. A total, 1,059 EFL matches will be broadcasted exclusively across Sky Sports channels or live via a Sky Sports streaming destination.

The Sky deal marks a record number of games to be broadcasted for any club football agreement and represents a 50% increase on the value of the current rights agreement. The new agreement also allows for Article 48, the blocked broadcast period between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturday afternoons to remainm and sees the main broadcast fixtures scheduled for outside of this time.

The EFL makes 215 matches from its competitions available to audiences worldwide. The RFP is scheduled to conclude at the end of the 2023/24 season, with bidders required to submit their responses by BST 5pm on Friday, 17 November.

EFL, chief commercial officer, Ben Wright, said: “With global TV audiences of hundreds of millions across 187 territories alongside matchday attendances at their highest for 70 years, there is clearly a high demand for EFL football both here in the UK and across the globe.

“We are therefore inviting partners who can help us to broaden international distribution and exposure, improve the quality of our content and to explore innovative commercial and marketing avenues so that we can strengthen our global audiences, improve profile and ultimately deliver increased broadcast revenues into the member Clubs,” he added.