Premier League: ESPN "very surprised" by the price paid by BT for domestic rights in 2013-2016

Eric Johnson, the executive vice-president of global multimedia sales for the US-based sports pay-TV broadcaster ESPN, said he was "very surprised" by the (high) price paid by the UK telecommunications group BT to acquire the broadcast rights to the Premier League in the UK and Ireland, he stated at a conference in the United States on 29/09/2014.

BT has acquired the 2013-2016 broadcast rights for the United Kingdom and Ireland for 38 Premier League matches each season for an annual amount of £246 million (€291m). These matches are broadcast on the group's pay-TV channel BT Sport 1.

• Over the 2010-2013 period, the domestic media rights to the Premier League were held by the pay-TV groups BSkyB and Setanta:
  • BSkyB held the rights for the live broadcast (on Sky Sports) of 115 matches per season for £1.623bn (€1.83bn at the time of the acquisition in February 2009) for the period, £541m (€611m) per season.
  • Setanta held the rights for the live broadcast of 23 matches per season, for £159m (€180m) for the period, or £53m(€60m) per season.

BT Sport: "They had a very different…