UK: BBC and BT Sport extend their broadcast rights to the FA Cup until 2021

The public broadcaster BBC and the pay-TV channel BT Sport have extended, for three seasons, their broadcasting rights, in the United Kingdom, to the Emirates FA Cup, on 12/04/2016. The current agreement began in 2014-15 and was scheduled to end after the 2017-18 season. The extension is valued at £60m (€75.4m as of 13/04/2016) per season by British media: £35m (€44m) for the BBC and £25m (€31.4m) for BT Sport.

With the new agreement, the BBC and BT Sport will be the domestic broadcasters of the FA Cup until the end of the 2020-21 season. The BBC broadcasts 16 Emirates FA Cup games each season, including the final (on the list of sports events considered of major importance in the UK). Beginning in 2018-19, BT Sport will broadcast live an additional game from Round 1 (256 clubs) to Round 5 (16 clubs) of the competition. In total, the pay-TV channel will broadcast 30 live games each season, compared to 25 (excluding replays) during the 2014-2018 cycle.

"The Emirates FA Cup has enjoyed record viewing figures, with seven million viewers alone watching Tottenham’s third round tie…