A Premier League streaming platform, dubbed a ‘Netflix of Football’ or ‘Premflix’, which could boost revenues for clubs and cut costs for fans has moved a step closer.
You could be forgiven for thinking that the only significant vote to come out of Friday’s meeting of Premier League shareholders was the one concerning changes to rules on associated party transactions – the latest battle in an unfinished regulatory war with Manchester City.
But there was another matter put to the 20 clubs which received less coverage yet may, in time, prove far more important. In fact, it could amount to a watershed moment that transforms the way the world’s most popular league is consumed around the world.
The vote was about ending a 20-year partnership with IMG, with whom it creates 6,000 hours of content per season, including live coverage of all 380 matches and magazine shows, to 55 international broadcast partners in 189 markets outside the UK.
Instead, Premier League clubs decided to bring all production and distribution of media content for international markets in house from 2026. And unlike the APT vote, which split clubs into allies and opponents of Manchester City, it passed with unanimous support.
The move is significant because taking control of production could pave the way for the Premier League to launch its own direct-to-consumer streaming platform, an idea previously dubbed a “Netflix of Football” or “Premflix”.
The NFL and NBA have already established their own versions of this, NFL Game Pass and NBA League Pass. And where the more commercially mature US sports market leads, Europe tends to follow.
“In the first instance it feels like taking back ownership and control under one umbrella. This then in turn opens up new opportunities of distributing that content in different ways to existing and new viewers around the world,” said Paolo Pescatore of PP Foresight.
“The direction of travel is clear as the adoption of connected devices continues to grow; we are all now streaming some form of television at any time and anywhere thanks to the internet via fibre or mobile networks.”
Premflix ‘a nice tool but not TV substitute’
The advantages to the Premier League of a direct-to-consumer platform would be manifold. As well as increasing reach, due to it being available to anyone with a device, it could harvest customer data and potentially increase revenue by many multiples.
A 2020 academic paper on the idea posited that if the 200m or so people who currently subscribe to pay TV channels to watch the Premier League paid £10 a month for a dedicated streaming service, annual media rights income could balloon from £3.5bn to £24bn.
A Premier League streaming service could benefit clubs and fans
That may be a fantastical scenario – and does not take into account the costs of creating the content, the platform on which to show it, and marketing costs – but it does illustrate that there could be great financial rewards for the right product.
The Premier League’s international media rights are now worth more than the domestic rights, so taking over their sale “may be a clever move”, says Francois Godard of Enders Analysis, but he believes they still need broadcasters.
“I don’t see D2C [direct to consumer] as the future of football. Maybe it’s an option you can use in certain markets” as leverage to derive bigger bids from media companies, he adds.
Another major trend in US sports is for long-term partnerships between leagues and broadcasters, which encourage the latter to invest in promoting the former.
“I don’t believe the NFL and NBA D2C platforms are a substitute for sales to broadcasters,” says Godard. “They are a nice tool and a way to reach core fans.”