Liverpool’s coronation finally arrives tomorrow evening as they get the opportunity to reclaim the Premier League trophy they have spent the past five years chasing. The ticker tape and the medals, all to commemorate a 20th English title being added to Anfield’s champions wall.
There are more significant fixtures on the season’s final day, such as Newcastle United’s attempts to secure a place in the Champions League at home to Everton, but the live television cameras have been drawn back to document the last chapter of Liverpool’s title-winning story.
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The game against Crystal Palace — a dress rehearsal of August’s Community Shield — is one of the three chosen for a UK audience, ensuring Liverpool will top another table this season.
No club has been selected more frequently for domestic broadcast across Sky Sports, TNT Sports and Amazon Prime. Thirty of Liverpool’s 38 league games will have been shown live to a domestic audience by the time the curtain falls on Arne Slot’s debut campaign.
It is a reflection of Liverpool’s success but also of their enduring appeal to broadcasters. Arsenal, too, are still a draw even as bridesmaids, shown 29 times. Their failed attempts to win the Premier League title have ensured they are the most televised club since 2021-22. And third this season? Manchester United, with 28 live games charting their woeful Premier League season. Hated, adored but never ignored, as the United slogan goes.
The order can alter and favouritism change but the patterns are clear over who the broadcasters enjoy showing most to a UK audience.
And that entrenches the notion of a ‘Big Six’. They are the ones who draw the eyeballs and those who, in turn, feel the financial benefit. Roughly speaking, £900,000 ($1.2m) is paid to each club per televised game through what the Premier League calls facility fees in their domestic broadcast arrangement. Last season, Arsenal, the most televised team in the UK, earned three times as much as Burnley, the least popular pick, £26.9million versus £9.3m.
On-pitch performances can play a part, as the spikes of interest in Aston Villa, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest have shown this season. But it is routinely those with the biggest followings who have the stories that schedulers still wish to project.
When the Premier League was formed 33 years ago, just 60 games were initially made available for live TV broadcast in the UK. It was a gentle introduction to where the wind was blowing; the first Monday night games, action every Sunday.
Picking games was a relatively straightforward exercise when so few were available but that has grown more complex in time.
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Unlike overseas territories, such as the United States and Canada, there are limits to the amount of live Premier League football that can be shown to a UK audience. Legally, at least. This season, the last of the current domestic broadcast cycle, has allowed 200 games to be broadcast live in the UK, with Sky, TNT and Amazon dividing up seven packages.
Two of those, one belonging to Amazon and the other to TNT, covered three midweek rounds and one bank holiday when all 20 clubs were each shown four times, but the others require extensive planning from broadcasters.
Every club has to be shown 10 times over the season and at least once in each of the now traditional time slots; Saturday lunchtime, Saturday evening, Sunday 2pm, Sunday 4.30pm and Monday night. However, there are also limits to consider.
The Sunday 4.30pm fixtures, the most sought-after slot for UK broadcasters, can only see a club shown five times over the season, ensuring it cannot be the elite clubs every week.
There is also the complication of European football. A club playing on a Thursday night cannot be picked to play on the Saturday that immediately follows, while Sunday games are out of the question if a club is due to play in Europe on the next Tuesday.
So what makes Sky and TNT pick the games they do?
The audience they can expect remains the primary factor considered. It is why Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United have been the most selected clubs since the Covid-19-influenced season of 2020-21, when every Premier League game was broadcast live in the UK. Those three, on average, see almost 29 of their games screened live.
Manchester City, the dominant force of the modern era, have also been well-liked until a drop-off this season. Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea come next in those four years, followed by Newcastle, who have seen interest grow since they began an ambitious pursuit of the Champions League places under Saudi Arabian owners.
It means that upon the release of fixture lists each summer, the first instinct is to ring the match-ups between the ‘Big Six’ clubs and make those dates top of their wishlists for each weekend where they fall. They are the natural priority, the games that demand attention and bring high viewing figures that make paid-for-TV subscription models work.
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Sky, the one domestic broadcaster the Premier League has constantly known throughout its existence, gets first pick every weekend, before TNT can select its own, predominantly for the Saturday lunchtime slot.
But there are other layers beyond the obvious. Broadcasters typically do not select Liverpool, Arsenal or Manchester City at home to a lowly club. Picks are saved for when there might be jeopardy away from home, retaining the interest of the neutral supporter. The clamour for upsets will never disappear.
Sky and TNT also like to tell the stories of promoted clubs early in the season. The bulk of Ipswich Town’s televised games this season, for example, came in the first half of the campaign when their long-awaited Premier League return invited others to follow. The same, albeit to a lesser extent, extended to Southampton and Leicester City. The closing months of the season, with fates cast? Not so much. It is why Ipswich have been shown the bare minimum of 10 times.
The search for a TV narrative will ensure Leeds United will be a popular choice in the opening weeks of next season after winning the Championship title. Their first home game, for example, will be close to a certainty for UK broadcast in August. Sunderland, too, would be another should they prevail in the Championship play-off final against Sheffield United after eight years away.
In the middle are the clubs that broadcasters seldom covet, including Wolverhampton Wanderers and Fulham, who have been shown the same number of times as a Leicester side that meekly surrendered to relegation months ago.
A byproduct of TV selections and European football, meanwhile, has ensured the near extinction of Saturday 3pm games for a small number of clubs.
Manchester United, whose run to the Europa League final added an extra 15 games to their calendar, played just one of their 38 Premier League games in English football’s traditional slot. Chelsea, whose exploits in the Conference League will end with a final against Real Betis next week, played two Saturday afternoon games.
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That could well change again next season but the gradual, unstoppable shift towards all 380 games eventually being available to a UK audience continues with a significant step next season.
Up to 270 of the 380 fixtures will be televised live in 2025-26, with Sky and TNT handed greater opportunities than ever before. Amazon, though, has exited the market in the UK.
Any game played on a Sunday will be televised, mainly by Sky, ensuring clubs competing in either the Europa League or Conference League on Thursday nights will see a spike in their live games. Crystal Palace, for example, are sure to be on screens far more after qualification for the Europa League.
All 10 games on the final day of the Premier League season will also be available for the first time in 12 months, negating the need for the awkward choices made this week. Season finales will never be the same again.
The new four-season deal, running until 2028-29, is worth £6.7bn, with clubs sharing out a four per cent rise in revenue. Change is coming again but, as this season’s numbers underline, broadcasters will always retain their favourites.
(Top photo: Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
