The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has announced a renewed four-year deal with UK pay-TV network, Premier Sports. The agreement covers both broadcast rights and title sponsorship of the domestic league cup competition.
Under the new deal, Premier Sports will continue to stream live 25 group stage matches from the Premier Sports Cup. In addition, fans can look forward to five group stage live TV broadcasts and live coverage of the latter stages of the competition.
The 2025 edition of the Premier Sports Cup is set to kick off on Friday. The network plans to show seven games on Saturday, including Hearts vs Dunfermline Athletic as the main evening fixture.
Expansion into tertiary cup competition
In an exciting development for Scottish football fans, this rights deal will also include matches from Scotland’s tertiary cup competition - KDM Evolution Trophy - for the first time ever. Premier Sports is slated to show a minimum of four games from this competition in this season alone, with options available for further match coverage.
This announcement marks a continuation of Premier Sport's involvement in Scottish football after it returned as league cup broadcaster and title sponsor last season following its takeover from Nordic media group Viaplay. At the end of 2023, Premier Sports reacquired its UK business from Viaplay when it divested completely from UK operations.
Neil Doncaster, SPFL group chief executive, said:
“We place great value on our long-standing partnership with Premier Sports and it’s brilliant news that we’ve agreed a major extension for the Premier Sports Cup for a further four years. Premier Sports continues to be a fantastic supporter of our game, with their high-quality coverage of SPFL matches, and their ongoing commitment is a real boost for Scottish football. We look forward to working together to build on the success of the Premier Sports Cup in the seasons ahead. Crucially, these latest deals also underpin record prize money for clubs in the Premier Sports Cup and the KDM Evolution Trophy this season.”
More games added to broadcast package
This new agreement comes hot on heels after SPFL expanded its five-year broadcast partnership with Premier Sports just weeks ago by adding more games to its package. Last year saw both parties signing a five-season contract that allowed broadcasting 20 live matches per season in UK and Ireland; now that number has risen to 22 matches per season.
These two extra games will come from post-fixture split games involving teams from the bottom half of the Premiership. This marks a first for Premier Sports, as it has never broadcast post-split games before. This package of games was secured by Premier Sports after Sky Sports, the primary broadcaster, declined to air SPFL's full quota of matches that it receives through its own deal.
Sky currently holds rights to show 60 games out of the 228-game Premiership each season under a deal renewed in 2022. The decision by Sky allowed SPFL to tender out a small broadcast package, providing an opportunity for Premier Sports to further extend its coverage. This new deal between SPFL and Premier Sports is set to bring more live football action into homes across UK and Ireland until 2031.
