If you found yourself moaning about how much Premier League football was on television over Christmas - hell, it's still on tonight, long after Christmas has ended - we have some good news for you: it might be about to migrate to the internet.
The TV rights to the Premier League are sold in bunches of three years, with Sky investing over £4 billion to keep hold of the majority of games, ahead of BT Sport. Both broadcasters look set to face competition from a new source for the next set of rights, however.
The Telegraph are tonight reporting that Amazon have held talks with the Premier League with a view of muscling in on the action for Premier League seasons 2019-2022. Their streaming service Amazon Prime already broadcasts live American Football, and recently snaffled coverage of the ATP Tour from under the noses of Sky Sports.
The paper reports that Amazon have looked into how the practicalities of broadcasting matches, and with an annual revenue of £100 billion, the company has the reserves to completely blow Sky and BT out of the water.
Whether they will carry through with a bid is still in some doubt, however, with the report citing the relatively modest £80 million shelled out for ATP Tennis as indicative as some reticence to take the plunge into live sports rights.
Under the next package, there will be more games than ever broadcast live, with some of these spiling into Saturday nights. In further changes, entire rounds are likely to be broadcast simultaneously - on public holidays and in midweek.
The plan is to show 200 of the 380 games live on television, 42 more than present.
The Saturday night games will kick off at 7.45pm, with the Premier League going head-to-head with traditional Saturday night entertainment shows for the first time. It may also be a pre-emptive move on the Premier League's part with regard to the Champions League, who are considering experimenting with European games at weekends, having already moved the final to a Saturday evening.
The full report is on the Telegraph's website.
