Scottish soccer’s SPFL league organizer has launched a new broadcast rights tender concerning the rights to the top-flight premiership from the 2028-29 campaign onwards.
The tender covers a period beginning with the 2028-29 campaign, but does not have a defined end date, though the four-year term of the current primary rights agreement serves as a guideline for perhaps the minimum the SPFL would expect.
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That deal, struck with the UK’s dominant pay-TV broadcaster Sky Sports back in 2023, is worth £150 million ($199.7 million) across the four-year term, or £37.5 million per year, and grants Sky the rights to as many as 60 of the 228 SPFL games each season,
Pay-TV rival Premier Sports holds a lesser suite of rights, totaling 22 games per year.
The Premier Sports deal is separate to the broadcaster’s existing exclusive agreement to showcase the SPFL’s League Cup knockout competition, known as the Premier Sports Cup, which will run through the 2030-31 campaign.
On the launch of the tender, SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said: “Securing strong broadcast partnerships is an essential element in maintaining a balanced and sustainable income mix for the SPFL and its clubs.
“We anticipate strong interest from broadcasters in what is widely recognised as one of Europe’s most exciting national league competitions.”
The announcement of this tender comes off the back of a strong year for the SPFL in the viewership stakes with Sky.
A 2025-26 season of considerable intrigue and a final-day title decider contributed to viewership growth of 22% year-on-year on Sky’s platforms.
At present, Sky disseminates SPFL coverage on the Sky Sports main event and Sky Sports Football linear channels, as well as the Now TV streaming platform.
Sky Sports has broadcast Scottish soccer for decades, predating even the creation of the SPFL in 2013 (when the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League merged).
When the most recent extension to that agreement was announced in 2022, however, there were misgivings from many in the league, particularly Glasgow giants Rangers, who suggested that a higher media rights figure could be reached by going to market.
Though the agreement represented an uptick in media rights fee, and retained the incumbent broadcaster, comparisons to similar leagues in Europe with larger broadcast contracts.
Norway’s Eliteserien, for example, will receive a combined NOK820 million ($87.8 million) per year from its partners for the 2029-34 cycle, up from NOK750 million per season in the current 2023-28 term.
Now, it seems, that theory will be tested in advance of the 2029-30 season.
In the past, Sky’s biggest pay-TV sports competitor, TNT Sports (previously BT Sport), split rights with Sky, but that agreement ended in 2020, after which Sky became the league’s sole domestic rights partner, prior to the Premier Sports agreement.
