Scottish soccer’s SPFL league organizing body has today announced a renewed four-year deal with UK pay-TV network Premier Sports, covering broadcast rights and title sponsorship of the domestic league cup competition.
The broadcaster will again stream live 25 group stage matches from the Premier Sports Cup, alongside five group stage live TV broadcasts and live coverage of the latter stages of the competition.
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The 2025 edition of the Premier Sports Cup begins on Friday. The network will show seven games on Saturday, including Hearts vs Dunfermline Athletic as the main evening fixture.
The rights deal, which will run until 2031, will also include matches from the KDM Evolution Trophy, Scotland’s tertiary cup competition, for the first time.
Premier Sports will now show a minimum of four games from that competition this season, with the option to show further matches.
The Irish pay-TV operator returned as the league cup broadcaster and title sponsor last season after taking over from Nordic media group Viaplay.
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By GlobalDataAt the end of 2023, Premier Sports reacquired its UK business from Viaplay after the company divested from the UK completely.
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.”
The new deal comes just weeks after the SPFL expanded its five-year broadcast partnership with Premier Sports, adding more games to its package.
The two parties signed a five-season contract last year for the broadcaster to show 20 live matches per season in the UK and Ireland, and that has now risen to 22 matches.
The two extra games will come from the bottom half of the post-fixture split games, which encompasses the final five game weeks of the Premiership when the top and bottom halves of the league are split apart and play each other one final time, marking the first time Premier Sports has broadcast post-split games.
Premier Sports secured its package of games after primary broadcaster Sky Sports declined to air the SPFL's full quota of matches that it receives through its own deal, allowing the league to tender out a small broadcast package.
Sky holds the rights to show 60 games of the 228-game Premiership each season in a deal renewed in 2022.
