Comcast's (CMCSA) Sky Sports to Broadcast More Premier Leagues
Comcast’s CMCSA Sky Sports secured the broadcasting rights for nearly a hundred additional English Premier League matches, starting 2025. This marks the first time that all matches, excluding Saturday 3 pm kickoffs, will be televised in the United Kingdom.
For the seasons spanning 2025/26 to 2028/29, Sky Sports is set to broadcast a minimum of 215 live matches per season. Additionally, TNT Sports, previously known as BT Sport, will showcase 52 live matches per season within the same time frame.
These lucrative broadcasting agreements are expected to generate substantial revenues of 6.7 billion pounds ($8.45 billion) over the four-year period, according to the premier league's official statement. Notably, this figure incorporates a 4% increase in the value of live rights compared with the previous rights procurement process.
Sky Sports had previously paid 3.6 billion pounds in 2018 for a three-year deal, securing rights to broadcast 128 matches per season. The renewal of this deal occurred in 2021 amid the challenges posed by the pandemic, bypassing the usual tender process.
Shares of CMCSA, which currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), have risen 23.2% year to date compared with the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector’s growth of 12.2%. This is because the company has consistently catered to the changing needs of its customers. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Comcast Corporation Price and Consensus
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Sky Sports’ Lineup to Boost Total Domestic Broadband Customers
Sky Sports, accessible to non-Sky subscribers through a NOW Sports Monthly membership, boasts an extensive lineup of top-quality sports content.
In addition to football, Sky Sports provides comprehensive coverage of Formula 1, presenting every practice session, qualifying round and race until the end of 2029.
Cricket enthusiasts can enjoy English cricket coverage, including ECB rights until 2028-end. Sky Sports also secured rights to all men's and women's ICC world events in cricket until the end of 2031. Tennis fans can also enjoy the year-round coverage from both the ATP and WTA Tours for the next five years, including the U.S. Open until 2028.
The sports extravaganza on Sky Sports also includes international rugby union events, such as the 2025 British & Irish Lions Tour of Australia, and NFL action like the Super Bowl, year-round boxing and the PDC World Darts Championship.
This is expected to aid Comcast’s total domestic broadband customers in the upcoming quarters.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2023 total domestic broadband customers is pegged at 32.25 million, indicating year-over-year growth of 0.29%. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $3.93 per share, indicating year-over-year growth of 7.97%.
Sky Sports faces competition from TEGNA TGNA, DISH Network DISH and AT&T T.
TEGNA has emerged as one of the largest broadcasting groups in the United States and a key provider of local news and media content, propelled by a series of strategic acquisitions. TGNA’s extensive portfolio is supported by long-term affiliation agreements with prominent networks and its TV stations engage in selling commercial advertising spots while producing local programming, including news, sports and entertainment.
DISH Network Corporation, an American television service provider, owns both the Dish Network, a direct-broadcast satellite service and Sling TV, an over-the-top IPTV service. DISH offers a broad range of high-definition programming at the local, regional and national levels, including Latino and international packages.
AT&T stands as one of the largest wireless service providers in North America and is a prominent global communications service provider. Through its subsidiary and affiliate network, AT&T provides diverse communication and business solutions, covering wireless services, local and long-distance phone services, data and broadband, Internet access, video streaming, managed networking, wholesale offerings and cloud-based services.
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