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Premier Sports and BBC renew Scottish Cup deals – Sportcal

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Premier Sports and BBC renew Scottish Cup deals – Sportcal

Celtic’s 1-0 win over Rangers in the 2024 Scottish Cup final had a peak live audience of 735,000 on BBC Scotland. (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

BBC Scotland, the regional arm of the UK public-service broadcaster, and pay-TV operator Premier Sports will continue to show soccer’s Scottish Cup after agreeing new five-year deals.

The new agreements with the Scottish Football Association will run until the end of the 2028-29 season.

From next season, Premier Sports’ rights will remain roughly the same, but with an additional, third, match in rounds four and five of the knockout cup competition.

The Irish-based pay-TV broadcaster has shown the Scottish Cup for the past six seasons.

BBC Scotland, meanwhile, will continue to offer live free-to-air coverage of one game from each round – up to and including the final – along with highlights on its Sportscene programs.

The contract also allows the broadcaster to produce “near live digital highlights” and rights to the Scottish FA Youth Cup Final.

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Both broadcasters will simultaneously air the final.

BBC Radio Scotland also holds radio rights for the competition.

The recent 2024 Scottish Cup final between Old Firm rivals Celtic and Rangers had a peak live audience of 735,000 on BBC Scotland, with holders Celtic grabbing a late 1-0 win.

Ian Maxwell, the Scottish FA’s chief executive, has said: “In an era of multiple subscription platforms across football and life in general, we’re pleased to be able to offer consistency with established partners who take pride in their involvement in our showpiece competition.

“It represents stable income for our member clubs and the wider Scottish game that allows the various stakeholders to plan ahead with an added degree of certainty.”

The deal follows Premier Sports’ renewal with the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) earlier this week to continue showing the top-tier Premiership for the next five campaigns.

Through the long-term extension, the broadcaster has secured a package of 20 live and exclusive Premiership matches each season, starting with the 2024-25 campaign.

Premier Sports already shows the domestic Premier Sports Cup (which it title-sponsors) and the Scotland national team’s home soccer internationals.

At the end of last year, Premier Sports reacquired its UK business from Viaplay Group after the Swedish media company divested from the UK completely.

Through the deal, Premier Sports reclaimed its UK sports channels and associated rights.

Meanwhile, Sky, the pay-TV giant and primary SPFL rightsholder in the UK, has revealed viewing figures for matches this season increased significantly, with nearly 2.5 million extra viewers tuning in.

The broadcaster saw a year-on-year rise of 24% for peak audiences from games in the Premiership in the 2023-24 season.

A total cumulative audience of 12.5 million watched SPFL games on the channel, compared to 10.03 million in 2022-23. The average audience for SPFL matches also rose from 228,000 to 285,000 viewers this season.

Viewership peaked at 1.44 million for April’s 3-3 draw between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox in a new record for the SPFL era – the highest for a Scottish league match since the SPFL formed in 2013.

This overtook the previous audience record when Rangers defeated Celtic 2-1 at Celtic Park in December 2019.


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