The popular English Premier League (EPL) which is watched by nearly three billion TV viewers worldwide has struck a new lucrative deal with media giants Sky and BT Sport worth more than Ksh. 700 billion making it the most expensive ever signed by the TV companies.

The new deal is a 70 per cent increase from the previous deal which was due to the bidding war between the two media companies, Sky and BT Sport. Sky will pay £4.2 billion to show 126 matches per season (an 83 per cent increase from its previous deal) while BT Sport will pay 18 per cent more than their last deal (£960 million) which will see them air 42 live matches in a season up from the previous 38.

This deal puts the already dominant EPL further ahead of their European rivals and it appears that it’s going to stay that way for many years. And the prices could continue going up in future because the EPL, which has overwhelming global fan base, looks to be in an unassailable position.

The next most lucrative deal, the German Bundesliga, doesn’t even come close to their English counterparts with their TV rights deal just £1.85 billion which is almost a quarter.

In Spain, clubs negotiate their own TV rights which is less attractive to most broadcasters, with only a few clubs or maybe just two, Real Madrid and Barcelona, benefitting the most.

Amazingly, all the EPL clubs are in the top 40 richest clubs in the world, most of it attributed to the shared TV rights. So this means that they will even be richer and as a result English clubs will continue buying better and more players and also pay them well.