Brighton, the Premier League return and a £330m sized problem with broadcasters

England's top-flight will be back in action on June 17, with Manchester City against Arsenal and Aston Villa versus Sheffield United.

Brighton are just two points above the drop zone with nine matches remaining. They are expected to play on the weekend on June 20 at home against Arsenal.

They also have to play Newcastle, Man City, Liverpool and Man Utd at the Amex and Burnley, Leicester, Norwich and Southampton away.

Every Premier League match will be shown live and shared out between Sky Sports, BT Sport, BBC and Amazon.

HOW THE BROADCAST IS SPLIT

Sky Sports will show 64 games, BT Sport 20, BBC four and Amazon Prime four.

Sky Sports had paid £3.579 billion for an agreed 128 matches a season from 2019-22. They had 34 live fixtures remaining for this season and this new agreement saw them handed 25 more.

The broadcaster confirmed these 25 matches will be on a free-to-air channel.

BT Sport are the second largest player in broadcasting the PL and they paid £975 million for 52 live games. BT had eight remaining and were issued a further 12 and in return they said they will offer customers 50 per cent off their monthly subscription.

Amazon have shown two rounds during the festive period and have been awarded another four, the same as the BBC.

HOW MUCH?

The broadcasters paid nothing for these extra matches so why are Premier League clubs - including Albion - paying back large chunks to these companies?

Well, in short, the broadcasters feel the product has changed as the matches will be played out behind closed doors.

It was originally feared that cancelling the season would have seen clubs owing them a huge amount of £700m.

The new schedule has lowered that and it is believed a figure of £330m has been provisionally agreed. It is understood negotiations by clubs to reduce that number to £170m were unsuccessful.

Some top flight clubs have suffered financially more than others due to coronavirus and broadcasters have suggested staggering any potential rebate payments over the next two seasons.

WHAT PAUL BARBER SAID

Brighton and Hove Albion chief executive and deputy chairman Paul Barber said: "Nobody likes having their budget negatively impacted at any time. But we have partnerships that go back - in Sky's case - 28 years. They have been a fantastic partner throughout that period, BT, the BBC and a new partner in Amazon.

"We are all having different levels of pain during this pandemic. The suffering that has gone on with people's health is bad enough but also businesses have been seriously hit.

Broadcasters are not immune to that, we are certainly not immune to that and what we have come up with is a means so we can get things moving again which is ultimately what partnership is all about."

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