The Athletic FC Podcast Why is the Premier League launching its own streaming service?
Mar 3, 2026
Matt Slater, football business journalist who covers broadcasting and media rights. Adam Leventhal, sports broadcaster with expertise in streaming and piracy. They discuss the Premier League’s Singapore streaming trial. They explore how the league will control pricing, production and customer service. They debate broadcaster responses, piracy drivers and tactics to reach younger fans.
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Premier League Launches Direct Service As Market Experiment
- The Premier League will run a direct-to-consumer service in Singapore as a joint venture with StarHub starting next season.
- Richard Masters framed it as an experiment where the League handles churn, pricing and marketing rather than a third-party broadcaster.
Why The League Avoided Direct Sales Until Now
- Two main barriers stopped the Premier League going D2C earlier: structural certainty for club revenues and cultural reluctance to be consumer-facing.
- Clubs rely on large upfront central payments; moving to subscriptions risks revenue variability and requires new organisation skills.
Premier League Brought Production In House
- The Premier League quietly took overseas content production in-house by ending a 20-year deal with IMG.
- They moved production to a new facility in Olympia, hiring staff to control the global polished package they sell to broadcasters.