When we last joined our Premier League heroes, we were streaming the coronation of Leicester City in the greatest underdog story in English football history. We were streaming it on Premier League Pass, as we had for the two years previous to that, but we were doing so in the knowledge that this was the final time. PL Pass was dying and we were left to an uncertain future without it.

Here’s a written thing about that. Have a read of that situation as it stood, especially the stuff pertaining to Australia which is still relevant, though here’s a quick recap for ya:

Premier League Pass had lost the rights and was wrapping up.
beIN Sports/Al Jazeera had won them despite not having an NZ broadcast outlet.
Sky TV weren’t backing themselves to get an on-sold deal done with beIN, despite their connections on Champions and Europa League coverage.
If Sky couldn’t afford it, as they claimed, then nobody could.
So as it stood, there would be no Premier League coverage in New Zealand for the 2016-17 season.

A quote from that article:

“Three months is plenty enough for someone to sort something out and Sky’s existing relationship with beIN makes that avenue seem worth a stroll down, we just have to play the waiting game.”

Well, good news everybody! It’s now being fairly widely reported that Sky TV has regained the rights to the Premier League in New Zealand, sort of, with numerous publications carrying the story and a Sky spokesperson even popping up on a popular scumbucket radio show to say a few words about it. The deal is that Sky will soon offer two beIN Sports channels (plus pop-up channels to cover kick-off clashes), one dedicated to Premier League and the other to general football (probably a range of European stuff, including Ligue 1 and La Liga, apparently some Championship footy too - bingo), plus beIN will open up their streaming subscriptions to NZ audiences as well. Naturally both will only be attainable at an additional cost but then at least, like Jamie Vardy’s Premier League and England dreams, both will be attainable.

The new channels are not a part of the Sky Sports package and will cost roughly $12 a month. You don’t need to already be subscribed to Sky Sports to get it, though you will obviously need a Sky package of some description – meaning if you don’t already send envelopes of cash to the Satellite Telly Overlords of Aotearoa then this is going to turn out rather expensive for you. Right as the prices are going up again, guts. If you are a current captive subscriber, then no worries, it actually works out cheaper than PL Pass did.

Thankfully you can avoid the Sky wormhole because the online beIN Sports Connect deal is about $18 bucks a month on its own. It sounds like the Sky package already includes the beIN streaming stuff, so that’s all cool as well. Because for those used to the paddling the streams, that’s your only way of doing so short of VPNs or the illegal stuff. SkyGO won’t carry the Premier League games at all, which to be fair makes sense because why do they need to clog their already scratchy bandwidth when beIN have it covered?

Especially when they aren’t making any money off of it. Yeah, nah, seriously. Sky actually don’t make a cent off this thing, so they claim, instead the subscription prices are to cover their own costs and any profit goes beIN’s way. That sounds super weird but Sky has never really made money off of the Premier League. Think about it, it may be a league with a very committed fanbase in this country but the games are played in the middle of the night – those things don’t tend to rate all too well. But Sky has always said that with the PL, money wasn’t the point. It’s the kind of prestige coverage that looks good in the TV guide, caters to the fans and adds to the brand. Sky Sports NZ as an entity is more credible if they offer the English Premier League. Hence this new deal works out nicely.

Most broadcasters in this situation would be looking to buy the coverage to broadcast themselves on their own channels and that’s what Sky intended to try do, but they were priced out of the market along with every other possible investor. That was beIN’s intention as well, to on-sell the rights and build this Premier League broadcasting empire around the Middle East, parts of Africa and Asia and the Pacific Rim. Not being able to do that in New Zealand, which as a small market was dwarfed by the massive prices of these things overseas, somebody managed to find a compromise. Some grand patriot who deserves a medal.

The dedicated beIN Sports channels are probably that compromise (though of course I have no idea what went down in the boardroom). It’s a loss for Sky to some degree, they don’t have nearly the control that they would have had over the programming and beIN are reaping all the cash, but we don’t care about Sky. We care about the content, matey. Two 24 hour football channels are a significant improvement, even for a cost. We’re not just talking about games, we’re talking about “highlights and studio shows” as well as live coverage from Spain and France which we didn’t previously have. Sky already has Champions League, Europa League, English League Cup and English Championship to some degree – all via beIN Sports.

As for the pop-up channels, apparently there will be three of them. So up to five live games simultaneously. Most weekends that’ll be exactly what they need, though some they’re gonna come up short there. Like the last day of the season when all ten games kick-off at the same time. Yes, it all comes at a price. But this is a much better outcome than we had reason to expect.

Hey, and Sky even managed to announce it earlier than the week before the thing starts – even if the article has since disappeared off their site and beIN haven’t said anything themselves yet. Might have jumped the gun, or maybe it’s to do with that whole Sky/Vodafone merger thingy. Funny this would come out at the same time as that, really, but at least all these corporate suits with their dollar signs and bottom lines managed to find a way to give us our football back.