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The English Premier League will launch its own streaming service in Singapore this year and may roll it out to other countries, marking the first time the world’s most popular club football competition will sell live matches directly to fans.
Speaking on stage at the FT Business of Football Summit in London on Thursday, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters revealed that the new service, named Premier League+, would be available for the 2026/27 season.
“For the first time we’re going direct to consumer,” said Masters. “We’re going to be having our own customers — I think that’s the big change. That means delving into things like promotion and pricing, all sorts of things. That’s why it’s an important step for us.”
A Premier League streaming platform has been mooted for several years, but this is the first time the league has confirmed concrete plans to launch one. It has developed the service in partnership with StarHub, its broadcast partner in Singapore.
While traditional deals with broadcasters, such as with Sky Sports in the UK, would remain the bedrock of the Premier League’s media business, Masters said owning and controlling its own platform provided future “optionality” in certain markets.
“We’re looking to learn how that might be replicated around the world,” Masters added.
The Premier League has enjoyed years of strong growth in its international media rights, particularly in the US through its deal with NBC. Overseas broadcast deals now account for more than half the league’s media income.
According to figures from Enders Analysis, the league brought in €2.1bn from such deals last season, compared with €1.4bn for the Spanish, German, Italian and French leagues combined.
The market for live sports rights has been changing rapidly across the world, as leagues and competition organisers look to strike a balance between traditional TV deals and the increasingly important streaming platforms.
Amazon Prime, Apple, YouTube, Disney+ and Netflix all now offer some live sport.
This season the French league, Ligue 1, launched its own direct-to-consumer channel after its broadcast deal with streamer DAZN unravelled.
The German Bundesliga sought to raise money from investors to fund a new streaming service, but later opted to air live games via a handful of YouTuber channels.
The Singaporean initiative follows the Premier League’s move to bring the media production of its matches in-house in late 2024, ending a more than two-decade relationship with sports marketing agency IMG, which handled production for international broadcasters.
“It allows us to look at different ways of developing our content and different audiences,” Masters said of the creation of Premier League Studios. “It may become a business centre in its own right.”