<Tr> <Td> 2016--2019 </Td> <Td> 126 </Td> <Td>--</Td> <Td>--</Td> <Td> 42 </Td> <Td> 168 </Td> </Tr> <P> Television has played a major role in the history of the Premier League . The League's decision to assign broadcasting rights to BSkyB in 1992 was at the time a radical decision, but one that has paid off . At the time pay television was an almost untested proposition in the UK market, as was charging fans to watch live televised football . However, a combination of Sky's strategy, the quality of Premier League football and the public's appetite for the game has seen the value of the Premier League's TV rights soar . </P> <P> The Premier League sells its television rights on a collective basis . This is in contrast to some other European Leagues, including La Liga, in which each club sells its rights individually, leading to a much higher share of the total income going to the top few clubs . The money is divided into three parts: half is divided equally between the clubs; one quarter is awarded on a merit basis based on final league position, the top club getting twenty times as much as the bottom club, and equal steps all the way down the table; the final quarter is paid out as facilities fees for games that are shown on television, with the top clubs generally receiving the largest shares of this . The income from overseas rights is divided equally between the twenty clubs . </P> <P> The first Sky television rights agreement was worth £ 304 million over five seasons . The next contract, negotiated to start from the 1997--98 season, rose to £ 670 million over four seasons . The third contract was a £ 1.024 billion deal with BSkyB for the three seasons from 2001--02 to 2003--04 . The league brought in £ 320 million from the sale of its international rights for the three - year period from 2004--05 to 2006--07 . It sold the rights itself on a territory - by - territory basis . Sky's monopoly was broken from August 2006 when Setanta Sports was awarded rights to show two out of the six packages of matches available . This occurred following an insistence by the European Commission that exclusive rights should not be sold to one television company . Sky and Setanta paid a total of £ 1.7 billion, a two - thirds increase which took many commentators by surprise as it had been widely assumed that the value of the rights had levelled off following many years of rapid growth . Setanta also hold rights to a live 3 pm match solely for Irish viewers . The BBC has retained the rights to show highlights for the same three seasons (on Match of the Day) for £ 171.6 million, a 63 per cent increase on the £ 105 million it paid for the previous three - year period . Sky and BT have agreed to jointly pay £ 84.3 million for delayed television rights to 242 games (that is the right to broadcast them in full on television and over the internet) in most cases for a period of 50 hours after 10 pm on matchday . Overseas television rights fetched £ 625 million, nearly double the previous contract . The total raised from these deals is more than £ 2.7 billion, giving Premier League clubs an average media income from league games of around £ 40 million - a-year from 2007 to 2010 . </P>

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