Heavyweight sports marketing agency IMG is set to lose its production rights to international coverage of English soccer’s top-tier Premier League (EPL) – one of its crown jewels for over 20 years – in 18 months’ time.
The 20-team EPL, it has been announced today, will be setting up its own media operations business to come into effect at the start of the 2026-27 season, thus taking the production and distribution of all content for overseas audiences in-house.
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This comes as a significant rights loss for IMG, which has had this partnership in place with the EPL for two decades, under the Premier League Productions (PLP) branding. Its overall deal to produce EPL action for global audiences, meanwhile, dates back to the late 1990s.
The move was unveiled following a Premier League owners’ meeting, at which clubs unanimously agreed to proceed with “a new in-house media operations business.”
The last tie-up between the EPL and IMG was announced in May 2022 as a three-year deal, meaning the two parties have agreed a one-year extension before parting ways.
PLP currently operates through local broadcast deals in 189 markets worldwide, and the service will remain in place for the remainder of 2024-25 and the whole of 2025-26. The 55 EPL international broadcast partners currently receive around 6,000 hours of PLP content, with full coverage of all 380 games per season as well as shoulder content and support programming.
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By GlobalDataSportcal (GlobalData Sport) understands that this decision has come very much from the EPL and that there have been no issues from IMG’s side with how the partnership has developed over recent years.
It is also understood that this move does not presage a general shift away from production in terms of IMG’s focus, with multiple other long-term contracts of that nature still in place.
Other top-tier rights-holders the IMG Studios division works with include soccer’s MLS and Saudi Pro League (through 2028-29), UK golf’s R&A, mixed martial arts’ Ultimate Fighting Championship, and basketball’s EuroLeague. The IMG Studios arm is currently based at Stockley Park in West London.
Paul Molnar, chief media officer at the Premier League, has said: “IMG has been a fantastic partner for the Premier League over the past 20 years. They have worked tirelessly on our behalf to provide world-class content and services to our international partners …
“As we move the media production operations in-house, we remain steadfast in our commitment to providing a best-in-class content service to our partners and millions of fans around the world.”
Barney Francis, IMG’s executive vice president for its studios division, added: “We have built a state-of-the-art virtual studio, produced award-winning digital content, and introduced new cameras and feeds that have made the Premier League’s programming a gold standard for global sports broadcasting.
“With IMG's wider production work for rightsholders such as the EFL, MLS and Apple, the Saudi Pro League, EuroLeague and ETP [European Tour Productions], we are continuing to power live sports broadcasting, leveraging new technologies and reaching wider audiences as our business continues to grow internationally.”
Francis came on board to oversee IMG’s content production business in October 2021.
In February, it was unveiled that the IMG Studios division was at that point in a consultation process around laying off a small number of its workforce.
However, it was understood at that time that PLP would not be materially impacted.
IMG is in the process of being transferred from being owned by Endeavor to coming under the control of the Endeavor subsidiary TKO, as was announced late last month. The deal will close in the first half of 2025.
Through a $3.25 billion all-equity purchase, IMG, the events and hospitality firm On Location, and the bull riding touring competition Professional Bull Riders (PBR), will be taken under the TKO Group umbrella.
While the leadership of PBR and On Location will remain unchanged, IMG president of media Adam Kelly will step in as president of the IMG business segment as a whole.
