The Premier League is to launch its own “Premflix” streaming platform for viewers in Singapore and the service could be replicated around the world, if it is successful.
Premier League + will show matches and other video content from England’s top flight to viewers in Singapore next season without going through a broadcaster. Some analysts believe the model is the next way of securing big rises in international broadcast revenue.
Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive, revealed the launch at the Financial Times’ Business of Football Summit, in London, and confirmed that it could be extended to other parts of the world.
Masters said: “We have created a direct-to-consumer service from next season onwards — Premier League + rather than Premflix — and for the first time, the Premier League is going to have its own customers and deal with promotions, pricing, churn, distribution.
“We are looking to build a business, but also looking to learn how that might be replicated all around the world.
“This is a new app you can download and have on your smart TVs, your laptops, and watch 380 matches and loads of shoulder content, 24-7 channel service and it’s going to be an exciting product.”
Masters said the new platform would be launched in association with StarHub, which has the broadcast rights to the Premier League in Singapore, in a six-year deal.
Meanwhile, English football’s new regulator has warned that “the clock is ticking” for a financial deal to be agreed between the Premier League and the English Football League (EFL), with the game’s health teetering on a cliff edge.
David Kogan, the chairman of the Independent Football Regulator, said that numerous clubs would not be able to survive for longer than a month if their owners pulled funding and that, for many, relegation is a “near-death sentence”.
Kogan says that numerous clubs would not survive more than a month if their owners pulled funding
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
All previous efforts to agree a deal for the amount that the Premier League distributes to the EFL clubs have failed, and Kogan confirmed that the regulator — introduced after the Football Governance Act 2025 became law in July last year — would use its powers to enforce a settlement if necessary.
“We have real powers to intervene if football cannot reach agreement, the so-called backstop clause,” Kogan told the FT Summit.
“I have to tell you, however, as somebody who’s been involved in football since 1999, it would be an utter failure by football not to seize the moment and get over the stasis that currently exists.”
Kogan said that the regulator’s powers to ensure clubs are financially sustainable could reduce the inflationary spending on players and the pressure on some clubs to gamble their long-term future on short-term success.
• David Kogan: the football regulator unafraid to challenge status quo
He added: “The current system builds in risk. Some of the insights we’re already getting from clubs are beginning to show us this. Multiple clubs throughout the pyramid have told us they would not be able to survive a month if their owners pulled funding.
“We know that players’ wages have been rocketed in the Premier League, but it’s also happening across the whole of the pyramid. In League Two, for example, player costs have doubled in the last three to four years. Owners in League One and League Two are critically worried about how on earth they’re going to be continuing to finance this arms race.
Clubs like Wrexham have spent big on players in the lower leagues, part of a wider trend of rising player costs that Kogan describes as an “arms race”
JAY BARRATT/GETTY
“Relegation for many is a near-death sentence. Clubs facing relegation could see their revenues cut by up to 80 per cent if they fail to bounce back quickly.
“The whole pyramid is facing a series of cliff edges that people talk about, but they have not been addressed. And without better financial mitigation, this is ultimately entirely unsustainable.”
The previous agreement between the EFL and Premier League was made in 2019, and the EFL is pushing to have 25 per cent of the top flight’s earnings shared with the rest of the pyramid. The Premier League says it has distributed £1.6billion across English football over the past three years, though that includes parachute payments to relegated clubs totalling more than £600million.
Kogan confirmed that the regulator would have potential power over parachute payments, but said they “would not vanish overnight”.
Parachute payment can last for three seasons after relegation and are worth £49million in the first year.
Kogan added that the “chaos” engulfing Sheffield Wednesday could have been avoided had the regulator been in place earlier. On Wednesday, a takeover bid led by James Bord collapsed, putting the club — which has been in administration since October — back in limbo.
Kogan says that the regulator could have prevented the turmoil that has engulfed Sheffield Wednesday
DANNY LAWSON/PA
“If you want an example of why we exist, look at the situation in the last 24 hours at Sheffield Wednesday,” he said. “This is one of the largest, most prestigious names in English football, one of the founders of English football, one of the founders of the Premier League, that has spent the last two or three years in absolute chaos, including yesterday.
“If we’d existed three years ago, many of the powers we now have would have pre-empted what has since happened. The powers we have allow us to monitor the financial soundness of each club, spotting problems and warning signs early, so we can help steer those clubs to a more secure future.”