04 November 0005

Premier League Productions: Building a Centralised Production Unit

In 2007, the Premier League's commercial strategy shifted. For the first time, international rights were sold not only to traditional broadcasters but to telecommunications companies such as Singtel. These new customers represented a major revenue opportunity, but they faced one critical problem. Unlike established networks, they had no production infrastructure. They could not take a raw satellite feed; they needed finished programming.

To open the Premier League to that market, IMG's production operation had to change fundamentally. We moved from acting as a production company to operating as a full broadcaster. In 2010, we secured approval to launch a 24/7 channel, doubling the budget overnight to rebuild the workflow.

We expanded well beyond the core offering of 380 live matches and the standard magazine shows such as Preview and Highlights, Premier League World, and Netbusters. We built dedicated studios, integrated virtual-reality graphics, and brought in a scheduling team to manage continuous 24-hour output, including Live Matches, Premier League News, Football Today, and international Fanzone phone-ins.

We also refined the editorial voice to align with the global distribution, broadening the roster of presenters and guests to keep the content relevant to audiences in Asia and Africa. At its peak, the operation ran with over 250 staff every weekend, routing feeds from every stadium back to a central hub.

This centralised production unit became the cornerstone of the commercial model. It gave the Premier League the confidence to sell to any buyer, regardless of their technical capability, thereby maximising the value of every deal.