Sky Sports have won the rights to show clips from all Premier League games across its digital properties in both web and mobile formats. The agreement commences in the 2016/17 season and will cover a period of three years in which the broadcaster will provide in-match and highlight content to its subscribers. The financial terms of the agreement were undisclosed.

The clip rights packages broadcast in-game clips for all matches other than 3pm Saturday kick-offs and extended clips of all matches on a Monday morning following a weekend match round. The rights are deliberately structured to avoid overlap with the Match of the Day highlights rights recently renewed by the BBC for £204m ($314m) over three seasons. The Match of the Day package continues to own the Saturday and Sunday broadcast spots with longer format highlights as well as adding a midweek highlight program option.

Home of the Premier League

Sky Sports, a News Corp subsidiary, will also be distributing clips in the United Kingdom through News UK, the News Corp newspaper publisher controlling The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times. News UK, formerly News International, was the previous clip rights holder having won the bid in 2013.

The clips package purchase (really a renewal under a different name) continues News Corp’s strategy of dominating coverage of the Premier League in the UK to drive pay-tv subscriptions and readership at its digital properties. Separately, Sky Sports has recently agreed to pay £4.2b ($6.6b) to secure broadcast rights for the league from 2016/17 to 2018/19.

Clips ARE CONTENT FOR new mediA

Clip rights have grown in importance as soccer content distribution has grown to include new time frames (near-live, post-match, post-weekend and post-season) and new formats (mobile, tablet) that change the way supporters consume the game. Social media has become an extremely popular method for watchers looking to watch or relive goals and other dramatic game moments. The content ranges in quality from phone-videos of tv screens to high definition captures distributed in short form video or animated GIFs and are largely supplied by amateurs doing it in their spare time.

Despite the lack of polish amateur clips have grown in popularity so much that it has caught the eye of officials, with the Premier League warning would be highlight makers to find another hobby. Whether the home recordings were ever big enough to threaten the value of an official clips package is up for debate, but it certainly hints at their rising value in the years to come.