"We're excited to be working with Coliseum to give TV viewers a chance to see the world's most watched and closely followed football competition. We know football fans are passionate supporters of the beautiful game.
"These are exciting times to be in the media business and this is a fascinating development for premium sports content that we expect to be welcomed by New Zealand viewers."
With Sky TV outbid for the rights, speculation and angst was rife over who now owned the rights, how it would be broadcast and how much it would cost football fans.
Coliseum is thought to view this as just the beginning. Newcomer free-to-air sports channel Sommet Sports revealed it also bid for the rights.
"The EPL is a series that many of our viewers would have loved to watch at no cost. We bid twice for this competition, once losing to international company MP&Silva, who then placed it up for bidding again. We lost in this round also, coming second." said Andrew Reeves, Director of Sommet Sports.
Sommet Sports, soon to be available on Freeview Channel 14, will still be able to show two delayed EPL games per week. Sky TV's share price dropped 6.1 per cent this morning on news of the EPL loss, with shares in the company falling 35 cents to $5.32 in morning trading on the NZX.
Company chief executive John Fellet told RadioSport the threat of other companies going after their jewel, rugby, was realistic.
"That has always existed. The easiest thing to do is outbid somebody. Trying to monetise the rights, that's when it gets a little bit trickier. The rugby rights would be under pressure if I didn't have any football, or if I had all football," Fellet said.
- APNZ
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