Sky and BT Sport have paid a record £5.136bn for live Premier League TV rights for three seasons from 2016-17, BBC reports. The figure represents a 70% increase on Sky and BT’s current £3bn deal. It is unclear whether the increase will affect ticket prices, although Sky pundits and former England internationals Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville said the matter was an issue. The Premier League said it plans to invest £56m in grassroots projects, including 50 artificial pitches. Under the new contract, 168 games will be shown live, at an average cost of £10.2m per match. Sky paid £4.176bn for 126 matches per season, including the first Friday evening games and both Sunday packages. BT paid £960m for 42 games per season, four more than its present deal.