TV Rights for Football Set to go above £5bn

TV rights income for Season 2013/14 is set to top the £5bn mark. On top of the blockbuster £3.018bn deal announced in June for TV domestic live rights with Sky and BT for the three seasons from 2013-14, and the £178m banked from the BBC for Match of the Day highlights, the Premier League is well on course to improve on the £1.4bn it brought in from overseas broadcasters under the current deal. If the total revenue breaks through the £5bn barrier as expected, the amount that the title-winning club receives from 2013-14 is likely to top £100m for the first time.

Each Premier League club is on course to collectively achieve an uplift of more than £500m a year. In the US, NBC outbid the incumbents Fox and ESPN and will pay around $250m (£157m) over three seasons, triple the existing contract, and show more matches on its national network. Manchester United's vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, recently said that the US represented the number one growth target for the club, because a number of factors had coalesced to make it ready to take off. In Brazil, rights have been stripped out for the first time from a pan-continental deal and sold to Fox and ESPN for $50m, more than four times what the rights were believed to be worth as part of the previous South American deal.

In China, in contrast, the focus has been on expanding reach rather than maximising revenue. A six-year contract was last week signed with the agency SuperSports Media to sub-licence matches to regional and IPTV broadcasters across the country. It goes beyond a traditional rights deal and also includes a joint marketing agreement to promote clubs in the country. Deals have already been concluded in the US and South America, South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, China, Singapore and Scandinavia. Deals for Asia and Australasia and the Middle East and north Africa are expected to be wrapped up within the next fortnight.

Increases in income from the middle east, in particular, are expected to be driven by competition between al-Jazeera and its rivals. If you then look at how much Spurs could earn from finishing fourth you can see what Daniel Levy and Spurs have to gain, which makes it all the more curious that Levy did not go to the market this transfer window to ensure that the club gets that lucrative 4th spot. You can guarantee that Le Scum will be pressing us hard for that 4th Spot for the rest of the season and we have to press Chelski even harder therefore for that 3rd Spot.

There is no doubt that football, especially English Football, has a global brand and we need to be in with that elite club. AVB has now got a job on his hands, let's just hope Levy has left AVB with enough quality on the pitch to get us over the finishing line. We could miss out on a fortune next season if we don't get at least 4th Place this year. With a new stadium to pay for and the opportunity to keep our biggest box office attraction, Gareth Bale, Spurs could start to compete for real honours.

Written by OyVeh Maria

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