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Premier League is very much a premium product

The authoritative Swiss Ramble analyses the increasing importance of overseas television rights for the Premier League.

Total Premier League TV rights are forecast to rise by 11% from £9 bln to £10 bn for the new 3-year deal starting in 2022. UK domestic rights have been held at the same level of £5 bn (Sky, BT and Amazon), but overseas rights estimated to increase by 25% from £4 bn to £5 bn.  As recently as 2007-10, these were worth only £200m a year.

In fact, this forecast means that the new deal would see the overseas rights reach the same amount as domestic rights, thus accounting for 50% of the total payment, compared to 37% in the 2016-19 cycle (or 25% in 2007-10).

NBC have signed a 6-year deal worth $2.7 bn (£2.0 bn) covering 2022-28, more than doubling the previous agreement, which was worth $1.1 bn (£0.8 bn). The new deal is worth £333m a year, compared to £150m for the last 3 years of the old deal (£116m in the first 3 years).

This compares with La Liga £120m, Serie A £56m and the Bundesliga £25m.  Not only is the Premier League TV deal well ahead of the other major leagues, but the gap is actually widening.

The increased deal reflects the growing interest of American sports fans in soccer, as seen by higher viewing figures, which are reportedly up 14% this season to 609,000, the highest audience since 2015-16.

Other overseas deals suggest the Premier League is still very much regarded as a premium product. New Nordic £2 bln 6-year deal is double the previous one, while Australia is nearly 60% higher and Serbia 10 times as much. Only China saw a decline after PPTV agreement terminated.

Compared to the 2020/21 payments, there will be substantial growth in TV money for the elite clubs. My estimate suggests that the top 5 clubs will receive £20m to £25m more in a season, while the last placed club will only see a £3m increase.

There is a notable difference between the new way of distributing overseas rights (any growth paid per league position) and the old system of equal distribution. In this way, the 1st place club gets £19m more than it would have done, while the 20th place club gets £19m less.

Even so, the bottom club in the Premier League receives more TV money than all other European clubs with the exception of the top 3 clubs in La Liga. In 2019/20 the top English club got £163m, £71m more than Bundesliga and £89m more than Serie A.

 




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