The 2013/14 season saw Premier League football clubs cash in on unparalleled TV revenue. As part of the three year deal with various international broadcasters, Premier League clubs saw their accumulative revenue increase from last season’s total of £972m to £1.6bn.
The new deal which was signed last summer is set to see an overall £3.018bn shared across three seasons from 2013-14. This is an increase against the last deal of £1.773bn.
The TV money is shared among the 20 league clubs according to league position and the amount of games each club were involved in which were televised. With the increase in the deal, Cardiff City- who finished bottom and were relegated- earned more than Manchester United did last year when they finished champions.
Despite the fact that nothing can quite cushion the blow of relegation, the £62.1m received by the Welsh side will certainly go some way to helping, along with a parachute paymen t afforded by the league.
The top earners were Liverpool who had 28 of their 38 games televised, and picked up a cool £97.5m despite finishing second to Manchester City (£96.6m). Despite a difference of over £30m between the top and bottom clubs, the revenue distribution is actually far more even than anywhere else on the continent.
Nobody’s watching
With teams like Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea all making 25 appearances, and Tottenham making 24, at the opposite end of the scale were the less attractive sides such as Stoke (7), Fulham and Cardiff (8) and Hull West Brom and Norwich all making just 9 appearances on the television. These sides have a far smaller fan base than any of the higher placed teams and generally only made it on to the TV when they were matched against a big draw side.
The revenue is broken down into domestic and international rewards. Domestically, half of the income is distributed evenly between the 20 clubs, with a quarter based on the final position in the table and the final quarter dependent on TV appearances.
The money derived internationally is equally shared, and this season equated to £26.3m per club.
The big money however doesn’t stop there, with an extra £30m for Manchester United and Chelsea for progressing in the Champions League. With the increasing popularity of the British league across the world, including in key territories such as India and China, the revenue is likely to increase significantly when the next deal is secured in a year and half.