Premiership prize pot up to £2.7bn

[Salem6]

Premiership prize pot up to £2.7bn following new TV
deal

By Nick Harris
Published: 19 January 2007

sport.independent.co.uk/football/premiership/article2165406.ece

The Premier League confirmed yesterday that it has
sold its next set of overseas television rights for
£625m, double the previous amount.

The new contracts, which cover 208 countries from 2007
to 2010 inclusive, will increase the League's total
prize pot to £2.725bn over the next three seasons,
guaranteeing the Premiership's winners £50m in those
years from central funds alone. Even the club which
finishes bottom of the Premiership will earn £27m from
next season. In the current three-year rights cycle,
which finishes at the end of this season, the
champions earn around £30m from the League, and the
bottom club around £17m.

Richard Scudamore, the Premier League's chief
executive, is expected to give more details about the
overseas deals today from Mumbai, India, where he is
also due to announce League plans to invest some of
the new cash in football projects in deprived areas
around the world. One such project will promote youth
football in a poor suburb of Mumbai. Others will be
located in similar places where the League can bestow
charity and raise its brand awareness simultaneously.
The League will invest "millions" in the projects,
according to a spokesperson, but no detail has been
provided yet.

Overseas rights earned the League £310m for the
2004-07 seasons, and a memo to League clubs last month
revealed that figure would surpass £600m next time.
One of the reasons for the growth is that the League
previously sold overseas rights via a broker. This
time it has negotiated directly with broadcasters
around the world, meaning a hike in its own earnings
at a time when Premiership football is still growing
in popularity anyway. The conclusion of the deals has
pushed the figure to £625m.

"By focusing on the quality of the game, their players
and their grounds, [Premiership] clubs have produced a
competition that people want to watch - both at
matches and at home," Scudamore said.

The League's £2.725bn prize pot for the next three
years is made up of £1.7bn from domestic rights sold
to Sky and Setanta, £400m from highlights for
broadcast on the internet and mobile phones, plus the
overseas rights money.