Since it's creation in 1992 The Premier League has been an extraordinary success, the league can now be viewed in 212 territories and is shown in 643 million homes. I have had a look at various details about the league to give an overview.
First let's take a look at the product itself, much debate has been held recently comparing the Premier League to La Liga and whether our Spanish rivals have over taken us in recent years. In comparison the Premier League has more shots, more goals, more goals from outside the box (including more free kicks) and a higher average attendance than La Liga. Though the Premier League does marginally lose out to The Bundesliga in terms of attendances.
The Premier League has enormous commercial value to clubs, estimates are that promotion to the league is worth around £90 million. This is largely due to the distribution of broadcasting revenue, with 50% being shared equally, 25% through facility fees (live games) and 25% based on the finishing place. To compare ratios for revenue distribution across Europe the Premier League comes in at 1.54:1 which is vastly different to La Liga at 12:1 and Serie A at 10:1. Perhaps this smaller difference in distribution accounts for the increased competitiveness of the Premier League.
With a significant amount of viewers for the league, this has meant sponsorship is a very attractive proposition. The league has seen title sponsors of Carling, 1993-2001 - Barclaycard, 2001-2004 - Barclays, 2004-Present. The current sponsor Barclays has just agreed to a contract extension until 2016, increasing the fee from £27.5 million to £40 million per season. The league is the 4th highest in terms of revenue behind NFL, Major League Baseball and The NBA.
If you weren't already impressed with the league, this is where it gets good. With 600+ million viewers the broadcasting rights for The Premier League are huge. The TV rights have increased in value with every contract:
1) £304 million - BskyB, 5 year term.
2) £670 million - BskyB, 4 year term.
3) £1.024 billion - BskyB, 3 year term.
4) £1.7 billion - BskyB and Setanta, 3 year term.
5) £3.018 billion - BskyB and BT, 3 year term.
In total The Premier League has 36 different broadcasting deals, resulting in a total revenue from this area in excess of £5 billion. To put that into context that is more than the TV rights are sold for a Football World Cup or The Olympic Games.
The continued success is largely dependent on the ever growing Asian market, which currently contributes around 300 million viewers. However one can't help but think that the glass ceiling isn't far away.
JL
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