Liga and Serie A beat English in TV cash grab
PREMIER League chairmen may be licking their lips at the prospect of BT Sport’s vast investment trickling down to their clubs, but for now England’s top teams are being left in the shade by Spanish and even Italian teams when it comes to income from television rights.
Real Madrid (€178m) rake in the most broadcast revenue of any team in Europe’s big five leagues – England, Italy, Spain, France and Germany – with domestic rivals Barcelona a very close second (€175m), according to a study by industry newsletter TV Sports Markets.
Italian giants Juventus (€154m) and AC Milan (€124m) are third and fourth respectively, despite Serie A lacking the lustre of its 1990s heyday, followed by English quartet Manchester United (€108m), Chelsea (€107m), Arsenal (€99m) and Manchester City (€98m).
Champions League winners Bayern Munich languish in ninth, even though they swept the board last season, the campaign on which the figures are based. Qatar-owned French title holders Paris Saint-Germain lie 10th.
The Premier League is by far the biggest revenue generating league in Europe, being worth around €2.2bn in total per season. Italy (€975m) is second, Spain (€710m) third and France (€640m) ahead of the voguish Bundesliga (€541m).
However the English top flight’s method of dividing cash among clubs is relatively egalitarian compared with that in Italy and Spain, meaning the leading Premier League sides do not bank as much from TV as their Serie A and La Liga counterparts. Top Spanish clubs have the extra advantage of selling their rights on an individual basis.