Europe’s top five football divisions are generating a combined €5 billion ($6.8 billion) per season from their domestic and international media rights in the current sales cycles, according to the Football Media Money League report, which is published today by TV Sports Markets.
This represents an increase of just over 25 per cent on the figure of just under €4 billion per season earned in the last cycle.
Frank Dunne, Editor of TV Sports Markets, said today: “As we have seen this weekend with the Uefa Champions League deal in the UK, top football remains the most sought-after media content in the world and all the indications are that broadcaster appetite for the sport at elite level shows no sign of diminishing.”
“Top league football, played out across a season, is invariably the single most important form of content for pay-television operators in Europe. Getting hold of it and keeping hold of it is the difference between pay-television companies delivering big profits to their owners or disappearing completely,” Dunne said.
Among the big five leagues, England’s Premier League remains the leader of the pack, with total media-rights income of €2.206 billion per season, more than double the amount earned by the second highest-earning division, Italy’s Serie A, which is on €974.5 million per season.
Spain’s La Liga follows on €709.6 million per season, France’s Ligue 1 is on €639.5 million per season and Germany’s Bundesliga 1 is on €541 million per season.
Despite trailing well behind both the Premier League and Serie A in terms of domestic media rights income, La Liga still produced the clubs with the highest total media rights income in 2012-13.
Last season, Real Madrid earned a combined €178.4 million from rights to La Liga and the Uefa Champions League. Barcelona came a close second with €175.5 million from the two competitions.
The Football Media Money League report is available free to TV Sports Markets content licence holders.
If you are not a content licence holder, find out how you can access the report here: http://ow.ly/qHhV2
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