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Liverpool seek individual TV rights deal

Comment: 0 October 12th, 2011 by: admin

Threatening the financial landscape, Liverpool have hinted at breaking away from an arrangement that sees television rights divided equally amongst the English Premier League clubs.

The current deal sees over £3 billion in total television rights revenue shared equally by all 20 clubs in the league – an arrangement that has been followed since the League’s 1992 founding.  Liverpool’s intention is to sell these rights on a per-club basis instead.

The Reds’ managing director Ian Ayre described the current arrangement as unfair on the part of the more popular clubs who attract greater attention and viewership compared to the other teams.

Ayre furthered, saying that clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal deserve to receive greater shares starting 2013.

According to Ayre, the current deal which sees over £3 billion in revenue from overseas television rights shared by all 20 clubs is ‘a debate that has to happen.’

‘Personally I think the game-changer is going out and recognising our brand globally,’ Ayre told The Guardian.  ‘Maybe the path will be individual TV rights like they do in Spain.  There are so many things moving in that particular area.’

Liverpool’s plan to sell rights individually would mimic the Spanish model, the same arrangement that allows Barcelona and Real Madrid to freely negotiate their own rights packages.

The Premier League’s present arrangement has seen its international revenue double due to its most recent negotiations.  Reports state that the deal has allowed earnings from overseas broadcasts to double from £625 million from the 2007-2010 period, to £1.4 billion from 2010-2013.

The greater value of overseas broadcasts could promise further increase from the next negotiations, with the Premier League currently being televised in over 200 countries.

Ayre continued that sharing the revenue despite the uneven broadcast distribution is unfair, and disadvantages Liverpool against other clubs in Europe.

‘If Real Madrid or Barcelona or other big European clubs have the opportunity to truly realise their international media value potential, where does that leave Liverpool and Manchester?’ said Ayre.  ‘We’ll just share ours because we’ll all be nice to each other?

‘The whole phenomenon of the Premier League could be threatened,’ he furthered.  ‘If they just get bigger and bigger and they generate more and more, then all the players will start drifting that way and will the Premier League bubble burst because we are sticking to this equal-share model?’

Other clubs – specifically Chelsea and Arsenal – have in the past shown favour of Liverpool’s suggested system.  However making a vote on this model would require 14 of the 20 clubs.

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