Live football to net $11bn for Europe’s top broadcasters

The 2020/21 season was one like no other with revenue streams severely affected by the Covid outbreak meaning effectively no fans apart for a select few game and threats of a breakaway European Super League but top-level football has endured and is still a cash cow. The 2021/22 season is, right now at least, the first season when fans return to stadia and in the European Football TV Revenues report, the analyst says that broadcasters will pay $8.3 billion for transmission rights for live games.

Digital TV Research stressed that in making its calculations it did not include revenues from commercial premises such as bars (5-15% of total revenues), from highlights or magazine programmes or from overseas sales.

The study calculated that broadcasters’ revenues for live games fell by $6.1 billion during the 2019/20 season as the pandemic hit hardest. Payments were deferred or reduced by the rights holders during the Covid lockdown.

However, looking forward to 2021/22, the UK is set to lead the revenue charts by some distance, with $3.6 billion expected from screening live matches from the English Premier League and Champions League.

Equivalent revenues in Spain, said the European Football TV Revenues report, will likely be some way behind the UK at $2.3 billion while Germany, with the largest population of the five countries covered, will generate revenues similar to Spain. Italy is set to generate around $1.5 billion with France a few leagues behind with just over $900 million. The territory witnessed a rights meltdown during the last football season which has left clubs in financial peril. Rapid TV News