Premier League Nets Overseas Rights Bonanza

The Premier League has concluded its overseas media rights sales process –
raking in £625m from the deals, more than double the worth of the previous
three-year contracts.

The vast increase in the value of the league’s overseas rights will further
boost the clubs’ income with the winners of next season’s Barclays Premiership
set to receive an extra £50m and even the bottom-placed club benefiting to the
tune of £30m.

The £625m comes on top of the £1.7bn generated from the sale of domestic TV
tights to BSkyB and Setanta who took four and two packages of games
respectively.

The league is also in the process of negotiating internet rights to its games
for the next contract period – a process which is also expected to bring in
additional revenue to the previous deals.

The new contracts begin at the start of the 2007/08 season and run for three
years.

‘This deal really does take us on to another level,’ Premier League chief
executive Richard Scudamore told The Daily Telegraph. ‘Big clubs in other major
footballing nations such as Real Madrid might negotiate big deals for themselves
but this deal is to be shared across the board by all our teams.’