Much has been talked about the potential suspension of the Premier League and its potential impact on Liverpool who are chasing their first league title in 30 years. While Liverpool’s long-awaited glory is at stake, for the Premier League as a whole, there is huge financial obligation. League clubs will have to pay back television broadcasters money equivalent to the number of matches that may be suspended or called off, and that sum is huge!
According to reports published by the Daily Mail, the Premier League will have to pay a staggering 762 million pounds or about $960 million as rebate to broadcasters if the rest of the season is called off. This, along with the lost revenue of match tickets and advertising, salaries to all those associated with the clubs, will burn a staggering hole in the clubs’ pockets, especially the top sides in the league.
SkySports, BT Sports and Amazon pay a combined $1.98 billion per season while foreign broadcasters pay a combined $1.85 billion per season in lucrative deals with the Premier League. The Premier League negotiated a mammoth three-year $5.96 billion UK television rights deal with broadcasters in February 2018. The deal involved Sky Sports, BT Sports and Amazon taking up rights to seven packages of games to broadcast top flight football in the country. Since the money for the games of the current season have already been paid, the Premier League has calculated that they would have to pay back at least $960 million to broadcasters if the current season is suspended. Sky Sports may have to be paid $467.5 million, BT Sports $63 million and overseason networks $429.7 million as rebate. Amazon already broadcast the 20 games they purchased as part of the festive season and need not be paid anything back, but SKY and BT have already paid for a host of fixtures that are yet to be paid. 47 Premier League games are yet to be shown on Sky Sports and BT Sports this season.
Top Premier League clubs could also miss out on big sums if the current season is annulled. Liverpool could miss out on 55 million pounds in TV income if they don’t complete the current season. The Premier League payments are calculated using fixed shares of domestic and foreign TV money, varying amounts of domestic and overseas 'merit' money for finishing position, and 'facility fees' for the number of times a club is shown on live TV in the UK.
A new method of allocating overseas TV money will bring significant new sums to the highest placed clubs this season, if concluded. But, if annulled, they won't get this money, hence the disproportionate 'hits' the higher-up clubs will take.
