Source: FOOTYMAD
Imps £70,000 Worse Off Thanks To TV Cash Carve Up
Pour yourself a large one here are the facts and figures Lincoln City and League 2 clubs are waking up to a 26% cut in TV Revenue after Sky and the Football League concluded a deal to run from 2012 to 2015. Our current deal sees us get £290,000 per season; this will drop by £70,000 under the current split (80% Championship, 12% League 1 and 8% League 2) giving us £220,000 per season. The BBC has pulled out and therefore there will less exposure to the wider terrestrial TV audience where localised coverage sees us get good coverage currently. Bad news for future generations then until shows it at 2 a.m in the morning. The Football League payments will fall from £88 million per year to £65 million, equating to a £69 million shortfall over the 3 year duration of the contract. Sky Sports will pay £195m for the rights to screen 75 matches from the Npower Football League, the play-offs, the Carling Cup and the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. That compares with the existing joint deal between Sky and the BBC that saw the broadcasters charged £264m for the rights to show the 2009 to 2011 matches. Here are our rough calculations scribbled on the back of Vics packet of Woodbines. Championship Old deal - £2.93m - New deal - £2.16m League One Old deal - £0.44m - New deal - £0.32m League Two Old deal - £0.29m - New deal - £0.22m Vic Says Positive spin from the League big wigs aside, this is further bad news at a time when Stevie T’s budget is already facing cuts. The Football League has calculated that 82% of player contracts will have expired by the time the new deal starts, giving clubs time to reduce their cost base. Football League Chairman Greg Clarke said he believed teams would be grateful a deal had been struck. "I am confident that our clubs will take heart from seeing such a significant ongoing investment in their competitions, despite a reduced level of broadcasting income, as it provides financial certainty in uncertain times," he said. Yet his comments to a recent parliamentary select committee suggested a somewhat gloomier picture. Clarke, recently told MPs that the game was “heading for the precipice and we will get there quicker than people think” and the reduced funds will seriously worry many clubs facing uncertainty over sponsorship and season ticket renewals. “This has been a challenging climate in which to negotiate television rights, given the state of the economy and the lack of competitive tension in the sports broadcasting market,”. The collapse of Setanta and the unwillingness of terrestrial broadcasters to bid left Sky as the only game in town, but Clarke said clubs would at least be able to plan for the future with certainty. This year the BBC said it had been unable to make a competitive bid.
