By David Owen
November 15 – With the next round of English Premier League broadcasting rights expected to be presented to market next year, new research suggests that clubs as well as television companies might be better off if more matches were broadcast live.
The research, by Portsmouth Business School economics lecturer Adam Cox, indicates that while the televising of live games does impact on attendances at the relevant grounds, this effect is outweighed by the earnings clubs make from broadcast rights.
“The evidence suggests all three parties – fans, broadcasters and clubs – would be better off if the number of premiership matches shown on television was increased,” Cox says.
Based on data from Premier League matches between 2004 and 2008, Cox estimates that “when taking into account all 20 clubs, gate revenue is reduced by an average of 19.7 percent (£232,237/$368,436/€271,647) when the match is broadcast live”.
The equivalent figure for the top four clubs of the period – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United – is just 2.4 percent, or £50,060 ($79,431/€58,565), Cox says.
By comparison, payments for screening 138 out of a possible 380 games in the 2007-08 season were, Cox says, on average £4.12 million ($6.53 million/€4.82 million) per game, “which is split between the clubs and includes a merit payment for final league position, and a facility fee for hosting a match”.
“The bottom line,” according to Cox, “is the loss of gate revenue for broadcasting a live match is heavily outweighed by the financial benefit of selling the broadcast rights”.
The research is set to be published in the International Journal of the Economics of Business.
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