Football will continue to haul in media revenue

Expect media contracts to continue to scale upward.

The consensus among industry experts is that the sale of TV, internets and mobile rights will continue to fetch high payments, adding to the pockets of FIFA, UEFA and the major football leagues.

Phil Lines, the head of media operations for the English Premier League, told an audience at the Soccerex business convention that the game still is a staple of programming for many networks.

Lines' league, for example, earned GBP 2.3 billion off worldwide TV sales on its recent offering and, he said, is just beginning to tap into the football-mad Asian market. UEFA earned GBP 1.7 billion selling the UEFA Champions League rights through 2009.

As Italy has shown with its recent efforts to move toward collectively selling TV rights, Lines believes that is the wave of the future. The Premier League sells as a body, and he predicts more money for that type of sale and more leagues will move in that direction.

"We have benefited from never moving away from the collective sale of our matches," Lines told Reuters. "Broadcasters know that when they buy our rights they are going to get the complete package."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.