The rise of televised football is perhaps the most significant moment in the history of the business side of the sport.
Since the 1990s, TV and broadcast rights have been one of the biggest sources of revenue for clubs, alongside commercial and sponsorship takings. In turn, this has vastly driven up football club valuations, leading to the wages players could earn from the professional game dramatically increasing.
Of course, while TV itself has been a constant, the way that fans have been able to access the sport has vastly changed over the past 30 years. From Sky’s early dominance of the market to the rise of the streaming giants, the shape of televised football has been in an almost constant flux.
So, take a look back at the dawn of televised football, how Sky conquered the market only for the new kids on the block to make it a fight, and what might be yet to come in future.
Sky opened the floodgates with the 1992 Premier League deal
Although live football has been televised in some format since the 1940s, the origins of broadcast revenues can effectively be traced back to 1992 and the advent of the Premier League.
In the Premier League’s first season, Sky – then known as BSkyB – pipped ITV to the broadcasting rights for the newly branded top flight of English football, outbidding ITV’s £262 million offer with a £304 million five-year deal.
Ultimately, Sky would only pay £190 million, owing to failures in meeting foreign sales targets. This is dwarfed by the sums paid since, too – even by 1996, Sky was renewing the deal, this time for £670 million over four years. But, it was the start of a trend that would see broadcasters continually pay more and more for the rights to show live matches.
In the years since, there have been many landmark deals for Premier League TV rights, including:
- £1.706 billion from 2007/08 to 2010/11, with Sky and Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports sharing the spoils
- £3.018 billion from 2013/14 to 2015/16, with BT Sport picking up two of the seven packages on offer alongside Sky
- £5.136 billion from 2016/17 to 2018/19, a year in which both Sky and BT Sport increased their offers in an effort to keep BeIN Sports and Eurosport away from the table.
The most recent Premier League deal saw stakeholders negotiate and agree an eyewatering record £6.7 billion deal for the four years from 2025/26, shared between Sky and TNT. According to the Premier League, this is the “largest sports media rights deal ever concluded in the UK”.
Football broadcasting has changed, and big players have since entered the market
Sky undoubtedly dominated the market in the first 20 or so years of the era, with cameos from brands such as Setanta, ESPN, and more recently BT Sport. But now, the landscape is very different.
These days, the streaming giants have serious sway in the broadcasting market. Amazon Prime had the rights to broadcast 20 Premier League games a season in the last package – although notably has failed to secure any rights in the new 2025/26 agreement.
Meanwhile, further afield, Apple TV+ signed a deal with Major League Soccer (MLS) in the US, now providing access to every regular season and playoff game in 2025 under the MLS Season Pass.
Internet-based companies have also developed strategies separate from showing live games, ushering in a new era of sports content, producing films and docuseries that focus on specific players and clubs.
Amazon adapted its successful US series, All or Nothing, giving a behind-the-scenes look at the fortunes of specific clubs during an individual Premier League season, focusing on:
- Manchester City in 2018
- Tottenham Hotspur in 2020
- Arsenal in 2022.
Similarly, Netflix produced the docuseries, Sunderland ‘Til I Die, following Sunderland’s descent into the Championship in 2017.
Other Netflix series and films have focused on individual players or moments in football history. For example, The Figo Affair looked at one of the most controversial football transfers ever conceived, while the four-part series Beckham charts the life and career of arguably England’s best-known player.
These shows have been powerful in their own right, while also finding an effective way to bring football to an even wider, global audience.
Wrexham AFC’s rise to dominance owes a great deal to the success of streaming
Perhaps the most notable and promoted example of this new era of sports content is Welcome to Wrexham, Disney+’s foray into the sports content market.
In 2021, Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds and TV actor, writer, and producer Rob McElhenney bought a majority stake in the Welsh club for around £2 million.
At the time, the Red Dragons lay in the National League, having been relegated from the Football League in 2007/08. Although the club had been in a few playoff matches, they had struggled to secure a return to professional football.
But, with the arrival of Reynolds and McElhenney came a huge rise in the club’s global and commercial profile. Almost overnight, Wrexham had access to sponsorship opportunities that would have been well out of reach to a National League side – in 2021, the side confirmed TikTok as its main sponsor for the next two seasons, followed by a deal with United Airlines.
This strategy has proved to be highly effective – the influx of popularity and sponsorships also attracted high-quality, experienced players to the small Welsh town, and Wrexham have achieved three promotions since their US owners arrived. The latest of these successes takes them into the Championship, putting them just one rung away from England’s top flight.
There can be no doubt that Reynolds and McElhenney’s profiles carried significant weight that allowed them to achieve these feats, and it has been undeniably successful.
Having been worth around £2 million in 2021 when the pair took over, the side is valued at upward of £150 million today, representing a 7,400% increase since the actors bought the club.
Furthermore, Wrexham’s revenue from their League Two season in 2023/24 came in at £26.7 million, a 155% increase on their previous season, and – according to the club – a record for the fourth tier of English football.
Clubs and players have benefited from the interest in sport on demand
There can be no doubt that TV rights drive club valuations and acquisition interest from buyers.
Clubs in the top flight that benefit from the deals the Premier League negotiates have often seen greater interest in investment – even traditionally “smaller” clubs such as Brentford, Watford, and Bournemouth became more attractive propositions, and that can at least partially be attributed to their presence in the “promised land” of English football over the past decade.
Meanwhile, at the upper end of the table, valuations for the top clubs have grown significantly. Take Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s £1.25 billion purchase for his 27.7% stake in Manchester United, a club Malcolm Glazer bought in nearly its entirety in 2005 for around $1.47 billion (around £800 million at the time).
Similarly, former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich purchased Chelsea for a modest £140 million in 2003. Yet, when Todd Boehly and his US consortium bought the club in 2022, they paid £2.5 billion.
No doubt media rights were a key part of the conversation when these buyers took over, too, understanding that the returns on investment would in large part come from TV rights revenue.
For players, wages have increased notably too. Between 1992 and the start of the 2020/21 season, Premier League wages increased by a staggering 2,811%. Compared to inflation of 109% over the same period, that is a serious increase in the real-terms pay players can earn from playing in the top flight.
With Sky and TNT signing the landmark 2025/26 deal, it is unlikely that this trend will be reversed any time soon.
Media opportunities are likely to continue driving decisions and the direction of wealth
When you look at the history of football broadcasting, it is evidently a landscape that is constantly evolving. So, although Sky continue to dominate, flanked by the streaming giants, there is nothing to say that there could not be big changes in future.
The idea of streamers challenging Sky in the 1990s seemed unthinkable, and so the future could involve any number of technological advancements and changes that will see the market shift again.
Perhaps clubs will invest in their own direct-to-consumer channels or bespoke streaming platforms, taking the TV and internet companies out of the equation in favour of receiving the income themselves.
If this were to happen, clubs with this facility might become even more attractive to investment, further boosting the valuations that TV rights have expanded.
What is for sure is that this market is already big and likely to continue growing over time. And, as it does, it may well affect the choices that buyers make when choosing where to invest.
Get in touch
The TV rights deals and increasing club valuations have been a benefit for players too, leading to more lucrative contracts and higher wage packets.
But, generating an income from football is just half the battle – you need to make strategic decisions with that wealth that ensure you can live the lifestyle you want, both now and in the future.
At ProSport, we are an experienced firm of financial planners who work specifically with footballers and those involved in the professional game. We know and understand the financial challenges you will face throughout your career, and can support you in organising your wealth so that you are the biggest beneficiary of what you earn on the pitch.
If you would like to find out how we can help you, get in touch:
Email enquiries@prosportwealth.co.uk or call 01204 602909.
Please note
This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. The information is aimed at retail clients only.
All information is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change in the future.