Clubs reject Liverpool TV plan

Manchester United and Chelsea have distanced themselves from calls by Liverpool for clubs to negotiate individual overseas television deals.

Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre announced on Tuesday the club’s desire to move away from the English Premier League’s structure of selling collective television rights to overseas broadcasters.

Ayre proposed an arrangement similar to that practised by La Liga, where Real Madrid and Barcelona receive a far greater proportion of overseas television revenue than other Spanish clubs.

Ayre said: “Is it right that the international rights are shared equally between all the clubs? Some people will say: ‘Well you’ve got to all be in it to make it happen’. But isn’t it really about where the revenue is coming from, which is the broadcaster, and isn’t it really about who people want to watch on that channel? We know it is us. And others.”

”If you’re a Bolton fan in Bolton, then you subscribe to Sky because you want to watch Bolton.”

“But if you’re in Kuala Lumpur there isn’t anyone subscribing to Astro or ESPN to watch Bolton, or if they are it’s a very small number.”

“The large majority are subscribing to watch Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal.”

“At some point we feel there has to be some rebalance on that, because what we are actually doing is disadvantaging ourselves against other big European clubs.”

Ayre and Liverpool apparently expected fellow commercial heavyweights Manchester United and Chelsea to back their proposals.

But a spokesman for Chelsea said: “We are supportive of the Premier League on this and want to continue with the way they sell (TV rights) collectively.”

And earlier this year, United chief executive David Gill, appearing before a parliamentary enquiry, said: “The collective selling of the television rights has clearly been a success and it has made things more competitive.”

Manchester City have also reportedly indicated their desire to protect the existing arrangement.

Liverpool would require 13 of the 20 English Premier League clubs to support their proposals if any changes were to take place.

The existing collective overseas deal pays each club 17.9 million pounds per season.

The domestic television rights for the three seasons between 2010/11 and 2012/13 were sold for 2.1 billion pounds, while overseas rights went for 1.4 billion pounds.

The price for overseas rights has been tipped to outstrip the domestic earnings for the first time when the next deal is negotiated for 2013/14 onwards.