The £315 deal with the nascent ITV Digital channel collapsed when the broadcaster went into administration. Many clubs had built financial models based on the higher level of TV revenue which the deal represented.
The league says that the London law firm Hammonds, then operating as Edge Ellison, failed to ensure there was a clause in the contract which ensured that ITV Digital’s parent companies would meet their financial commitments in the event of its collapse.
Hammonds say they will vigorously contest proceedings.
Television insiders questioned the viability of the deal from the very start and expressed their concerns that a subscriber acquisition policy based on, at best, second tier soccer, was doomed to failure. They also said that ITV Digital had overpaid for the rights.
Viewing figures were consistently low with one commentator famously concluding that, in the light of one particularly poorly watched game, it would have been cheaper to collect the audience by bus, take them to the game and drop them off at home again, than to carry the production costs.
