Chelsea secures £151m for Premier League triumph as new rights cycle commences

Chelsea secured a payment of more than £150.8m (€177.4m/$194.8m) for winning the English Premier League in 2016-17 as the first season of the football competition’s new rights cycle took hold.

The Premier League has detailed the value of payments of broadcast and central commercial income to its clubs during the 2016-17 season. The revenue distributed to clubs includes income generated from the sale of central broadcasting rights, both UK and international, and other central commercial rights.

The Premier League’s system for distributing revenue sees 50 per cent of UK broadcast revenue split equally between the 20 clubs, which amounted to £35,301,989 per team in 2016-17. Twenty-five per cent of UK broadcast revenue is paid in merit payments based on a team’s finishing position in the table.

Twenty-five per cent of UK broadcast revenue is paid in facility fees each time a club’s matches are broadcast in the UK. All international broadcast revenue, and central commercial revenue, is split equally among the 20 clubs. The former figure amounted to £39,090,596 per club for 2016-17 and the latter £4,759,404.

In total, Chelsea gained £150,811,183 for winning the Premier League, aided by £32,827,014 in facility fees for having 28 games shown live in the UK and a merit payment of £38,832,180. Manchester City came in second with a payment of £146,927,965 with 28 live games. Liverpool had the most live games (29) and gained the third-highest payment of £146,122,439.

Tottenham Hotspur finished as runner-up to Chelsea, but placed only fourth in the payment table as 25 live games meant it generated £145,461,325. Sunderland finished bottom of the Premier League, but will still gain £93,471,118 for being relegated. In total, the Premier League paid out £2,398,575,773 in 2016-17.

By contrast, the final year of the previous broadcast rights cycle in 2015-16 saw the Premier League divide a total pot of £1,638,805,918 amongst its teams. Arsenal gained the highest payment of £100,952,257.