UPDATED ON:
Thursday, January 18, 2007
14:40 Mecca time, 11:40 GMT
 
Sport
Clubs cash in on mega deal

Fans in Korea may have to pay big money to see Ji Sung Park turn out for Manchester United [GALLO/GETTY]

Armchair fans of the English Premiership in Asia and the Middle East have been cited as the demand behind the $1.2 billion price tag which the overseas rights were sold for on Thursday for the next three seasons.
The Premier League's sale of broadcasting rights in 81 overseas blocs covering 208 countries and territories would generate a total of $1.23 billion dollars over the course of the 2007/08, 08/09 and 09/10 seasons.

The total is twice that of the current overseas television deal and it will take the Premiership's total earnings from media and broadcasting rights over the three seasons to just over $5.32 billion dollars.
  
British and Irish television rights for the same period were sold last year for $3.35 billion dollars while a deal for other media, mainly mobile phone and internet rights, is $790 million dollars.
  
The result will have an enormous effect on the winner of next year's Premiership with the top club receiving $100 million from prize money and their share of the television money.

Incredibly, the club that finishes bottom of the league can expect a figure in the region of $60 million dollars, the same as Chelsea received for winning the title last season.
  
Richard Scudamore, the Premier League's chief executive, said the increase was driven by fierce competition for rights in Asia and the Middle East and underpinned by the willingness of clubs to open their doors to foreign players, managers and owners.
  
"We have a cosmopolitan approach to players and a cosmopolitan approach to ownership and that is paying off," Scudamore said.
  
"We have seen growth everywhere but the really big jumps have been in Asia and the Middle East.
   
"No territories have gone down but in some cases the rights have ended up being sold for three or four times the current amount."
  
Scudamore revealed that one of the fiercest battles for rights had been in Hong Kong, where Richard Li's telecommunications group PCCW bid $19.7 million dollars to claim the  rights from the local cable television operator.

 Source: Agencies
 
 
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