The big Premier League sides will be looking to grab a larger share of TV revenue through international rights at a meeting to be held later this week according to Liverpool owner John Henry.
The owner believes that the current agreement which sees international revenue being distributed equally among the 20 Premier League clubs is unfair, given that some of the bigger clubs bring a lot more interest from foreign countries.
Speaking to The Associated Press (h/t The Telegraph), Henry believes that all parties know what the big clubs bring in terms of foreign interest, yet these clubs do not have the power to change the media rights.
“You cannot stick with the same media strategy forever any more than you can stick with the same football tactics forever.”
The American, who also owns the baseball franchise the Boston Red Sox, explained that this revenue sharing system works in the US because it is a “closed league”, however, it cannot be done in the Premier League due to the threat of relegation.
“It’s much more difficult to ask independent clubs to subsidize their competitors beyond a certain point when you have relegation and especially with the way media is rapidly changing and being consumed today.”
The report from the Telegraph also added that half of the total revenue is based on the final position of a club in the Premier League table and also the number of matches shown on British channels.
International revenue saw each club pick up £40.8 million, irrespective of their final position or their popularity abroad.
Henry does make sense as the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham and even Chelsea have really spread out to North America and Asia. They should be able to gain more for their efforts rather than having to split it with other clubs.
