Each year, England's top 20 football teams share £1.7B ($2.2B) in domestic broadcast revenue, according to David Hellier of BLOOMBERG. The 72 teams below the Premier League share just £88M ($113M) a year. The English Football League "needs more money," and Derby County Chair Mel Morris said that he has "a way to get it." Morris is lobbying other club owners and execs to "rethink the league's media strategy." If instead of selling all of its broadcast rights to one company, the league "divided them between pay TV, free TV and online media," Morris said that the league "could get as much as" £300M ($384M) a year -- "considerably more" than the £180M ($230M) the EFL is reportedly "close to agreeing to." In a proposal to the league owners and execs, Morris wrote, "To lock up the U.K. rights to all EFL games, for three seasons, with a contract that only envisaged monetizing nine percent of the games was, and is, commercial suicide." In a statement, the EFL said, "The EFL will not be making any comment on the sale of its domestic broadcasting rights until the tender process has been completed and the required approvals have been secured. There is no timetable or deadline in place to complete this" (BLOOMBERG, 8/24).
