West Ham get £500m boost as a landmark new overseas TV deal is confirmed, taking Premier League rights earnings past the £10bn mark.
The Hammers have made huge strides on the pitch under David Moyes over the last two years.
The arrival of Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky as the club’s second biggest stakeholder in a £150m deal back in November has also been seen as a major positive by West Ham fans.
A hugely disappointing January transfer window has dampened the excitement surrounding Kretinsky’s arrival somewhat.
But with majority stakeholder David Sullivan and his partner David Gold still involved, supporters are keeping their powder dry on judging the Sparta Prague owner just yet.
West Ham are fighting on three fronts during the run-in. Moyes’s side are right in contention for the European places, in the last 16 of the Europa League and still in the FA Cup.
And West Ham could not have chosen a better time to be fighting at the top end of the Premier League table.
Because the Irons, along with their top flight rivals, are set to get a £500m boost as a landmark new overseas TV deal taking rights earnings past the £10bn mark is confirmed.
Hammers News reported back in November that West Ham and their Premier League rivals were on course to benefit from a record overseas TV deal which would take the overall rights package past the £10bn mark.
And now that has proven to be true after a mammoth £5.3bn deal saw overseas rights surpass domestic in value for the first time ever bringing the total package over the next three seasons to more than £10bn.
West Ham’s hierarchy – and those at the 19 other clubs – were informed of the eyewatering deal today according to The Times.
West Ham will definitely be in the top flight next season and under Moyes should have no issues staying there in the years to come.
West Ham get £500m boost as landmark new overseas TV deal taking rights earnings past £10bn mark is confirmed
So that should – by crude estimates – mean a £500m boost to the club’s coffers.
“The Premier League’s income from broadcasting deals will break the £10 billion barrier over the next three seasons with overseas rights worth more than domestic for the first time, clubs have been told,” says The Times’s chief sports reporter Martyn Ziegler.
“International deals for 2022-25 will be worth £5.3 billion, up 30 per cent, with the domestic rights bringing in £5.1 billion and commercial contracts taking the total to £10.5 billion.
“The figures, seen by analysts as being remarkable in the face of a general global rights recession brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, were outlined to club chairmen and chief executives at a shareholders meeting in London.”
One thing the huge financial boost will do is pile the pressure on West Ham’s owners to start seriously backing Moyes in the transfer market.
The club failed with several bids in January. But with a host of players out of contract in the summer and several players already desperately required such as a striker, centre-back and left-back an expensive rebuild is on the cards in the next window.
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