La Liga has revealed the distribution breakdown of television and audiovisual revenues for the 2023/24 campaign. The figures published by La Liga show that FC Barcelona brought in more income from television rights in than La Liga champions Real Madrid.
The total amount distributed across La Liga clubs adds up to €1.35 billion ($1.41 billion), with huge disparities between the highest earners and clubs at the bottom of the table. Barcelona, in this case, brought in almost four times as much money in audiovisual revenues as UD Almería, who had the lowest income of any side in La Liga last season.
In detail, Barcelona registered €162.49 million ($170.42 million) in television revenue, compared to Real Madrid’s €159.55 million ($167.34 million). After reductions, for contributions towards the Spanish Soccer Federation, La Liga, relegated clubs, and the Spanish government, Barcelona has a final revenue of €148.68 million ($155.94 million) while Real Madrid brings in €145.99 million ($153.11 million). That leaves a difference of €2.69 million ($2.82 million).
The difference between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid
Part of television revenues are defined by the league standings, with the highest percentage going to the league winners, in this case Real Madrid, and working down. The victors take 15.4% of the total, while that then scales down to 0.23% for the side who finish bottom the standings. In this case, Real Madrid bring in 1.81% more than their Clásico rivals.
However, part of the funds are also allocated according to “social reach”. This is calculated with two different factors. One-third of the money is allocated based on the revenue teams have earned from season tickets and average match-day earnings over the past five seasons. The remaining two-thirds is determined by each team’s contribution to generating income from televised broadcasts, such as attracting viewers and boosting broadcast revenue.
In this case, we see Barcelona benefit from some of the measures which La Liga have implemented to bring in more viewers to their coverage, such as allowing locker room access for cameras before kick-off. Real Madrid have prohibited this access to camera crews and made a public stand against the measure.
Other clubs brought in almost a quarter of Barcelona’s TV revenue
Away from the Clásico duo, only one other club broke the nine-digit barrier, Atlético Madrid. The Rojiblancos had income of €117.89 million ($122.82 million), which was still more than double that of 11 other teams in the competition.
Among those to stand out from the distribution is Girona. The team mounted an exciting title challenge, eventually finishing third in the table and qualifying for the UEFA Champions League. However, their income from television rights was just €49.8 million ($51.88 million), which is less than half of Atlético, who finished one place below them in the table.
These figures are before reductions were made to the initial revenue figures. The total amount of reductions for La Liga clubs sums up to €118.52 million ($124.3 million). This comes from each club’s deductions, which amount to three percent going to the Spanish government, two percent going to the Spanish Soccer Federation, two-and-a-half percent going to funds for relegated clubs and one percent going to La Liga.