How much money Charlton Athletic will earn from Sky Sports TV deal in 2025/26 | OneFootball

The Addicks are returning to the Championship for 2025/26

Charlton Athletic are back in the Championship for the 2025/26 season, putting an end to a five-year stay in League One, their longest in the third tier since the 1980s.

It's been a tough few years for Addicks fans, who have had to endure their club languishing in League One's mid-table for a while, with the side finishing as low as 16th in the 2023/24 campaign.

However, under Nathan Jones, the future is looking bright. The Welshman has committed to Charlton despite interest from Cardiff City, and the club are looking to crack on and ensure that their stay in the Championship is a lot longer than their one-season trip back in the 2019/20 term.

With promotion to the Championship, Charlton will be raking in more money too, from advertising to broadcasting rights. But, how much exactly does a Championship side earn from being televised compared to a side in League One?

Football League World has had a look to find out how beneficial it is to be promoted out of the third tier from a pure broadcasting standpoint.

How much Charlton Athletic will earn from the EFL Sky deal

We are heading into the second season of the current Sky Sports five-year deal with the EFL, a deal which sees a minimum of 328 Championship games and 248 League One and Two games televised.

The announcement read that this deal is made up of guaranteed payments of £895 million as well as £40 million in marketing benefits, which is a 50% increase on the value of the previous rights agreement.

Whilst the article goes on to say that streamed games on Sky Sports + have a minimum of four cameras for both Championship and League One matches, it is a known fact that more second-tier games get shown on their existing channels, which have a bigger production and, therefore, will generate more revenue for clubs.

But how much more, exactly? Wales Online published an article detailing the loss of income if and when Cardiff City were to be relegated from the Championship to League One, so looking at that from the opposite side will give a good estimate of how much more Charlton will be expected to earn next season from the broadcasting deal.

The new deal sees Championship clubs earn around £3-4 million per season, plus per-match fees which could land anywhere between £500,000 and £1.5 million per season.

Then, solidarity payments from the Premier League to non-parachute payment Championship clubs are estimated to be around £5 million per side.

Therefore, Charlton are expected to earn anywhere between an estimated £9.5 million and £12.5 million across the upcoming campaign from the TV deal alone.

Championship TV deal represents a big contrast to League One

According to Wales Online, the Sky Sports deal is significantly lower for sides in Leagues One and Two.

In League One, Charlton and other sides were estimated to bring in around £800,000-£900,000 from TV rights, with international rights accumulating an extra £300,00-£500,000.

Per-match fees see a decrease from as much as £1.5 million in the Championship to £200,000 in League One, and the solidarity payments from the Premier League only see third-tier sides rake in about £780,000.

Therefore, League One clubs are estimated to bring in between £2 million and £2.4 million each year through the current TV deal, around four times less than sides in the division above.

As mentioned before, Charlton will be hoping that they can make their stay in the Championship a little longer than the last time they returned to the second tier, not just because of the standards of competition, but also through the clear monetary advantage it gives them over clubs in lower divisions.