Real Madrid finish second behind Barcelona in La Liga TV revenue for 2023/24 | OneFootball

It is no secret that television rights account for a big chunk of the economic inflow for top European clubs and thus help them sustain their large budgets.

Real Madrid, as the winners of La Liga last season and one of the most popular teams in the world, would thus be expected to top the league in terms of television revenue in 2023-24.

As relayed by Mundo Deportivo earlier today, however, Los Blancos finished in second place last season as they earned a total of €159.55 million from La Liga television rights last season. Notably, they earned €161.24 million for the 2022/23 season.

Barcelona, in comparison, beat the Merengues with €162.49 million while Atletico Madrid followed them with €117.89 million.

The reason for the difference

Real Madrid’s position behind Barcelona on the list in no way implies that Los Blancos’ games were less followed than those of the Blaugrana.

In fact, the reason behind the difference lies purely in the calculation scheme of the television revenue.

50% of the revenue earned is distributed equally between all clubs and the remaining half is further subdivided into two equal components.

25% of the revenue depends on the team’s sporting results over the past five seasons while the final 25% depends on the social contributions of the club including subscriptions, social networks etc.

Most importantly, however, there are incentives for collaborating with the broadcast in terms of interviews before and after games and in the specially organised ‘media day’ before games between the big three.

Barcelona participate in all such events and regularly allows players to face the media, thus earning a larger sum of incentives. Real Madrid, meanwhile, do not encourage such interviews and thus lose out.