Internationally, the Premier League is the most popular league in all of football, with a jaw-dropping 188 of 193 countries showing Premier League games.
When the Premier League was founded in 1992, this certainly was not the case; German, Spanish, and Italian football were equally or more popular abroad than the English game. But in just a short time, Premier League scores were seen scrolling across TV screens around the world.
And it goes beyond just football, the Premier League is the most respected British brand among younger and middle-aged people in many countries.
What accounts for this meteoric rise in popularity? Is it down to branding, quality of play, love for cold rainy nights in Stoke, or some combination of these factors?
Foundations
To understand how the Premier League has become a household name from Brazil to India and everywhere in between, we have to look at how the league was founded.
Unlike other major European leagues, the Premier League divides television revenue quite evenly, with 50% of the revenue split between the 20 teams, 25% percent based on how often a team is featured on television, and the last 25% divvied up based on league position at the end of the season.
The distribution has allowed teams historically at the lower end of the table to better compete with top English teams.
For example, in the 2018/19 season, Manchester City received £150 million after finishing first, while last-place Huddersfield Town received £96 million. In Spain, La Liga handed out €166 million, while last-place Huesca received just €44 million.
Spain’s La Liga and other top leagues have adopted more equal-pay schemes in recent years to match the Premier League, but the parity in the English game is unmatched.
This makes the average Premier League game more competitive and fun to watch, and a bigger number of teams harbour league-winner ambitions.
Television
Perhaps the most important strategy behind the Premier League’s success has been international television. While other top leagues prioritized domestic coverage, the Premier League aggressively expanded into international markets with a polished product and sleek presentation.
Rather than fret over small numbers, the Premier League instead took every deal as an opportunity to spread its game across the globe.
That bet paid off, as now millions of fans in the UK and across the world tune in for Premier League action, and consumers demand Premier League football on TV, driving up the price of television rights.
This has led to a feedback loop. Since the Premier League attracts so many eyeballs, nearly every brand, both big and small, wants in on the action. The Premier League and its clubs have sponsors in every country in the world, and with that extra sponsorship money, the calibre of player and play only increases.
With plenty of talk of a European Super League as the top European clubs look to rake in even more money, the Premier League can pull its top clubs away from the idea by assuring a connection to the best brand in football. This makes the Premier League a force to be reckoned with and the king of the hill that at this moment looks invincible.