When ITV Digital went into administration on Wednesday, football clubs became very worried. The 72 clubs of the Nationwide League had been counting on the broadcaster to pay them for TV rights to their games.
We've commissioned a survey of Nationwide League football clubs asking them whether they would suffer severe financial difficulty should ITV Digital fail to pay the money it's supposed to. Around half said this was either quite likely or very likely.
We asked the question: "If the ITV Digital contribution to your club's funds is not forthcoming this summer, how likely is it that your club will face severe financial difficulties?"
The options were:
very likely quite likely quite unlikely very unlikely
We managed to contact 41 clubs - 8 from the first division, 33 from the others. They replied:
Very likely: 9 Quite likely: 11 Quite unlikely: 12 Very unlikely: 9
Of the first division teams, 4 said very likely, 4 said quite likely. Obviously the first division teams depend more on television revenues and have higher player wage bills.
ITV Digital went into administration after last minute talks with the Football League failed to renegotiate their deal for the broadcasting of 1st, 2nd and 3rd division matches. Two years remain of the original 3-year £315m deal and nearly £180m is owed to the league over that period. ITV Digital has been struggling financially and had warned that unless the Football league accepted settlement of £50m, it would collapse. The League responded that without the funds they had been promised, several of the 72 league clubs would also collapse.
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Cameraman at football game.
Listen - Former sports minister Tony Banks and Gordon Taylor, Chief Executive of the Professional Footballers Association, discuss the effects of the collapse of ITV Digital on football's first division and lower leagues.
