TV earnings rise despite United's poor season

United may have finished seventh in the league table, but they're up to the giddy heights of sixth in the only table that really matters: the TV money table.

Yes, the Premier League has announced how this season's television monies will be distributed. United earn the sixth most, £89,161,831, which is just more than Everton despite United having finished eight points behind Roberto Martinez's men. Top earners this season were Liverpool, who despite slipping up in the title race earned £97,544,336, just under a million more than champions City.

United's share of the money breaks down as follows. Each side in the Premier League received £52.2m, which is an equal share of domestic TV income, plus overseas and central commercial earnings. They then receive varying amounts depending on their final position in the table and facility fees for each game that was televised. In United's case, seventh place earned £17.3m (City, in first, got £23.5m) and 25 live matches earned facility fees of £19.7m (Liverpool, with 28 live games, got £21.9m).

For United, this season's earnings represent an increase of £28.4m on 2012/13. This rise is due to the Premier League's thumping new £3bn television deal with Sky and BT, which kicked in this season and will run to the end of 2015/16. As a result, this season Cardiff City earned more for finishing 20th than United did last season as champions. The very first Premier League television deal, incidentally, totalled £304m over 5 years, less than the bottom five received just for this season.

Good times to be a Glazer.