Portsmouth chief on 'really big' multi-million pound cash boost for club's coffers as they take on Leeds United, Norwich City, West Brom, Sunderland & Co

Andy Cullen savoured the ‘immense’ new Sky Sports TV deal for Pompey as they prepare for the Championship.

The Blues chief executive acknowledged the groundbreaking £935m agreement with the EFL will make a huge difference for the club’s coffers, following their League One title win.

The launch of Sky Sports+ in August sounds the start of 1,000 EFL games being screened each campaign, with each Championship club shown 24 times.

The deal across five years is a £300m uplift on the previous agreement and is weighted heavily in favour of Championship clubs.

Previously the split was approximately Championship 70 per cent, League One 18 per cent and League Two 12 per cent.

The uplifted element’s split between the divisions will be 80 per cent to the Championship, 12 per cent to League One and eight per cent League Two, according to the EFL.

That means each Championship club will receive around £5.7m per year under the new domestic deal.

Additionally, an international distribution deal was confirmed earlier this year, which is worth £147.7m over four years.

With Pompey needing to compete with sides who have playing budgets many times their own, it’s a sum which make a huge difference as they go about their transfer business this summer.

Cullen said: ‘Going into the Championship the increase in broadcast revenue is immense.

‘Championship clubs share 80 per cent of the TV revenue. In League One it’s 12 per cent.

‘So any increase in the new TV deal is a benefit for all clubs - but a significant benefit to Championship clubs. That’s really, really big for us.

‘It’s a significant number and it’s a good deal the EFL have put together because It’s a very, very tough broadcast market at the moment.’

It’s also been confirmed ITV will also be able to simultaneously broadcast some Championship games next season free-to-air along with some Carabao Cup games, in a reported £15m agreement.

That will stretch to 10 Championship fixtures each full season, starting next January and running until the end of the 2026-27 campaign.

ITV will also be extending its EFL highlights package - screening 55 programmes each season.

Cullen added: ‘There’s some good news for clubs in terms of the highlights package for the EFL.

‘Highlights has never been a big earner for clubs. It tends to be more about branding, it’s exposure for the EFL brand.

‘Free highlights on free-to-air doesn’t generate a huge amount of money because if you look now you can download highlights really, really early.

‘It’s a market which has changed significantly from what it used to be when we all waited to watch our teams on Saturday evenings. Now you can get it on your phone really easily.

‘We’re in a slightly different world when it comes to that, it’s all about live coverage now for where the value is.’