About this time last year, the UK's IT Training magazine published its annual -˜top ten' tables - in terms of annual revenue - for UK bespoke eLearning content developers and off-the-shelf generic content providers (globally), along with the top five authoring tool providers and the top five LMS/LCMS providers. As far as the bespoke content producers were concerned, Line (£7.05m), Kineo (£5.20m) and Epic (£5.15m) occupied the top three places. They were all some way ahead of the rest.

In terms of off-the-shelf eLearning content providers, SkillSoft, with global revenues of £207.25m, was by far the world's leading producer. Its nearest rival - Element K - generated a mere £42.76m. Element K also featured in the LMS/LCMS providers table, with revenue of some £10.53m. However, Saba - like SkillSoft in the generic content table - was in the lead, with revenues of £72.06m.

So, assuming that there has been no dramatic changes in turnover among eLearning (and related) companies in the past year:

• The largest of the UK's bespoke content developers (Line) generates about as much income in a year as Samuel Eto'o does by himself.
• SkillSoft, alone of all the off-the-shelf content providers, is the only organisation in the global eLearning sector which is worth more than the top ten European footballers put together.

Might that mean that football is not just a more popular but also a more important activity than corporate learning and development? That's a sobering thought. Were it to be debated in the Oxford Union (which has held some high profile debates on eLearning during the past two years), the outcome may not turn out in favour of eLearning.

To continue the financial comparison between football and eLearning in the UK, Sky has revealed that English Premier League clubs spent £485m during the recent summer transfer window. Spending by the 20 English top-flight clubs was up by £120m, or 33%, on last summer's outlay. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United each topped £50m of transfer spending this summer. Moreover, Manchester United reported a record annual operating profit of £110.9m on revenues of £334.1m.

Oddly enough, Learning Light's report on the UK eLearning industry, published at the end of last year, reported that, at most, the UK eLearning industry was turning over some £472m a year. Moreover, the sector had only grown by eight per cent over the previous year.

So the Premier League clubs - by themselves - have spent slightly more money in buying and selling players this summer than the whole of the UK eLearning sector is turning over in a year. It sort of 'puts it all into perspective', doesn't it?

For over 20 years, Bob Little has specialised in writing about, and commentating on, corporate learning - especially elearning - and technology-related subjects. His work has been published in the UK, Continental Europe, the USA and Australia.
You can contact Bob.