Sevilla President Jose Maria del Nido, an outspoken critic of the current system under which Real and Barca take half the annual pot of around 600 million euros, has compared his campaign to the French revolution.
The colourful lawyer convened a meeting this month with officials from 11 apparently like-minded La Liga clubs who want the sale of the rights to the league to be centralised and income shared as in rival European competitions.
However, the movement already appears to be running out of steam and Real and Barca, the world's richest clubs by revenue who earn close to 500 million euros a season, are unlikely to agree to give up their privileged position, analysts said.
"Only with a gun to the head and maybe not even then," Placido Rodriguez, a professor of economics at Oviedo University and a former chairman of La Liga club Sporting Gijon, told Reuters.
"If nothing changes the gap between the two heavyweights and the rest can only get wider."
Barca earned a total of almost 180 million euros from television contracts in the 2009/10 season, including non-Spanish deals, with Real reaping just under 160 million, according to the latest Deloitte Football Money League published in February.
A study last year by Sport+Markt, a consulting firm, showed the pair earned almost 19 times more from TV than the smallest clubs in Spain's top division, by far the biggest gap in the major European leagues.
The richest clubs in the English Premier League, which generates more than a billion euros a year in broadcast revenue, earned about 1.7 times more than their smaller rivals.
Real and Barca have declined requests for comment on the Sevilla-led campaign for change.
EASIER SALE
Introducing a system of collective bargaining in Spain may help clubs boost total revenue per season for La Liga TV rights to around 900 million euros, putting the competition on a par with Italy's Serie A, according to Jose Maria Gay, a professor of accounting at Barcelona University.
"Assuming all the clubs implement rigorous financial controls, La Liga would win in terms of footballing potential," Gay told Reuters.
"The clubs would be in a better position to build more competitive squads, as long as they use the extra injection of money sensibly.
"La Liga would be more competitive, results would be closer and making the league more exciting would mean selling the product around the world would be much easier.
"Real Madrid and Barcelona must be convinced to take a major step forward and centralise their audiovisual rights as soon as possible. Spanish football would be the winner."
The difference in class and spending power between Real and Barca and their domestic rivals has been underlined by some massively one-sided matches since the start of the season.
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