English football - recession-proof?

A value for the Premier League's latest live television rights deal (with BSkyB and Setanta) has just been announced - £1.78 billion - which raises some interesting questions: is this conclusive evidence that the Premier League is recession-proof? Does it guarantee a further three years of affluence for the world's richest football league? Is the Premier League set to grow even stronger? Will we see more problems with competitve balance across English, and indeed European, football as a result of this latest deal?