BT Sport up for sale

[MajesticUnited]

As a previous poster mentioned, it was a better deal for the viewer when it was just Sky. Multiple subs is a killer for many fans. My personal preference would be Amazon.

Whilst it is unlikely for many many years, I think a complete United tv season ticket for every live match would be worth hundreds of millions a season, maybe more. I would have no problem paying £200 a season, for example, to watch every United match live and would be fine if this excluded me from being able to watch other teams (although obviously I’d like to be able to if I was given the choice).

This reminds me of Stephen Howson’s idea of MUTV being remodeled in a Netflix format with thousands of matches/interviews/documentaries available at any time. Great idea.

 

[crossy1686]

Seems like whoever tries to buy up the games Sky isn’t allowed to have end up collapsing or selling at some point. It’s a poisoned chalice if you have nothing else to offer other than the football, Sky at least have a bunch of other shit you can bundle in.

Someone like Amazon would be the biggest benefactors of this, they already have the platform for it.

 

[Maluco]

As a blanket statement no, obviously that isn’t the case for the majority of clubs but when you take away the giants it really isn’t as far fetched as you think.
Watford and Burnley are towns of less than 100,000 people. They both regularly fill a 25,000 seater. I mean we can sit here and pretend that there are thousands of Burnley and Watford fans outside of Burnley and Watford but that would be completely disingenuous.

Brentford and Palace are littered in with numerous London clubs and their catchment areas are again less than 100,000 people, in Brentford’s case less than 40,000. It’s a safe bet to suggest the fans that go to games for those clubs would be in the majority seeing as how their ground is always full.
Clubs like Fulham and Bournemouth have also knocked about in the prem recently and have similar fanbases to those type of teams.

Even places like Southampton and Brighton don’t have particularly large populations. For these clubs to hit triple figures in the thousands for supporters in their city, you’d have to suggest 1 in 2 people in the city support the club.
I’m not sure that’s likely….

Quite ironic the bolded part too.

What is ironic about it though?

I think your are widely underestimating football as a global sport and the PL’s popularity. I threw a few of the names you listed into Facebook/Google with random countries and found supporters groups on every try, often with thousands of followers. There are so many connections to foreign investment, summer trips, player connections etc… that have launched pockets of support for clubs all over the world.

There will be no PL team, and very few championships teams, if any, where the majority of the support are regular match going fans.

Even for the very smallest towns you listed, that math isn’t correct, and that’s completely discounting pockets of fans from all over the world.

 

[Sandikan]

I know what you are trying to say, but your statement was just a plain falsehood. There is 100% no club currently in the PL whose majority of fans are match goers. It’s not even close.

They are coming from big cities with hundreds of thousands of people and, nowadays, have supporters clubs all over the world in so many different countries (yes, even the minnows!)

The game has changed massively and the majority of fans for any club at this level being match goers is almost laughable in 2021, for any PL club.

What sort of fan base do you think Burnley for example are working from out of interest?

 

[Sandikan]

Not to sound harsh but I think you’re saying this from a very Man United armchair view point.
The majority of supporters from Premier League clubs are not scrounging around every weekend for a live stream, they’re at the game. 3pm is a perfect kick off time for most fans because it allows you ample time for the rest of your weekend. There’s also away travel to consider. They asked most fans and they said they preferred the 3pm kick off.
For a lot of families going to football on a Saturday is a family event and I’m sure most would prefer not to be dragging their kids around at night.
I do think the non live blackout is outdated and you could easily get rid and show a live game at 3pm.
However you cannot stream all the PL games because it will definitely affect match going attendances. It’s alright for tv companies and the Pl in this instance as they’ll still make their money but for the majority of clubs match day revenue is critical. And there is absolutely no doubt streaming every single game will impact that.

You've got it spot on pal.
There's so many armchair fans on here who wouldn't dream of going to games, who don't seem to realise there's a world of football outside of big club internet fans.

 

[Maluco]

What sort of fan base do you think Burnley for example are working from out of interest?

A small one, but not small enough to say that the majority of their fans are match going.

https://www.burnleyfc.no/

https://m.facebook.com/groups/175280605849230/

Just a few examples of supporters groups in other countries, of which there are multiple.

Not saying that Burnley need a mega licensing deal, but they are the most extreme example (unstylish, low number of foreign players, very small area) and still have many international supporters groups. It would be almost possible to have a prolonged stay in the Premier League, sign international players and not create at least a small international fan base.

I was a season ticket holder for Northern Ireland my whole life until I moved abroad, so I am not coming from the position of someone who doesn’t care about smaller teams. I really do. I just don’t think it’s right to say that PL teams have a “majority” match going fan base. Not anymore.

 

[Ludens the Red]

What is ironic about it though?

I think your are widely underestimating football as a global sport and the PL’s popularity. I threw a few of the names you listed into Facebook/Google with random countries and found supporters groups on every try, often with thousands of followers. There are so many connections to foreign investment, summer trips, player connections etc… that have launched pockets of support for clubs all over the world.

There will be no PL team, and very few championships teams, if any, where the majority of the support are regular match going fans.

Even for the very smallest towns you listed, that math isn’t correct, and that’s completely discounting pockets of fans from all over the world.

I think you might be overstating the popularity of the smaller clubs in the Prem. There is absolutely no way clubs like Watford and Burnley have thousands upon thousands of foreign supporters. That's just not true and doesn't make much sense anyway. I mean the facebook page of Burnley you've posted has 425 followers. I don't think it proves much , Is that supposed to be impressive? and be indicative of something? I'm not saying these clubs will have zero supporters outside the uk but the amount would barely scratch the surface. There's a reason you never see the likes of Watford and Burnley touring around America and Asia.

I'm not sure what maths isn't correct? those are literally the populations. The population of Burnley is 88,000. Their ground seats 22,000, its usually full. The idea that anywhere near 1 in 2 people in every town and city in the country follow their local team is absurd. With a town like Burnley, like most other cities and towns in the Uk, you're going to have a sizeable portion of the population who support the likes of Liverpool and Man United. So you've got all this eating into this 88,000 population of Burnley and then you do the math and it's quite easy to work out that the likelihood is most Burnley supporters go to Burnley games. I also wouldnt count 'fair weather' fans in this. The type who wouldnt even watch the game if it was on tele anyway.

 

[Maluco]

I think you might be overstating the popularity of the smaller clubs in the Prem. There is absolutely no way clubs like Watford and Burnley have thousands upon thousands of foreign supporters. That's just not true and doesn't make much sense anyway. I mean the facebook page of Burnley you've posted has 425 followers. I don't think it proves much , Is that supposed to be impressive? and be indicative of something? I'm not saying these clubs will have zero supporters outside the uk but the amount would barely scratch the surface. There's a reason you never see the likes of Watford and Burnley touring around America and Asia.

I'm not sure what maths isn't correct? those are literally the populations. The population of Burnley is 88,000. Their ground seats 22,000, its usually full. The idea that anywhere near 1 in 2 people in every town and city in the country follow their local team is absurd. With a town like Burnley, like most other cities and towns in the Uk, you're going to have a sizeable portion of the population who support the likes of Liverpool and Man United. So you've got all this eating into this 88,000 population of Burnley and then you do the math and it's quite easy to work out that the likelihood is most Burnley supporters go to Burnley games. I also wouldnt count 'fair weather' fans in this. The type who wouldnt even watch the game if it was on tele anyway.

I know what you were trying to say about the size, and I agree that there is a far bigger percentage of clubs like Burnley in the stands. 500 members isn’t big or impressive but when there are pockets like that one all over the world, then it’s immediately evident that the “majority” aren’t in the stands. It’s certainly not true for 15/16 of the clubs. We are arguing over a pretty extreme example in Burnley here, who are as unstylish as they come (sorry Burnley fans)

I am not arguing over your opinion about TV times. I just thought it was wrong to say that the majority of fans were in the grounds in the PL when even the most extreme example in Burnley, wouldn’t be true.

It might be a much bigger percentage in their case, but it’s still not the majority.

 

[Ayush_reddevil]

Isn’t this argument forgetting though that there is an away team too and so if Burnley are playing an away game then those 25000 ST holders are also being denied the opportunity to watch their team on tv. Only a handful of them might be able to go on away trips and so putting it on tv isn’t just for the Pl fans who aren’t going to games

 

[stubie]

I was hoping Disney would buy it so they could relaunch ESPN and ESPN Classic

 

[F-Red]

Joint venture with the Discovery Inc announced yesterday.

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-group-en...very-inc-to-create-new-sports--joint-venture/

 

[Bestietom]

MUTV.