Premier League on TV

[drdoityourself]

It's been a strange season for televised matches. I don't know how it's been but it seems like we are moving further away from being able to count on seeing our teams play live on TV. Most European TV deals have quotas and the Saturday afternoon kickoffs are more often than not, not on TV. Teams that in Europa League are moved to Sundays, often on the same time as a previously scheduled live match so their games are harder to see.

The Premier League is not helping anyone by refusing to get with the times. Almost any other big league offers you a chance to legally watch your favorite teams. Arsenal fans in my country, have now 'missed' three games in a few weeks due to scheduling. 'Missed' I say because it's still easy to stream their matches.

The league is helping no one, I'd like to think match going fans are still going to matches even though a game is shown on TV, because it's not remotely the same experience. Those who buy expensive rights to show the PL still look like villains because they have to choose between games, often alienating fanbases of teams that are not called Manchester United or Liverpool. Fans who buy subscriptions become jaded when you can't count on games being shown and end up illegally streaming, thus losing the PL money.

The TV deal in my country just keeps getting worse and worse, less games make it to TV, making me more apathetic to the league as a whole.

Who is this helping? Are fans in England happy with how things are?

 

[Snow]

A fairly accurate of the current situation. The US have it best with their special deal and cheap subscription. I went through a whole thing to be able to watch their broadcasts because of that, more games for less money.

Honestly what you are supposed to do is not buy a subscription. Every single time re-negotiation is up the price goes up whether if there's a bidding war or a single buyer.

Who is this helping? The FA and the clubs. Not so much the TV stations really because the profit margins aren't really there anymore.

 

[SirAF]

It's been a strange season for televised matches. I don't know how it's been but it seems like we are moving further away from being able to count on seeing our teams play live on TV. Most European TV deals have quotas and the Saturday afternoon kickoffs are more often than not, not on TV. Teams that in Europa League are moved to Sundays, often on the same time as a previously scheduled live match so their games are harder to see.

The Premier League is not helping anyone by refusing to get with the times. Almost any other big league offers you a chance to legally watch your favorite teams. Arsenal fans in my country, have now 'missed' three games in a few weeks due to scheduling. 'Missed' I say because it's still easy to stream their matches.

The league is helping no one, I'd like to think match going fans are still going to matches even though a game is shown on TV, because it's not remotely the same experience. Those who buy expensive rights to show the PL still look like villains because they have to choose between games, often alienating fanbases of teams that are not called Manchester United or Liverpool. Fans who buy subscriptions become jaded when you can't count on games being shown and end up illegally streaming, thus losing the PL money.

The TV deal in my country just keeps getting worse and worse, less games make it to TV, making me more apathetic to the league as a whole.

Who is this helping? Are fans in England happy with how things are?

Yeah, agreed. I have always thought that’s a ridiculous argument. Those who are geographically and financially able to go to the matches are obviously still going to do that regardless of the match being on TV.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Why is Villa vs. Wolves on 2 channels at the same time? Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League? That makes no sense, they have cameras at both games, why not put one on Main Event and the other on Premier League?

Am I missing something here? This literally makes no sense. One game on two channels, one not on tv? What the actual feck?

Surely United would draw a bigger viewership for them? I get that Villa and Wolves need to be on tv and that's cool, but put United on the other channel.

 

[duffer]

Why is Villa vs. Wolves on 2 channels at the same time? Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League? That makes no sense, they have cameras at both games, why not put one on Main Event and the other on Premier League?

Am I missing something here? This literally makes no sense. One game on two channels, one not on tv? What the actual feck?

Surely United would draw a bigger viewership for them? I get that Villa and Wolves need to be on tv and that's cool, but put United on the other channel.

Not everyone has both channels. The usually have the "Super Sundays" on both but for many, many games, they don't.

 

[acnumber9]

Why is Villa vs. Wolves on 2 channels at the same time? Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League? That makes no sense, they have cameras at both games, why not put one on Main Event and the other on Premier League?

Am I missing something here? This literally makes no sense. One game on two channels, one not on tv? What the actual feck?

Surely United would draw a bigger viewership for them? I get that Villa and Wolves need to be on tv and that's cool, but put United on the other channel.

They’re limited on the number of live games they can show.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

In Canada we used to have the games televised on the major sports networks, TSN and SportsNet. On a Saturday morning I could pick between 4 matches to watch. But this year TSN and SportsNet lost their rights to the EPL (and lost Champions League last year) so the only way to watch it is either on a illegal stream that keeps buffering every 5 minutes, or to pay for DAZN.com to watch the games at $20/month. Mind you, on DAZN I can now watch every game, including FA Cup, League Cup, EPL, Champions League and Europa, but that $20, even though not that expensive, is an expense that I never had to worry about before...

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Why is Villa vs. Wolves on 2 channels at the same time? Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League? That makes no sense, they have cameras at both games, why not put one on Main Event and the other on Premier League?

Am I missing something here? This literally makes no sense. One game on two channels, one not on tv? What the actual feck?

Surely United would draw a bigger viewership for them? I get that Villa and Wolves need to be on tv and that's cool, but put United on the other channel.

It's on Sky One as well, so I can watch it if I want, as I don't have Sky Sports.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

It's pretty wild that you can fork out a significant amount of money for Sky TV and then add both Sky Sports and BT Sport packages on top (which without any sort of pricing offer racks up to around £80 - £100 a month), and you still can't watch every game of the team you support. Fans of top 6 clubs are fortunate that we're televised way more than most. It's an absolutely lousy deal if you're a a supporter of anyone that isn't United, Liverpool, City, Spurs, Arsenal or Chelsea.

On the flipside, I pay just shy of £20 a month for NHL TV, and I can watch any game involving any team, live or on demand, full game or condensed highlights, home or away coverage, and there's a hell of a lot more hockey games than Premier League football in a season. A fraction of the price for way, way more coverage of the sport.

Why do the Premier League put the coverage in the hands of broadcasters? Why not broadcast it themselves via their own platform, as the major North American sports do. People are willing to pay for content if it is available and reliable, where as with Sky and BT it is half-arsed at best. The PL could do it much better themselves if they wanted to.

The fact that TV coverage is far better in other countries than the country where the competition is based really takes the piss. They can't complain about fans using illegal streams if they're not going to show it. Do they really think people are just not going to watch the game somehow, and instead sit and wait patiently for that 8 minutes of chopped up highlights on Match of the Day at 11:45pm or whatever stupid time it's on these days? If they really believe that, they are massively disconnected from the culture and the fandom of the sport.

 

[11101]

The league is run by people who don't understand the concept of streaming and Sky don't want to help them along because Sky doesn't have the infrastructure to support it. Everyone wants change but there is nothing fans can do about it.

At this point the ship is very close to sailing. Illegal streams are getting so good I am no longer sure I would fork out for essentially the same product from Sky, and certainly not at the prices they charge now.

 

[Buchan]

Plenty of us have been calling for club-specific season passes for many years now. It makes the most economic sense for all involved: fans get to see their club every week, in every competition, and you’re not left scratching around watching Brighton v Southampton on a ’Super Sunday’.

I haven’t subscribed to Sky in years but I’d fork out for a ‘season pass’ to watch all United games in a heartbeat. Offer a season pass for every club and then a reduced rate for a general Premier League package where you can watch the other fixtures as you see fit. The current system is mind-bogglingly expensive yet offers probably a 5/10 package in terms of fixtures attractability overall.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

They should do season passes, so I can buy a pass for all United games & stream them to whatever device I want.

No disrespect to them but I don't care about watching Wolves vs Villa.

 

[Sandikan]

How much would be a reasonable fee for one of these season passes?
£20?
£50?
£100?

 

[Dan_F]

Season passes per club make a lot of sense. I personally don’t watch a huge amount of non United football anymore.

I can understand the logic of the Saturday afternoon kick offs not being televised. It’s harsh for the people who genuinely support the club in question. But it’s to protect the lower leagues which are massively attended compared to other countries.

These leagues all play at 3pm every week and the argument is that a lot of those fans might have second Premier League teams who’d they rather watch in the pub for example. Or just a groups of lads who would normally go to a local 3pm game might just stay in a pub from 12-7pm as they can watch three games in a row.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

The Premier League is not helping anyone by refusing to get with the times.

Absolutely right. Suddenly because United aren't being shown at 3pm I'm going to say "oh well, I'll go and watch Feckstick Albion play in the Regional Amateur Mud Pitch Conference because I still want my football fix"? Nah mate, I'll just stay at home and have a wank.

 

[drdoityourself]

Another weekend another scheduling problem. I can't for the life of me understand why there isn't another game put in the early Sunday slot. There were plenty to choose from the afternoon kickoff yesterday.

And why has the later Sunday game been delayed by half an hour? It was always at four o'clock but this year and last it was held back. I don't see a good reason for having the game so late.

I know I probably sound like an old man yelling at cloud but it's like the Premier League has no interest in staying on top for fans all over the world. Fewer live games, random time slots regularly scrapped so you can't count on certain kick-off times.

 

[MsNuno]

Just turned on sky expecting 4pm kick off wtf is 4.30 about? Just make it difficult for travelling fans

 

[FootballHQ]

It was in new TV deal that Sunday late games would kick off at half 4 for some reason. No idea why on Sunday where there's just one live game, you could've played this at 3pm for example.

Personally I'd scrap Monday night games, never liked them.

 

[Fox_Chrys]

It's pretty wild that you can fork out a significant amount of money for Sky TV and then add both Sky Sports and BT Sport packages on top (which without any sort of pricing offer racks up to around £80 - £100 a month), and you still can't watch every game of the team you support. Fans of top 6 clubs are fortunate that we're televised way more than most. It's an absolutely lousy deal if you're a a supporter of anyone that isn't United, Liverpool, City, Spurs, Arsenal or Chelsea.

On the flipside, I pay just shy of £20 a month for NHL TV, and I can watch any game involving any team, live or on demand, full game or condensed highlights, home or away coverage, and there's a hell of a lot more hockey games than Premier League football in a season. A fraction of the price for way, way more coverage of the sport.

Why do the Premier League put the coverage in the hands of broadcasters? Why not broadcast it themselves via their own platform, as the major North American sports do. People are willing to pay for content if it is available and reliable, where as with Sky and BT it is half-arsed at best. The PL could do it much better themselves if they wanted to.

The fact that TV coverage is far better in other countries than the country where the competition is based really takes the piss. They can't complain about fans using illegal streams if they're not going to show it. Do they really think people are just not going to watch the game somehow, and instead sit and wait patiently for that 8 minutes of chopped up highlights on Match of the Day at 11:45pm or whatever stupid time it's on these days? If they really believe that, they are massively disconnected from the culture and the fandom of the sport.

You hit the nail on the head. The prices are high which is bad enough, but the fact only a fraction of my club's games are aired makes it absolutely horrible value. They need to agree a deal where every game is aired.

Also sky sports used to do extended highlights via the red button on Saturday evenings and these have now stopped. They even had a game of the day which was the full 90 minutes. So the service is actually going downhill in return for the higher price.

With our current league position and manager we are on more this season, which is a bit better, but obviously the issue is still very bad for the teams outside of the big 6 and ourselves. In our title season, I think our last 8 games in a row or something were live on sky.

 

[Jonno]

To be fair, my virgin broadband went up to £55 for the fastest one they offer.

I cancelled it and took out Sky Entertainment, Sky Sports and Sky Broadband for £54.

I'm a quid up and I'm finally watching 4k HD games live instead of SD streaming 5 minutes behind.

 

[AshRK]

So will all the PL games in December be shown on Amazon? No sky or BT then?

 

[Sassy Colin]

The way it is set up is pathetic, it costs a fortune and you can't even see the matches in the country they are played in.

Is there any wonder that people use illegal streams?

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

So will all the PL games in December be shown on Amazon? No sky or BT then?

No.

Just the 3rd-5th Dec midweek fixtures & 26th-27th Dec festive fixtures will be shown on Amazon.

I’m intrigued to see how this goes as if it’s a success, I can see Amazon bidding for more packages.