More money for elite but fans may end up short-changed
New broadcast deal looks good for clubs and TV companies but not for match-going supporters
In feeding the 20 cash-hungry shareholders in the game that always wants more, pushing the boundaries for broadcasters is crucial to the Premier League. For the top flight of English football that will mean, from the beginning of the 2019-2020 season, more live matches for broadcast, more innovation and, the clubs hope, more money.
The latest television rights tender, as revealed by The Daily Telegraph, sees a push by the league to offer more games in a new format to its domestic rights partners, currently Sky Sports and BT Sport, without invoking the wrath of the traditional matchgoing fan.
The boldest move is in packages F and G, which offer a total of four full midweek and Bank Holiday Premier League programmes during the season, all to be broadcast simultaneously with the viewer interactively taking their pick.
For British television viewers it is a chance for the first time to choose their team’s game rather than have it dictated to them by the schedulers.
It is intended to keep disruption of the fixture programme to a minimum while offering something new and copies BT Sport’s concept for the Champions League where all games are available to their subscribers. It may also scare off potential competition to the big two broadcasters from new platforms, with newcomers concerned that they would not have the technology to broadcast simultaneously 10 live games.
It also draws some attention from what will be the most unpopular part of the new rights tender for match-going fans – the introduction, in package C, of eight matches a season to be played at 7.45pm on a Saturday evening. For away fans, and some home supporters, travelling long distances to watch their team, this is likely to serve up the usual public transport nightmare that does not cater for travelling late at night. The concept of the Friday night game also survives – part of package E – despite those fixtures contributing to the traffic congestion typical on that day of the week.