TV GLUT MAY HIT CROWDS

THERE will be 86 live games shown on British TV this week, despite concerns over the impact the proliferation of televised football is having on attendances. More than 129 hours of football will be shown across Sky Sports, BT Sport, the BBC and online platforms including Eleven Sports, which will show 17 matches. It includes last night’s Premier League match between Arsenal and Leicester, 16 Champions League fixtures and 12 midweek Championship games via the red button on Sky. The list does not include the Championship, League One and League Two games available via the EFL’s new streaming service, iFollow, or the clubs’ own websites. There have long been concerns that making too many matches accessible on TV leads to fewer people turning up to watch live. Research due to be published in European Sport Management

Quarterly shows that televising ‘high-end football’ causes a dip in attendances in the lower tiers of English football. Having studied 27,000 Football League matches since 2000, academics found that the biggest fall in gates came in midweek fixtures in League Two on nights when BT Sport show Champions League football.