The Future of Football viewing?

So today Sky and BT announced that they will charge 15 pounds for each match that is not on their normal broadcast schedule. (When I said this blog wouldn't be just about reviewing matches, I didn't know how much material I would have... )

Just some context for those unfamiliar with watching football in the UK.  If you want to watch at the stadium, I guess a ticket would cost anything from 20 to 200+ pounds, depending on which club you follow and whether you are a season ticket holder (for Arsenal fans, it would clearly be on the upper end of that range) or buying a ticket through the club or third parties. If you bring your family, that is a hefty investment, not to mention the expensive stadium food and drink.  There's also the commitment of time (and I have written about this here)

So you want to watch it on TV?  And you thought it would be like in Singapore where you just cough up a monthly subscription to Singtel or Starhub and have access to all games?  Nope, doesn't work that way.  First of all, not all games are broadcast.  You get at most 3 games on Saturday and maybe 2 on Sunday, depending on the kick-off times.  Oh and there is the additional quirk that 3 pm kick-offs won't ever be broadcast, because apparently it might discourage fans of lower league teams from going to the games - gate receipts are much more critical for those clubs because they have zero tv revenue.

Whoops I almost forgot, you think that even with such constraints, you can at least subscribe to just one provider for that limited fare?  Sorry, you are out of luck.  Sky carries some games, BT others, and even Amazon Prime has gotten in on the act by getting rights to a few games last season. 

OK so you decide you will forego some league games by only subscribing to Sky.  Is your team in the Champions League or Europa League?  You guessed it.  Sky doesn't cover them.  The games are carried by BT.  So Singapore viewers who complain about how much they pay to watch the EPL don't know how bad it is over here.

Because of the pandemic which prevented fans from getting to games, the media companies stepped up (admirably in my view) and arranged to broadcast all games without extra charge to subscribers.  But alas, the good times are over.

Putting aside my biased views for the moment, I sort of understand why they chose this path.  It is a good testing strategy for the pay-per-view market, which to me makes more sense if you only want to watch your club and don't want all the other extras (which are quite good to be fair to Sky - lots of great content).  And also putting aside all the reasons why I might disagree with the pre-pandemic situation in which I didn't get access to all games, this new 'offer' of access to games not on the schedule is at least an option I did not have previously.

And 15 pounds per game isn't that exorbitant - in London, a decent sit-down meal anywhere would cost more.  But I think the timing of it is not great - clearly they were 'able' to provide coverage at no extra cost up till now. For many people who are hurting from the pandemic's effects, every bit counts.  

Even if the media companies were minded to charge for this new service, they could have pegged it lower.  I think it is a potential missed opportunity.  They could have lowered the price and enticed more people to get on it.  As it stands, I think this might turn people off football or turn to "online solutions" as one writer put it (the more savvy probably already were.)

The outcome of this experiment will be interesting.  Like pubs, football is an integral part of the culture here.  Sky and BT have introduced a new dimension that may still turn out well if they get it right.