Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

No Price hike for UK Fans — but there is a catch

Will fans profit or pay for the megabucks television deal? I know what you are thinking — someone is going to have to pay through the nose to subsidise Sky and BT’s monstrous £5.136 billion (S$10.7 billion) investment in screening Premier League football between 2016 and 2019.

Will fans profit or pay for the megabucks television deal? I know what you are thinking — someone is going to have to pay through the nose to subsidise Sky and BT’s monstrous £5.136 billion (S$10.7 billion) investment in screening Premier League football between 2016 and 2019.

British fans will suffer when subscription costs rocket, right? Wrong — or at least I think so, any way.

The way we watch, and pay for, sport in Britain is really rather convoluted. Every household in the United Kingdom that owns a colour TV is legally obliged to pay a licence fee of £145.40 a year, or slightly more than £12 a month.

In return, we get five free-to-air channels, one of which, the BBC, shows highlights of every Premier League game on a Saturday and Sunday night. Match of the Day is an institution and we love it.

That is good but, if you truly adore football, it is not good enough. You need access to Sky Sports and BT Sport to watch live games and there are various ways this can be done (view graphic).

The costs aren’t crazy, are they? Not when you consider that most top-level sport is also screened on these channels in addition to Premier League football.

However, there is a catch. Rather shrewdly, each provider will not allow us to pay for sport on its own. It comes only as a bolt-on to other TV or Internet package deals.

For example, with Sky, you would have to pay at least another £17.20 a month (for a deal including 35 other channels you may not want) to qualify for the sports deal.

With Virgin Media, the minimum package is £18 extra for something similar, while BT offers free sport channels only if you sign up for their £13-a-month broadband package. All deals come with 12- and 18-month contracts that tie you in.

The truth is, these two media giants have different battlegrounds in mind that actually have very little to do with the Beautiful Game.

Sky wants to produce so much quality television that everyone in the UK signs up for its packages. BT, on the other hand, is looking to corner the broadband market completely.

Both are using the carrot of Premier League football as a tool to help achieve these goals. And they know we cannot get enough of it.

So, why won’t we suffer a price hike when the cheques are signed? Sky has gone on record to say it is looking to cover the extra costs in cuts to other areas of its business and, in light of its loss of Champions League football to BT next season, raising fees would be a public relations own goal for it.

As for BT, it is swimming in cash and, for as long as it is picking up new broadband customers on the back of football, it is happy to tick along in the same way. It is a relief for the fans.

However, while customers in the UK may not be paying extortionate amounts to watch Premier League football on TV, it does cost a bomb to buy a ticket — Arsenal’s most expensive ticket of £129.50 is the Premier League’s priciest — and this is what everyone is talking about in Britain.

Will the 20 clubs that receive huge windfalls from TV money next year opt to lower their admission prices as a gesture of goodwill? They can certainly afford to. Already, they are under pressure to do so and I sense there may be an uproar if they don’t.

Part of what makes the Premier League such an attractive spectacle is the sight of full stadia. With Sky and BT forking out £10.2 million a match, there will be no excuse for empty seats.

Maybe, just maybe, fans will profit from this mega deal too.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Adrian Clarke is a former Arsenal midfielder who has played at every level of English football. Now an experienced sports journalist, he writes for publications around the world. Follow him on Twitter @adrianjclarke.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.