November 19 – The debate over how much English Premier League football should be televised live domestically is back on the agenda. UK broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has opened an investigation into how the Premier League sells media rights following a complaint from Virgin Media, which claims more matches should be available for live broadcast.
BSkyB and BT share the rights to televise Premier League games and the bidding process will soon be under way for the next deal from 2016 onwards.
Virgin are unhappy with the current “collective selling” arrangements for games played by the Premier League’s 20 clubs, saying it is in breach of competition law. The media group says the proportion of matches made available for live television broadcast under current rules, 41%, is lower than some other leading European leagues.
Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media’s chief executive, said: “The fact remains that fans in the UK pay the highest prices in Europe to watch the least amount of football on TV. Now is the right time to look again at the way live rights are sold to make football even more accessible.”
The Premier League responded by saying it “sells its audio-visual rights in a way that is compatible with UK and EU competition law and will continue to do so.”
Under current regulations, live games cannot be shown in England between 14:45 GMT and 17:15 GMT to protect the traditional Saturday 3pm kickoffs. Malcolm Clarke, chair of England’s Football Supporters’ Federation, says everything should be done not to tamper with that.
“Premier League football might be a global phenomenon but without fans in the stands, it wouldn’t have the same appeal,” he said. “People want to see the world’s best players, but they also want to see stands packed to the rafters with fans. That vibrancy is a key part of the TV ‘product’.
“Ofcom also acknowledges the importance of Saturday 3pm kick-offs to fans. All-too-often TV’s needs come before match-going supporters as games are shunted around the calendar.”
Clarke added: “It’s very important to retain the 3pm window and we’d have major reservations about a further significant increase in televised football. A 3pm kick-off on Saturday is part of the tradition of English football. We’ve lost some of that with the number of games that are now being moved, which many fans are unhappy about.
“But if it goes a step further so that you have got live television games up against the normal 3pm kick-off, it could have a very adverse effect on gates lower down the leagues and we would be opposed to that.
“We’ve seen no evidence so far that increased media rights benefit the ordinary fan, either sitting at home watching a game on television or going to the matches. It has benefitted owners, highly paid executives, players and agents but not us.”
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