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[B] Soccer: Premier League announce plans for pay-per-view TV deal By Bridge News London--Apr 4--Premier League chairmen agreed late Monday that seven packages should form the basis of the next multi-million pound three-year TV rights deal which will come into effect from the start of the 2001-2002 season. These packages include the right, for the first time, to screen matches on a pay-per-view basis. * * * The seven new contracts are: The main deal: A total of 66 live games played on Sundays and Mondays, with the right to also show a highlights program on Sunday mornings. This is six more matches than the current contract with BSkyB for 60 games per season, and the satellite broadcaster will be the favorites to continue that arrangement. Pay-per-view: For the first time ever, a total of 40 live games can be shown on a pay-per-view basis. These are likely to be transmitted on Sundays, with the first and second choice of live games having previously gone to the 'main deal' broadcaster. Each club must be shown at least once but on no more than six occasions per season. Fans can either pay to watch individual matches or buy 'mini-season tickets'. Prices are yet to be agreed and BSkyB, as well as other satellite and cable broadcasters such as NTL and ONDigital, are likely to bid. Saturday highlights: These are reserved for terrestrial 'free-to-air' channels, with the BBC, who run Match of the Day, likely to face competition from ITV and possibly also Channel 5. Sunday highlights: A new innovation due to the growing number of Sunday games. Again reserved for terrestrial television, with the BBC, ITV and Channel 5 in competition. It will be able to show extended highlights of games which were not already shown live that day, as well as shorter versions of those Sunday live games and Saturday matches. Clubs' in-house TV channels: Premiership clubs can currently only use archive material, but will in future be able to show their own matches on a delayed basis on their in-house TV channels, such as MUTV. Internet: Premier League clubs will in future be allowed to show their own Saturday, Sunday and Monday games on their Internet sites after midnight on Monday. Sub-licenses: Rights to games will be awarded on an experimental basis for 'video on demand' and mobile phones. End

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2000

Answers

I held out against Sky for ages (well, apart from in local hostelries), but finally succumbed when the pitter patter of tiny feet meant escaping familyhood of a Saturday/Sunday required too much negotiation and grief. Then digital comes in, meaning even more cost to be able to watch footie on tele. And now pay-per-view...
I suppose quality and certainly coverage have increased, so any complaints have to be tempered by that. It's a lot easier to watch football now. It wasn't that long ago really that you had to go to live games to see a 'live' match, apart from Cup finals and the later stages of competition in European games. We're so used to commercialisation now, it's scarey. Were we all being oversensitive for example back in the days when there was avid discussion on whether shirts should bear advertising? Did it really do any harm? Probably not - as at least the commercialisation has been largely of mutual benefit. But is pay per view a step too far? Or in a few years will it seem normal and fair - a reversal back to charging directly those that want to watch a single game, rather than a pot of money being allocated to a whole raft of programmes with no direct input from the viewer?

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2000