[Albion] No more blanket TV coverage

[Green Cross Code Man]

Agree with all your points - but especially point 2. I don't see any issues or problems giving STHs a stream for all our games next season. Then they don't have to worry about refunds, partial refunds and all the other pony. The compromise for not being able to go and see the games live is that we get both home & away on a stream.

We aren't all going to get to see all the home games next season. Making a stream available to STHs seems a reasonable compromise. Would also cater well for those too scared to return to the Amex when it re-opens on reduced capacity.

The problem with making streaming available for season ticket holders, is those who pay for kids like me, will ask for my own season ticket to be reimbursed, whilst I will request streaming for my son's much cheaper under 18 ticket.

 

[Change at Barnham]

We're focusing on Premier League coverage.
The situation in League One and Two is currently looking desperate.

 

[surrey jim]

We're focusing on Premier League coverage.
The situation in League One and Two is currently looking desperate.

I was about to post the same, not sure what will happen to many of the clubs if they cannot generate revenue through attendance.I recall ITV digital around 20 years back who attempted to conquer the PPV market for those leagues and failed.

 

[Goring-by-Seagull]

Agree with all your points - but especially point 2. I don't see any issues or problems giving STHs a stream for all our games next season. Then they don't have to worry about refunds, partial refunds and all the other pony. The compromise for not being able to go and see the games live is that we get both home & away on a stream.

We aren't all going to get to see all the home games next season. Making a stream available to STHs seems a reasonable compromise. Would also cater well for those too scared to return to the Amex when it re-opens on reduced capacity.

Do you seriously think ST holders would be happy getting a shitty stream instead of actually attending a game and getting no refunds? I pay nearly £70 a month for mine and my son's ST... You think a few streamed games is worth that?

 

[southstandandy]

Premier League Plan is to start next season in September with full capacity (no away fans).
Stage 5 instructions on way to clubs this week.
Test events due in stadia in August (preseason friendlies?) with reduced capacity to test out the stage 5 processes.
If there are no issues then we are back to normal from September so TV agreements can do same.
This was revealed over the weekend by Karen Brady (West Ham).

I'd love this to be true but just can't see this happening as early as September, otherwise Social Distancing will be a thing of the past.

I've booked for smaller events for only 500 people at the Concorde and gigs at the Brighton Centre with about 5000 people which have been moved from October and November of this year, so to think come September Social Distancing will be gone and we'll all be back at the Amex is in my view wishful thinking, as much as I want it to happen.

 

[BHAFCLive]

Does anyone know about the last games of this season in a couple of weeks? As all are kicking off at the same time I assume only 2 or 3 will be shown live? Or will they all be live shared between SKY/BT/Amazon?

Eight of the ten will be live on Sky (most likely using red button rather than 8 different linear channels), two on BT.

 

[FatSuperman]

How hard would it be? Impossible.

A vast majority of people (particularly outside the UK) would not pay for a Premier League only subscription.

However billions around the world subscribe in some form to broadcasters that pay for the Premier League.

Then you have the likes of Amazon and BT who pay crazy money just for a few games to prop up their brand.

I agree. The current model isn't profitable for anyone (except the actual players and agents). There is absolutely no way that there are enough people interested in specifically watching PL football to justify changing the model. If the PL / EPL / Formula 1 / whoever started a direct service for people to buy, either as a subscription or as micro-transactions, then the income overall would shrink drastically - unless we think Sky etc would continue to pay handsomely for the traditional broadcast rights (of course they wouldn't!) Most people that support a club would only want to watch their team play - who gives a crap about watching other clubs?! It's hard to estimate how many people would be willing to purchase a streaming pass, given that Sky and BT purposefully don't publish the numbers. But when Comcast bought Sky, they showed that Sky have about 20 million subscribers in Europe. That's not football subscribers, that's total subscribers to one or other of their services, across the whole of Europe. You will find lots of propaganda on the countless billions that could theoretically watch football, but how many would pay directly for just that?

It only works at the moment due to the stunning marketing / self-promotion achieved by the Premier League, which somehow means companies like Sky and BT are happy to write off massive numbers across their business. Amazon is interesting in that they are happy to spend a small amount to see what the impact is on Prime membership and marketing opportunities - they can offer far more detailed information about the audience to advertisers. They can send specific adverts to specific groups of people, based on the history of what they have looked at / bought over their time on the platform. It is miles more advanced that the relative paucity of information the old fashioned broadcasters have. We'll see whether Amazon bother bidding heavily in the next round - the £100m or whatever they spent last time has probably just come from their regular marketing budget. If it's a better return than their other options, perhaps they'll go again.

 

[Giraffe]

We're focusing on Premier League coverage.
The situation in League One and Two is currently looking desperate.

League two teams may actually be better off starting than league one. The teams that are probably buggered are the league one teams who regularly fill their stadiums. Limited telly money, wholly reliant on attendance which may now be cut by a half or a third. If you're only half filling your stadium anyway then you may not notice much difference once back up and running?

League One attendances as % of capacity.

Portsmouth 91.3%
AFC Wimbledon 90.0%
Lincoln City 90.0%
Rotherham United 74.2%
Ipswich Town 65.6%
Shrewsbury Town 63.2%
Sunderland 62.9%
Oxford United 62.4%
Bristol Rovers 60.4%
Accrington Stanley 56.6%
Wycombe Wanderers 56.3%
Fleetwood Town 55.7%
Doncaster Rovers 54.9%
Blackpool 51.7%
Southend United 50.0%
Peterborough United 48.2%
Gillingham 45.7%
Burton Albion 44.1%
Tranmere Rovers 41.8%
Bolton Wanderers 39.8%
Rochdale 33.8%
MK Dons 30.7%
Coventry City 21.2%

 

[Giraffe]

And League Two:

Northampton 66.70%
Leyton Orient 59.40%
Salford City 58.70%
Bradford 56.70%
Exeter City 54.90%
Cambridge Utd 51.40%
Grimsby 50.80%
Swindon Town 49.70%
Forest Green 49.40%
Newport 49.30%
Plymouth 49.00%
Mansfield 48.10%
Cheltenham 45.30%
Crewe Alexandra 45.10%
Stevenage 43.70%
Walsall 41.30%
Scunthorpe 39.10%
Crawley Town 36.80%
Colchester 36.00%
Morecambe 35.00%
Macclesfield 30.10%
Oldham 25.70%
Port Vale 25.50%
Carlisle Utd 23.00%

 

[ATFC Seagull]

Do you seriously think ST holders would be happy getting a shitty stream instead of actually attending a game and getting no refunds? I pay nearly £70 a month for mine and my son's ST... You think a few streamed games is worth that?

This.

Obviously I'd watch most Albion games next year online, and I'd be happy to pay for it (£15 a month maybe - given it's probably on average 2-3 games a month once you take away those on other broadcasters). But the ST is a massive dent in my finances, and it's justified because it's 19 days out a year - pretty much the only thing I do (don't do gigs, cinemas, meals out any more really). Getting 2 hours of football on TV is not a reasonable substitute.

 

[elwheelio]

This is not true, the figures are going up and up. The Premier league is now shown live in 188 of the 193 countries in the world and in the 18/19 season was watch by 3.2 billion people.

The model they are using is highly efficient. They run a football competition, let the broadcasters take the risk and worry about dealing with advertising.

That might be the case globally but I recall reading that there's been a drop in sky and bt viewership in recent years. Also, research suggested youngsters not being as interested in watching 90mins when compared to previous generations, and wanting to consume content differently.

Edit - found one of the pieces about it. Quite interesting https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/oct/24/sky-sports-bt-sport-people-switching-football-off

 

[CorgiRegisteredFriend]

They're mad, genuinely mad.

I've thought a few times that if Sky / BT offered a £20 a month football subscription for the length of time that the stadiums remain closed they'd rake it in.

As others have said all this will do is drive people back to streaming the games.

I’ve paid sky £20 a month for June, July and August coverage. I’d keep going with that but certainly not paying more.

 

[Badger]

Eventually I am sure that a "Netflix for football" or something similar will exist and we'll all laugh at how in the old days you couldn't watch your team every week.

That's basically what we have here with DAZN. You can only stream matches and the interface is very similar to Netflix. You can even go in and watch a previous match either in full or just the highlights. It's brilliant.

 

[stewart_weir]

Clubs should have individual rights to broadcast to those who subscribe in times like these. Its entirely doable.

 

[swindonseagull]

Do you seriously think ST holders would be happy getting a shitty stream instead of actually attending a game and getting no refunds? I pay nearly £70 a month for mine and my son's ST... You think a few streamed games is worth that?

Definitely not...

Firestick and Subs for 12 months approx £75