Digital revolution changes football's relationship with television

I am always suspicious of stories that claim that 'the Premiership bubble is about to burst'. They usually reflect the tall poppy syndrome, a resentment of success. Whilst it is true that domestic television revenues have plateaued, those from overseas continue to increase.

However, there may be some real changes taking place. Karl Marx was wrong about many things, and his disciples got things even more wrong, but he had one important insight, the way in which technology drove change. In a sense, Saint-Simon had already had that insight, but he believed that science and technology would solve everything, a view which is certainly still widely held.

Just as satellite broadcasting made the riches of the Premier League possible, so digital technology provides a new set of challenges. It could well lead to a totally free market system in which more power is restored to the consumer, rather than the sofa fan being at the mercy of Sky and other providers.

As it is, as someone told The Times, 'The reality is that any person with a reasonable grasp of computers can access a pirate stream of any Premier League match, kicking off at any time.'

In addition all midweek Championship matches can be watched via Sky on the red button and club matches from League One and League Two can be seen on the iFollow service. On Tuesday, should I take a five hour round trip to London to watch Charlton play Oxford United, get home at 12.30pm, and pay £23.45 for a rail ticket when I could watch the game on my own laptop?

Now the EFL is a battle with Eleven Sports about showing live La Liga and Serie A matches during the Saturday afternoon blackout period. They have won the battle, as Eleven Sports have stopped screening La Liga matches, but they have probably lost the war.

Eleven Sports are almost certain to mount a legal challenge. As Martyn Ziegler commented in The Times yesterday, 'Effectively, now that Eleven Sports has a paper trail from the FA to Uefa to the Spanish FA and La Liga, it can mount a legal challenge'. I am not a lawyer, but my hunch is the blackout is a breach of competition law.

Ziegler commented, 'The fear has always been that a free market in TV would lead to a drop in attendances, which would affect the atmosphere, which would make the matches less attractive to broadcasters, which would mean less money from TV contracts'. The England v. Croatia match is an exemplar of what a match without a crowd can be like. But one could boost crowds by reducing admission prices, although that would affect another income stream.

Live TV coverage hits Championship crowds

An investigation by The Times found that attendance at midweek games in the Championship have fallen significantly since all matches were made available to watch live on television. Of course, midweek attendances are always lower than those at weekend matches. People cannot get away from work in time even for a home game and an away game may mean returning in the early hours of the morning. Cold or wet weather can also put fans off.

The normal drop in attendance would be about 4.5 per cent for a midweek game (I suspect the fall off may be greater in the lower leagues) but this season they have fallen by an average of 8.8 per cent (from 20,590 to 18,777).

The deal with Sky is worth £88m a year, rising to £120m annually from 2019 to 2024. This has to be shared with 72 clubs and contrasts with the bottom club in the Premier League earning a minimum of £100m from TV rights each season.

Each Championship club receives a £2.325m basic award of television money, £4.6m in solidarity payments from the Premier League, plus an additional £100,000 in facility fees for each home live match to cover any loss of gate revenues (£120k for Sunday games and £140k for Thursday night games). Away teams received £10,000 each time they appeared on TV

The Times did look at League One and League Two games to see if there had been any impact from live streaming on two Saturdays when it was allowed at 3pm because of the international break. The results were inconclusive, especially as attendances might have been boosted by supporters who might otherwise have gone to games in the top two divisions.

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion. Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs. An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...

Spurs CEO attacks luxury training base

The Tottenham Hotspur chief executive Vinai Venkatesham has issued a withering assessment of the way the club was run under Daniel Levy, likening the state-of-the-art training centre to a five-star hotel rather than a centre of high performance. Venkatesham was appointed to his role in April 2025, having stepped down as chief executive at Arsenal the previous summer. However, he has said that some aspects of the club were “in a significantly worse state” than he expected. “Our training centre is amazing, one of the best, if not the best in the world,” Venkatesham told BBC Sport. “But when you look around, it looks more like a five-star hotel than it does a performance environment. That will change over the summer. I think there are many areas where the club hasn’t got the right level of expertise.” He explained that the football side of operations was the club’s main downfall when he arrived last year. [One Spurs fan wryly observed that it was like a water company sayi...

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...

The Political Economy of Football V2

Search This Blog