THE way we watch Premier League football is set to change, with Silicon Valley’s giant corporations poised to bid for rights to games.
According to The Times, Sky Sports and BT Sport could soon be rivalled by the likes of Amazon, Facebook or Twitter in broadcasting Premier League matches.
Sky and BT currently pay £1.7billion for rights to show England’s top flight – and charge a fair whack in subscription fees to their channels as a result.
But there are big fish waiting in the water, ready to gobble up Premier League rights, as bidding wars set prices higher and higher every time the rights go out to tender.
Executives from California’s biggest firms are said to be watching the market closely, knowing sport generally could be at the core of their future offerings.
Twitter already broadcasts live sport from its homepage.
Amazon has followed video streaming service Netflix into showing movies and TV box sets, as well as original content.
Meanwhile, Facebook would also be a player, should Mark Zuckerberg’s social media behemoth want to get involved, with social video now at the heart of their news feed.
MOST READ IN SPORT
The Premier League rights would also arguably be better value for money than the likes of the NFL and NBA.
At £1.7bn a year, it domestically costs less than the NBA (£2.04bn) and less than half of the multi-broadcaster deal in the US for the National Football League (£3.8bn).
But forecasters are estimating that price could jump again when the bids go out for the 2019/20 season and the following two.
Ofcom was brought into investigate a complaint made by Virgin Media that there are not enough Premier League games shown on TV.
And that could have another impact on broadcasters, when by comparison all NFL games are shown live on TV, while fans often have to wait till Match of the Day on BBC One at 10.30pm on a Saturday to see their team’s live games.
TRANSFER NEWS
There have been critics of Premier League games, with potential rights buyers worried that illegal streaming is devaluing the product.
Chief Richard Scudamore said: “Nobody’s sitting here thinking that we’re going to eradicate every single abuse, any more than suddenly everybody’s going to stop speeding on a motorway.
“But the truth is we are governing the situation and managing the situation down to acceptable levels.
“Young people are more than prepared to pay for things.
“My own children are more than happy going online and buying things. It’s about creating content and genres and ways and means of reaching them.”
Leave a comment