is the overall level of interest in football(not american) in England decreasing or increasing？ i mean in these ten years.is it increasing or decreasing in England?do rugby affect it?
Interest increasing....the fact that Sky's deal with the PL has sky rocketed is a measure of the overall interest. However, economic downturn means that more people are watching it on Sky then going to the grounds to watch t live.
Interest increasing? No. It's the same, or decreasing ever so slightly. Profit increasing? Yes. TV deals at home and abroad are growing, and wages and transfer fees reflect this. Of course the economic downturn hits everything, but football less so.
Well TV deals generally are a good litmus test for people's interest....given how they've changed football over the course of the last 20 years Sky have proven that theyre no mugs....and the fact that theyre prepared to pay ever increasing amounts for the premier league rights suggests more people are willing to pay to watch (though much of this is due to global demand) I'd say interest has flattened since the surge we saw in the 1990s and eary 2000s. Nick Hornbys "Feve Pitch" is generally regarded as the point at which Football widened its appeal from the traditional fan base to include a more, dare I say, gentrified fan base. The likes of Wenge's cosmopolitan approach, foreign talent being attracted by the money etc all contributed towards this momentum. However, ever since Abramovich came in and now Sheikh Mansour I have detected a growing revulsion at the obscenity of footballers wages and transfers fees. This combined with wags, mansions, celebrity etc is starting to push purists to other sports.... This situation has been brought to the forefront in 2012...arguably the standout year for sport in this country's modern history. Where the relatively modestly rewarded Olympians have brought more national pride in one year than the overpaid per madonnas who play football have done in over 40 years. Bottom line is the continued demand for football, and PL in particular, is dependant on the opium of excitement. Aguros winner perhaps represent the pinnacle of this idea...allowing the PL to live up to its self proclaimed "greatest show on earth" moniker. If this goes...and games become more like Serie A dull fests...we will see an actual decline interest.
I wouldn't call TV revenues a litmus test. If the same people are paying more money for the same service, it isn't more popular, it's more expensive. Also, if broadcasters in other countries are buying the rights, then that doesn't affect the popularity in this country, but it does increase TV revenue. So there's two examples.
I addressed the overseas element in my post so your second example is redundant. Plus the incremental increase in Sky subscription prices is in no way comparable to the increase in the value of the Premier League deal Sky paid for. It is a fact that more people in England are paying to watch football than ever before and this is reflected in size of the TV deal.
Rugby? What's that? Football - I grew up in the 70s/80s when football (indeed all sport) was very much a back page item. There was very little cross-over in arts/media/culture and football. In the mid-lates 80s when Heysel occurred it really was seen as a low-point. What changed it all was 1990, Gazza and getting to the semi-finals of Italia 90. Gazza's performance created a buzz and he was major box-office for SPurs the next season. Then came PL and Sky, but I reckon without the Gazza/Italia 90 effect was the real launch pad, and Sky rode the wave. What followed then with the building of better stadia wa a gradual gentrification of the game, which lead to the commercialised abonimation we see now. After the post-World War II huge boost football attendance were dwindling (slowly) and then got a big boost in 1966, which engrained football into the hearts of the English. Things are cyclical, and we can expect a decline at some stage. But if we have a good 2014, or 2018 that will undo any decline in interest. People might well look at the summer of 2012 and say "wow" and have greater respect for the people who performed, but wiil we see the day the athletics clubs can pull in 40,50,60+ thousand every week and charge people £60 a go, and mainatin sustained tv audinece interest for as many consecutive years as modern era football? I doubt it. Also regarding other sports, they actually hanker after the commercial success of football on the one hand, and take a sanctimonious swipe at its commercialism on the other. If the economy is having an impact on football attendences, it will also have proportionate impact on other sports.
I remember driving back from a home game on Boxing Day against Aston Villa a good few years ago..I was listening to the radio and there was a discussion about attendances at football.One of the views was that attendances started declining when Saturday mornings stopped being part of the working week.Years ago blokes would finish their shift at the factory(for the youngsters here a factory is where men used to work and make things e.g. washing machines,fridges,cars,T.V's etc) and go straight to a game.
Where did you address the overseas element? I read it again... not seeing it. If more people are paying for Sky, that doesn't mean interest is greater, it means people have been more willing to throw their money away in recent years. It could also mean that less people are going to watch the teams play at the stadiums, opting for television instead. So I don't see it having much to do with interest in football. Finally, many people like me wouldn't dream of paying for Sky television, even though we love football.
That means you are still watching games though.I also assume there are commercials on the stream that you watch.
Not sure what you're getting at. I'm not paying for Sky so I'm not contributing to the rising cost of Sky's contract to show Premier League games. There are ads on my stream that don't contribute to Sky, and I don't click on them anyway. The argument is that the rising cost of Sky's contract demonstrates our increasing love of football. I don't think it does.
I don't think the OP was saying that the rising cost of SKY's contract shows shows our increasing love of football.Lets be fair SKY's viewing figures aren't that great anyway.You have to take into account the numbers attending games,watching on TV,listening on the radio,watching in pubs and even those using online streams.These all contribute to the audience
Whether you like it or not, Sky have been successful in continuing to promote the PL in England and the size of the exclusive rights deal is a reflection of the continued increase of its popularity in this country. Although this is flattening and has probably peaked...for reasons mentioned earlier.
I wonder if any of the rubbish on Radio/TV these days will be remember in years to come. Although, I do find Mike Ingham's view on football matters well worth a listen.
Let's not forget the money that TV companies pour into sport bear a realtion to the amount the expect to make from advertisers. We can also see this from the money put in by sponsors. Rugby (whatever that is) and cricket have fewer supporters but probably on average have higher GDP per supporter, so that will inflate the value on their TV contracts. If we accept this, and compare the money paid for football against others, I think football is still way more "popular" than the others, and increasingly so based on the money from TV and sponsors. Sponsors/Advertisers/TV companies HAVE to know their target markets and spends tons on research to find out. So, I would say it a good indicator of where a sport stands in the popularity stakes in each country. Other jmeasures - football shirt sales, web page hits. Web pages hits - ever wondered why we get so many speculative articles on football on sports sections of new site during the summer? To keep the web traffic up and so keep advertisers happy. Football is woven into the fabric of our culture now like never before. However, who'd thought that just 20 years after 1966 football would be at the nadir of its popularity in this country, pilloried and having its last rites read, yet over 20 years after Italia 90 it is still as popular as ever. Things can change very quickly. Maybe in 20 years it'll be hated again, but a great World CUp and a few tears from a cheeky charismatic northern football genius and we'll all be back to how we like it.
