"The EU courts have ruled that current Premier League broadcasting rights are against the law. The ruling will allow pubs to show football matches via foreign television decoders but only if rights holders allow. The case was brought by Portsmouth pub owner Karen Murphy against the Premier League over its broadcasting restrictions. She had been fined £8,000 for using a cheaper Greek decoder. After a six year legal battle, the European Court of Justice has ruled that the current system of broadcast licences for different EU countries is "contrary to EU law". The restriction had effectively prevented fans from watching matches with a decoder card in member states. BSkyB shares fell 3% as the news came out." Great news IMO and can lead to only one thing. Cheaper entrance fees or crowds will plummet.
Good news for us because we have a billionaire owner, bad news for anyone who relies on the TV money. Also bad news for teams with players on really high wages, if the TV money is cut how will they ahdere to financial fair play??
The good thing about this ruling is that it affects every team. No longer can clubs line their pockets with TV money then complain when people watch. Clubs have to realize if they have empty seats every week it's because they charge to much. If a Mars Bar cost two quid they'd make a huge profit on each bar sold but they wouldn't sell any. Surly a full stadium is worth lowering the admission fee on it's own, add to that the club keep telling us "our fans are our biggest asset" andI just don't see in a time when TV money and sponsorship dwarf ticket sales receipts clubs just don't slash the price for their loyal fans.
I was looking the other week at season ticket prices ours on average are about £450 for the season, Stokes on Average are closer to £550 on average. If stoke sell out (i know season tickets are not 100% of the fans but) 29,000 they make 16 million a year on average. If we average 40,000 fans, we make 18 million a year. 2 million a year difference for an extra 11,000 fans in the stadium every other week, isnt a lot, its 1 player on £40,000 a weeks wages. but its still 18 million a year that comes in through the gates. TV is about 40 million and sponsorship is only about 5-6 million I believe.
The days of the greedy self indulgent footballer is nearing an end for 90% of the ****ers. Wages will have to relfect the new rules and average **** footballers will not be able to earn the vast sums they have miked out of the game for the past 15 years going forward. I embrace that.
I think fergie was hinting at this result last week when he pointed out that SKY sell the league to over 200 countries. Think he knows this will put sky in a much stronger bargaining position when it comes to renegotiating the rights and clubs can expect a good deal less next time round. Hold onto your hats lads the premier league is about to get interesting.... in a few years like
Oh and do you reckon sky will push for a live season ticket now that you can effectivly get one anyway. Do you reckon the clubs will go for it? Even those who can get ot every home game would you be interested in seeing every away game. The hard core will always go and respect to you. I reckon there might be some movement in the amount of live footy show if they still have to pay the same amount to keep the league afloat. Interesting stuff anyway... well done that woman
Its a pitty Sky sports cant be regional, like the American football is on a Sunday accross the pond. they will show 2 games at the same time, but one half of the country get one, and the other half gets the other, but what they could do if it was regional (london and North West is a bit of a bummer in this plan though) is have the away games shown live for that region, but the home games are not we get another regions game, for us that would be easy, Newcastle away, Sunderland away each week, but like i said London and the North west will be a lot harder to control. The next step though is like the red zone in American football, but on Soccer Saturday, we will be able to see all the best bits of every game just after they happen, Pens, Goals, Red cards etc etc. But was it not the Government that said Sky or any channel in the UK cant show live matches or even a red zone type coverage on 3pm kick offs on a Saturday?
Yeah but as we are talking fair play that enables others to broadcast what they thought they had exclusive rights to in this country... surely by the same token they have a strong argument that they need to be able to compete in the open market on a level footing? Maybe anyway!
So will lead to you all being able to watch 3pm kick-offs on a saturday, if you are unable to get there?
Well the 3pm kick off argument, its not allowed and they thought supporters wouldnt go to the matches but sit at home watching it, the ones that go will go, and even now the ones that dont sit at home watching it on the net, or in a pub anyway. Loads of Sunderland fans on here have said they have stopped their subscription, as Sunderland are never on (once before xmas) I could never get rid of it because I like my NFL far too much, got nowt to do with football, but if Sky was allowed to show all matches at a 3pm kick off, more supporters would subscribe in this country, more money would come into sky, clubs would get an even share of the cash (as all would be on the same amount of time), but atm sky can only show 126 live games, and they can only show a max of 25 games for 1 team, and a min of 5 for one team (i think it is) and pretty sure this is stipulated by the Government/fair play commision anyway. I just hope its not a red button type of thing, I am on Virgin but get Sky sports etc, but the red button doesnt work on sky channels, it does on BBC but not sky, so football first I am stuck with whatever is on screen 1, it sucks.
It's about time the finances in the English game were shaken up a bit. I don't necessarily think it'll help in the short term though. We'd all like to see prices like they have in Germany, where you can get a seat for a tenner, but this isn't going to happen any time soon.
I think this is bad news for football, with it now being even easier for pubs to show games at 3pm....
I think I echo most sentiments above - but it could be a case of the rich getting richer and the rest of us falling by the wayside. Yes we have a billionaire owner who has just taken over as Chairman of the club. If the TV money dries up for us, where do we get those big name players from - the people we paid 10m+ for?? Man UTD's turnover is 10x what ours is. City have an owner who will bankroll everything and Chelsea have the same. If they find a loophole in this "Financial fair play" thing then they will exploit it and there will be simply nothing we, or any of the other "smaller" teams can do. However, IF this means a drop to Season Ticket and ticket prices in general (even by a fiver a game - £95 a year) then it's good news for the fans at the moment - but what of the long term stuff for the Club as a business??
Couldn't disagree more. As this will effect all clubs it can only be good IMO. Clubs have to realize it's wrong to make fans pay through the nose whilst millionaire footballers line their already bulging pockets. This ruling forces clubs to compete with TV, they will either have to improve the product (not easy as all clubs are striving to improve) or lower the admission fee/cut players wages. After all most fans if everything was equal would choose live over pub everytime. Pub is cheaper and that counts for many.
Sky and the PL will find a loophole, they are already talking about having something on the screen will will give that transmission copyright. You may be able to watch from kick off to the half time whistle then the second half from whistle to whistle, without commentary or sound. evrything else is provided by and copyrighted bt SKY
Deregulation will, in my opinion, will not take money out of the game from TV rights etc, but will also make it easier for people to watch the game from pubs rather than attend games..For me it will be a lose-lose situation for football and genuine football fans..
AGree with most of this Cyprus. Apart from the most fans bit. The thing to me is, the vast majority watching in pubs have no wish to go to the stadium and never have. The way forward for me is reducing prices for the younger fans, 21 and under. AT the moment it is a big chunk from their low wage to go and support the lads at the stadium. To get the ditherers that can afford it in, the only way to do that is performances on the pitch. I have a mate, went to nearly every match with me, going back to the early seventies. He just can't now justify spending so much out of his wages to the detriment of his family. Before anyone says he would spend as much in the pub, it costs him less than £5 for a couple of pints and no travelling.
