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Could every Premier league game be shown live, all with different time slots?
Ryan_Best
Posts: 45 Forum Member
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Eventually Sky/BT will want even more games. What if they decide to have 8 games per weekend. I can see it eventually being spread out the entire day, for example 12PM, 3Pm, 6PM, 8PM kick offs on Saturday and Sunday. And the other 2 games can be on Friday and Monday to make it last even longer.
This is what i think will happen some day. I can't think of any logistical issues that can't be fixed
But the question is, do we want that? As a fan who watches it on the TV, I'm guessing this would be great for them. Not so sure about the supporters.
This is what i think will happen some day. I can't think of any logistical issues that can't be fixed
But the question is, do we want that? As a fan who watches it on the TV, I'm guessing this would be great for them. Not so sure about the supporters.
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Realistic standpoint... No chance
No chance of 3PM on a Sat because of the ancient and stupid blackout rules and the cost to the broadcasters for more games would be huge and you'd have to weigh up if they wanted to or not.
Plus, in all reality, how many people actually would watch every game of the PL weekend if they could?
I love my football, but i don't think i could even watch all 10 games.
Not sure of others of course....
This is more of an issue for there ever being a push for games getting completely separate slots imo than the 3pm blackout. I think it's already pretty near the peak for what the broadcasters may consider suitable for considerable investment, and the Premier League wouldn't a considerable amount more for a bunch more games, IMO, because the audience or extra subscribers probably wouldn't lead to much more of an increase in revenue.
I'd imagine the only way pay broadcasters would go for it if there was a chance to air a match choice, red button service for 3 or 4 games at a time during a single slot, in probably the time slots with usually the lowest number of viewers?
Just as an example, here's the official ratings from Sky Deutschland for last weekend's Bundesliga matches:
Friday
20:30 Hertha v Stuttgart 490,000
Saturday
15:30 five simultaneous matches 1,060,000, of which:
- "Konferenz" 620,000
- Dortmund v Hamburg 150,000
- Bayern v Hannover 110,000
- Hoffenheim v Schalke 100,000
- Bremen v Freiburg 80,000
- Leverkusen v Paderborn 10,000
18:30 Frankfurt v Köln 500,000
Sunday
15:30 Wolfsburg v Augsburg 470,000
17:30 Gladbach v Mainz 610,000
The "Konferenz", or simulcast, is hugely popular, although personally, I don't like it. They're switching from one stadium to another every 2 or 3 minutes, so of course they're missing most of the live goals. Just when they're showing a live snippet from the Dortmund game, the commentator of the Bayern game will shout "Goal in Munich!", then you'll see players celebrating, followed by the replays of the goal. [Of course they need two commentators for each of these simultaneous games: one for the Konferenz, and one for full live coverage.]
It's quite ridiculous when you think about it but German Sky subscribers just love this. They say they're getting to see all the action just as it happens, so most of them will watch their Konferenz on any given Saturday afternoon. Single games featuring Leverkusen or Hoffenheim usually have the lowest ratings in that timeslot, sometimes even below 10,000 viewers.
On the other hand, the same fixtures would at least have 400,000 viewers in any other timeslot. So I guess, sooner or later, we'll have an additional kick-off time, probably on Saturdays at lunchtime, to cater for the Asian markets just like the Premier League does.
To be honest, that actually sounds pretty good. In my head it seems to take Soccer Saturday to the next level so instead of having a bunch of blokes with headsets in a studio describing what just happened you get to see a near live replay of the action. I'd much rather see that then listen to a description of the action.
It's the NFL RedZone approach. I find RedZone absolutely fascinating and superb television, although American Football lends itself perfectly to coverage of that manner due its intermittent nature. Replays not required when you can anticipate a scoring play rather than reacting to it.
Back on topic to the original question - I am sure the UK market will move this way eventually. It will only happen when the Premier League are sufficiently concerned that there may be a dip in rights values compared to a previous auction. For 2016-2019 there should be no such concerns due to the ludicrous level of competition between BT & Sky. This means that significant additional kick off slots and / or "RedZone" style coverage is at least six years away, potentially more.
You will know that the wind is changing when lobbying over removal of the blackout begins in earnest, which it has not yet.
so a 12.45 game , Sunday and Monday games and the rest at sat 5.30, with no 3 pm games. also mybe a Sunday evening or Friday game. if its on people will watch
Do you ever go to games? I think a huge percentage of fans would object to games all being moved to 5:30pm.
I don't think that's the case at all. Barney Francis of Sky has said in interviews that he thinks there's a finite amount of any one sport you can show before viewers get sick of it. When the Premier League announced there would be 138 live games in 2004 Richard Scudamore said they actually wanted to offer less to keep it special but offered a few more to avoid accusations of being anti-competitive.
I don't think there's any clamour at BT, Sky or any broadcaster for substantially more Premier League football. They want to show the big games that pull in big audiences, they don't want to show loads more games of little interest.
No it wouldn't, because how many people are not subscribing because they don't show all the games? The numbers are microscopic. Big football fans already have Sky, those who don't aren't putting it off because there isn't enough. The only people it affects are a tiny minority who want to watch every single minute of their teams' games but don't go to any matches. A tiny, tiny number.
You wouldn't get massively increased ratings and subscribers if you showed all the games, you'd get the same number spread thinner.
They already do Monday night games!
Yes, it is simply inconvenient. People say too, oh, it'd be good for the Football League because they'll have 3pm to themselves, but the Football League don't want that. At the moment people tuning in to Soccer Saturday and Final Score for Premier League news and scores get Football League news and scores as well. If there's no Premier League on it, they won't tune in at all. And of course Soccer Saturday is one of Sky Sports' most popular shows, so they're in no rush to drop it and replace it with something far more expensive that would get more or less the same audience.
Oh it's a great suggestion. For TV fans. Screw the season ticket holders and matchday fans though with inconvenient kick off times eh?
If you're a fan of the 'big clubs' it's already awkward enough having to fit games into the tv scheduled kick off times. Anfield has just seen it's first Saturday 3pm K.O of the season in October. It's a huge inconvenience for home fans and even worse for away fans as late Sunday kick offs/Monday night football can already be a struggle to get home from and in some cases near impossibilities, 5.30 Saturday kick offs much more frequently would be an absolute nightmare.
Games aren't always a sell out now as it is because of the heavy cost and would almost certainly dwindle further if K.O times were further messed with, particularly away attendances and then that will impact on atmosphere.
Personally, I'm a traditional football fan, I go to games with my dad supporting a very unglamorous
There's too much football on TV as it is now for my money, any suggestions to increase it to such ludicrous levels would see such a negative impact on attendances and for all the money TV football has brought in, I'm not sure half empty stadia just so TV audiences can have yet more games is going to be quite such an attractive proposition. Beside I can't exactly see a clamour for the more mundane fixtures to be shown live. Just look at the moaning when they have to air the less glamorous games as it is!
sometimes better than watching the games in full
Yes Steve - agree with every word you've written above.
Won't say anything more as this is all ground which has been covered on here before - other than to say that if the PL did decide to show all games then I think the way it would be done is that all the extra games would be PPV on a separate PL channel - ie the offering to Sky/BT Pay TV packages would be unchanged (so that that commercial model is unchanged) but the PL just tags on extra revenue from a completely separate model.
Reason: There is no scope for charging all Sky Sports / BT Sport customers more. So no point in giving them more content which can't be monetised.
It's only possible to extract more revenue from the small number of people who will pay for more games - so you sell to them separately and directly.
Has the amount of live matches for the next round of rights been confirmed yet? I suspect the max that we will get will be five live matches a weekend, every weekend. There’s already 5 live matches on probably about half of the weekend rounds at the moment, so there is probably scope to extend that.
No - the PL hasn't issued the tender yet.
I agree there could be a small increase in the number of live games - say 10 to 20.
There are currently 10 5th picks - so theoretically 10 weekends (out of 33) with 5 games. However sometimes a weekend has less than the "standard" 4 games - which in turn allows a few extra weekends with 5 games.
There is a constraint against 5 games in that it is often not possible (or at least not practical) to have a Monday night game. However there could be increased use of the Sun 12 noon slot to have 5 games even when Monday night can't be used.
They should do what they have in Spain for the Premiership on a Saturday afternoon. They cut from match to match, but it's on a couple of mins delay, so they don't miss goals. And just because they go to a match doesn't mean a goal is coming, just something exciting. Often the team with the ball at the start of the clip isn't the one that ends up with the goal-scoring chance. Sometimes the other team wins it and comes down the other end. So, it's not as though you know what's coming.
If it hadn't been in Spanish so I could have followed what they were saying my head might have exploded, it was really very good. But then I like the red zone in the NFL coverage. And I have the attention spat of a gnat on speed.
I definitely like the Friday evening kick-off idea, although two concerns might be a) would away fans be able to make the trip in the same sort of numbers they would on a Saturday (it might not be the best idea to have derbies on a Friday night) and b) would fans be drinking more than on another weeknight?
There could definitely be four kick off slots on a Sunday. I'd imagine they don't want to mess around too much with Saturday afternnoon to maintian the sanctity of no live football at, or too close to, 3 pm.
Konferenz is sensational. Absoloutely love it. Often have the 2. Bundesliga Konferenz on in the background at 12.30(UK) too. You are obviously not going to see every goal live, unlike NFL where if it's near the touchdown they switch, but you get to see goals sometimes live, few seconds after and for me is a fantastic, fantastic format. Enjoy the moment everytime you hear a Torrrrr Freiburg!
I suppose the notable thing is there is no co-comms on the individual games, just one commentator at each match... Then on the Konferenz the solo-commentator/reporter on each game (I presume they are all offtube).
If they did that in this country it would be superb. However with so much 3pm action outside the EPL, you are probably struggling with a 'cut off' of say maybe after the Championship.
This thread will only suit the TV fan
Any regular supporter who attends matches will disagree with the TV supporter
Saturday games could be 11AM 1PM 5PM 7PM and 9PM
Sunday games could be 12pm 2pm 4pm 6pm 8pm
It could be bank holiday weekend in august
But how many people want to watch that? Sky already show 55 minute edits of every 3pm kick-off, and full coverage of one of them. How much more do you need to see? 55 minutes of Hull 0 Stoke 0 is more than enough for the vast majority of viewers. The only people who need to see any more are on the coaching staff.
Absolutely agree. In fact there was an excellent article in the paper earlier in the week pointing out that there are four MNF games in December, and for all four games it is impossible for away supporters to get home by public transport on the same evening. The danger is that more and more away fans will turn round and say 'sod it, I can't be bothered to go'.
Never gonna happen. See above. In some cases it is impossible to get from one part of the country to another on public transport in time for a lunchtime kick-off. Again, faced with getting up at silly o'clock in the morning and driving, fans will just decide 'sod it, I can't be bothered'.
As someone posted earlier on here, "SKY-pissing all over football supporters since 1992"!
For the record they are now 45 minute edits - but your point stands - and I agree - and the viewing figures for these 45 minute edits are very low indeed.