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• mavreela Posts: 4,747

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  06/08/15 - 21:50 #2

  In short, it would make less money and limit exposure.
  
  If they were free-to-view channels they would earn much less money.
  
  If they were subscription channels they would have a much smaller audience because only people with a particular interest in that sport will pay to watch them.
  
  That means they will lose the ability to attract new fans, and will have to charge much higher subscriptions to earn as much as they do from broadcasters, likely pricing out too many fans.
  
  I know in the past the RFL turned down a higher bid for Super League from Setanta because they valued the larger reach offered by Sky Sports. There are a lot of people who will watch Super League matches where there is nothing else on, but would not pay to watch it.
  
  Whilst Sky Sports does not offer the exposure of free-to-air channels, it is are available in around a third of homes in the UK. And all those homes must be interested in sport to be paying. So that added reach is important to every sport's organization save, maybe, the Premier League.
  
  So the only value would be in an over-the-top type service, showing the lesser games that would not be televised by a broadcaster. The problem then, though, is that broadcasters pay more for exclusivity. A competing service would bring down the value of the rights, undermining the value of such a service as the sports would likely end up worse off.
  
  Also, when a broadcaster bids for the rights to televise a sport they also take on the cost of providing the coverage, at least for the major sports. So if a league ran its own channel it would not only have to make up the rights cost but also the production ones.
  
  On the issue of Super League, though, earlier in the season Sky and the RFL experimented with showing two non-televised matches online (on Sky Sports Xtra). They provided a commentary but it was otherwise just the standard two-camera production provided by the clubs.
  
  This experiment is being repeated again this weekend, providing a choice of matches tomorrow night and, because of the Super 8 format, meaning all SL matches will be available from Sky this weekend.
  
  Nottinghamshire show some of their County Championship matches online on days when there is no cricket on Sky (due to their exclusivity on those days). A similar tie-up could allow them to provide coverage through Sky's website to their subscribers but for all matches.
  
  It think something like that is more likely than dedicated channels. It is a minimal cost to the broadcaster and league (as matches are already being recorded) whilst allowing fans to watch everything.

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