Originally Posted by stevvy1986:
“A fried egg is a better presenter than Adrian Chiles (and has more of a personality than him too). The only reason so many people watch the ITV coverage of the final is because alot of people won't understand anything other than 1-5 on their remote, it doesn't mean the coverage is any good or the presenter is any good, or the commentary team, or whatever. If ITV was my ONLY option for the final (thankfully it's not) I'd switch on at kickoff, mute it, turn it off at half time, back on for the 2nd half, mute it, then turn over at the full time whistle.”
But if you didn't have pay TV you would still be able to watch the Final. The coverage may be crap, the presenter may be crap and the analysis may be crap but the most important thing is that the match is on free TV. I think ITV need to up their game massively and need to produce a better all round product around the games they show, but I would rather have regular CL games live on free TV than have the 17 that ITV show stuck behind a paywall.
This is the main thing. The current set up allows Sky to have alot of CL games and gives their CL rights real power and sway, but people who do not wish to have pay TV still get enough games to be able to follow the competition on free TV. The current set up is perfectly fine for me. If BT wish to take what Sky currently have then so be it, but if it ends up as Sky AND BT having the first picks with free TV left out of the big games then the competition will suffer IMO. The CL is a massive competition but it has become as big as it is because all people have access to big games. Take that away and stick it all behind a paywall and it's popularity will decline and it's big time feel will decline enough that average fans will cease to watch it on a regular basis.
UEFA may not care about that and football purists may not care as long as they get great TV coverage on Sky and/or BT, but if the point of the current TV deal is to give everyone access to Europe's biggest club football tournament then it needs to stay as it is now.