Originally Posted by Rich1977:
“It's ironic really that what was originally an EU directive to tackle monopolization of sports rights actually fuelled a monster by opening up a market…”
How is that ironic? It was the whole purpose of their intervention, to open up competition for rights because no one could afford to compete with Sky for Premier League rights.
Incidentally, the loss of Sunday night NFL is nothing to do with pay TV but that no one wanted it.
It is not clear whether Channel 4 wanted to drop showing the Wembley games, or that the NFL wanted to switch them to the the BBC for the higher profile. But C4 did not want SNF on its own, with the Wembley and Super Bowl on the BBC, so decided not to renew it.
The BBC are not interested in such games either, and ITV and Channel 5 make more money selling that airtime for interactive gaming. Which is why Sky only picked it up at the last minute for a two-year deal (the main contract is five-years) with half the season shown on Sky One. I believe the three 6pm matches on Sky 2 and two on Pick were also part of that deal.