Yesterday could they have gone with

12pm kick off Southampton v Burnley

2.30 till 4. Red Sunday build up, that would have given them 30 more minutes than tonight

4pm Liverpool v Manchester United

Then 8pm tonight Middlesborough v Watford

They can only not show teams if they are involved in the CL on Tuesday. They also made a conscious decision to stick Liverpool v Man United on MNF instead of Super Sunday. This had nothing to do with European football. Sky could easily have had a Super Sunday or Man City v Everton followed by Liverpool v Man United. They didn't even look at the first game and opted for the second game to be MNF. There is a calculated decision to spread games around the different packages.

As for your other comment, if you like football you do like football, but there is a limit to what you wish to watch when it doesn't involve your own team or teams that have a direct influence on your teams fortunes. You admit to having almost no interest in European football, despite some of it being really high quality. But you have a limit on what you wish to watch.

Middlesbrough v Watford and Southampton v Burnley are obviously of great interest to fans of those teams, and potentially to fans of teams who believe that they may be battling those teams down at the bottom or for a Europa spot, etc. But for most they are games that can be easily missed, especially with Liverpool v United tonight.

Thanks for replying was half expecting to be digged at.

And with Liverpool v Man U tonight, all the build up, has turned me off watching it, than wanting to watch it.

Sky could have picked Man City v Everton. They couldn't pick both Man City v Everton and Chelsea v Leicester. Perhaps they should have left out the Chelsea game, but they thought it was a better pick than Man City v Everton.

Furthermore, Sky has to fill min quotas and Middlesbrough v Watford did that in Package A and Southampton v Burnley did it in Package D. By doing so early in the season they are setting themselves up for a strong middle and end of the season.

I have a Question.

Why dont they just give Sky/BT say there time slots.

And tell them there minimum and maximum Quotas. And just let them slot the games in as they want.

You wouldnt get every Man U fixture shown, and none of the other clubs as they would still have Quotas.

It would save Sky or BT, having to think about what package they have to fill etc

Is there anything in the media's claims that ratings are down by 19%, or are they misrepresenting the stats?

Jazzydrury3 - To a certain extent that is what happens. The packages have quotas as that is what the broadcasters bid for. Furthermore, in theory it stops Sky continuously putting the big clubs in the Sunday 13:30/16:00 slots.

If the PL wanted to be really strict with Sky, they could say "pick games that definitely won't have to move." So Sky would have to have used Package A to get a Champions League team. However, the PL are generally quite accommodating and Sky were allowed to pick Chelsea v Leicester in Package C and swap it with Middlesbrough v Watford when Leicester were scheduled to play Tuesday night.

If so that is bad.

But why would that that bother Sky, It doesnt mean they have lost 19% of customers, those customers are still there, just watching other stuff

Thanks for that answer.

Have you got a source for that? It's probably too early to say. Sky have the Saturday 12:30 slot now which doesn't rate as well as the 17:30 slot. They've also increased the intro by 15 minutes on the 12:30 slot relative to what BT were doing last season. They also have a very long intro on Friday night football. So when I look programme averages this needs to be remembered. However.....

Here are last season's unadjusted figures: 2015-16

And here are the figures for the first seven weeks of this season: 2016-17

Last season Sky averaged 1,019,000 per programme. So far this year they have averaged 779,000 per programme. A fall of 24%. Adjusting for the changes in programme length might give a figure of 19%. But I'd advice caution in jumping to conclusions. Sky will likely get a boost from the Christmas fixtures and I reckon they're setting themselves up for a strong second half of the season.

But they selected Leicester to play yesterday at Chelsea (and then moved them back )

Looking at the quotes from La Liga bosses about El Classico Ko time

We seem to forget about the very important overseas markets

America hates 1230 games
Asia hates 1730 games
Dubai hates 2000 games

So by forcing the UK TV into quotas on each kick off time

The overseas markets are kept happy as well

Half the interviews on Friday Night Football, and Premier League Live, can be found on there websites earlier in the day.

I guess the stop start nature er get early in the season doesn't help, at least after the next international break, we have a solid period

So were english, I dont give a flying fig, what clubs fans, in other countries want to watch

Only this https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/footb...016-17-season/

Thanks - blaming the Olympics is a bit of a stretch and blaming illegal streaming is basically saying our product is too expensive.

Just looking at the comparison with last year, the Sunday 4pm has been a bit weaker than it was last season which won't be helping.

Are those rating for the full programme. As dont some viewers, tend to watch the game itself.

I hardly watch any post match, If I watch a Saturday Lunchtime game I head over to Soccer Saturday at the end of the final whistle, Super Sunday, I normally head over to 606, surely others must as well

Yes, they are programme averages, so a longer programme before and/or after the match itself will suppress the figures. And they've got big games to come such as tonight. But it does feel like Sky's ratings have fallen this season.

The Start/Stop nature we get early in the season cant help, as we get a few weeks, then an international break

That's true. In the first seven weeks of last season, Sky averaged 941,000 per game. These included Man City v Chelsea, Arsenal v Liverpool and Man Utd v Liverpool. And, of course, with Sky having extra picks without an increase in the max quota, their overall average is likely to take a hit.

Probably also worth pointing out that BT have seen their viewing figures go up this season compared to last.

Proving that 1230 Sat ko are not good for viewing figures

The proof for Sky is really in the Sunday 13:30/14:15 and 16:00/16:30 games. And we really have to wait until the end of the season to draw conclusions about those.

Have you got any proof to back any of this up? I'm sure this red herring has been brought up not too long ago. Sky and BT are the ones to pick matches for each slot and they have zero interest in what time people around the world are watching.

The UK is 'forced into quotas' to ensure there's no bias to the bigger teams.