You’ll have to pay a little extra to see your team in action
With no sign of fans returning to football grounds anytime soon, the Premier League are set to agree a new streaming deal in which all non-televised games will be available to watch.
There’s a twist, however.
You won’t be able to see the games on TV.
They’ll only be available on Sky Sports and BT Sport, and not on the usual TV stations. They’ll only be available through the associated apps. You’ll also have to pay a little bit more to get a glimpse of your team in action – even if you’re already a subscriber to these channels.
Since football resumed after lockdown, you’ve been able to watch all Premier League games through four main broadcasters: Sky Sports, BT Sport, Amazon Prime and BBC.
However, it is believed that Sky and BT, the Premier League’s main broadcast partners, are becoming extremely frustrated at no longer having exclusive rights to games.
Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton currently top the Premier League table. (Photo: Alex Livesey / Getty)Both Sky and BT are set to demand more cash.
Premier League clubs make most of their money through TV deals, but the impact of the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the 2019/20 season, meaning broadcasters lost out on agreed fixtures.
As a result, Premier League clubs are already having to pay back over £330 million in TV revenue to the main broadcasters. A further loss of revenue would hamper clubs even further.
Football clubs up and down the country are growing increasingly angry at the government not allowing fans back into stadiums when certain matches, for example, have been available to watch in cinemas.
A petition to allow fans back into grounds has already amassed over 190,000 signatures.
This has prompted Premier League clubs in particular to look for a new broadcast model. As it stands, five matches across each gameweek in October are to be moved for TV coverage. But that still leaves many games without coverage.
Some clubs asked for an online streaming model in line with the EFL’s iFollow system, but this was shelved as some clubs felt it was too ‘divisive’.
