BT Sport; the fans are the losers-again!
So BT Sport have bid around one billion pounds for the rights of the Champions League; and that is good for who?
We all know football isn't a game anymore but a business but just think about it for a moment; football fans already pay to watch games when they go to see them live and tickets are already at a high price. Now if a team that you support is good enough to get into the Champions League you will have to buy BT Sport to watch them; ITV is free!
Yet again it's the fans that will have to pay the price at the end of the day; football is getting ruined by money even more with this deal.
'TV surrendering the Europa League, the rights for which it currently holds along with BT Sport, leaves it with no live club football from 2015, with the BBC and BT Sport having won the rights to the FA Cup after this season. It is understood still to be in the running for highlights packages but they will be of little consolation, with it's only remaining live football rights being England's home and away matches, which it recently tied up until 2018.
BT Sport securing Champions League football also represents arguably the biggest defeat ever suffered by Sky, who it is understood bid for the exclusive rights to the competition it has shared with ITV since 2008. So determined were Sky to prevent BT Sport adding the world’s biggest annual sports tournament to its roster it is thought there was even the prospect of it breaking the bank and sub-letting some matches to ITV to satisfy Uefa’s desire for some level of free-to-air coverage.
Sky and BT have been at war ever since the latter moved into sports broadcasting in a bid to stop its rival poaching its broadband customers with the offer of a combined telephone, broadband and television service, so-called ‘triple play’.
BT Sport became a serious player when it paid £738 million over three years for Premier League football alongside Sky, who still retained the lion’s share of live matches and most of the best ones as well. Nevertheless, BT Sport’s 38 games per-season, along with its other football and rugby union rights boosted its subscribers to two million. Exclusive Champions League rights could massively lift that total, even if some high-profile matches remain free-to-air.'
First and foremost I'm a football fan; I can't get enough of the beautiful game. I pay enough to different clubs to watch a live game. There is nothing better than sitting down at a ground enjoying the atmosphere and having a singsong.
So now I'm expected to pay money to watch a team I don't even support? I for one don't buy into this but sadly football fans have to, just to watch the team they love! It pulls on the purse strings and that isn't what the game is about but what can we do?
The fans are the losers here in more ways than one.
Written by Paul Moore; a football fan.