Sky Sports has gained exclusive rights to show live Football League matches from the 2012-13 season.
BBC reports that the Football League announced the £195 million deal this afternoon, a 25 percent reduction on the current rights deal which is shared between Sky and the BBC.
Rupert Murdoch's Sky was launched on Sunday, 5 February 1989, at a cost of £100 million with the slogan of "a new world of freedom." That is, the freedom of taking away free football out of mainstream television.
Sport, it was clear to the executives at Sky, was the only kind of television that could bring in enough of an audience. And not just any sport. David Hill, Sky's Australian Head of Sport, famously said, "Here, its football first, second and third." It was guaranteed to bring an audience.
Football fans cannot do without football, they're practically addicted to the game and they'll watch it anywhere it's shown. So if you can get football exclusively on Sky you will fork out the fans' money. Sky came to see football as a "captive market," just about the only group in Britain who could be made to pay to watch television.
With this deal taking place it's practically the end of free football on television.
According to The Independent, sources at the League have attributed the downturn not only to a bleak economic era, but also the absence of any substantial competition to Sky.
When the previous rights deal was signed the broadcaster was facing serious competition from Setanta, but the Irish company has since gone into administration.
The final nail in the coffin.
Chandra West Kasey Chambers Megan Ewing Kristanna Loken Aubrey ODay
No comments:
Post a Comment