Regulatory agency Ofcom is to probe the selling of Premier League broadcasting rights following a complaint from Virigin Media. In particular, Virgin Media has argued that a lower proportion of games (41 per cent) is sold than in other European leagues and this forces up prices for consumers.
Regulatory agency Ofcom is to probe the selling of Premier League broadcasting rights following a complaint from Virigin Media. In particular, Virgin Media has argued that a lower proportion of games (41 per cent) is sold than in other European leagues and this forces up prices for consumers.
English viewers ust pay at least £51 per month to watch all top level domestic games, compared with £21 in Germany and £10 in France according to Virgin Media’s research. They argue that fans in the UK pay the highest prices in Europe to watch the least amount of football.
Ofcom is also going into look into the question of games being moved from the traditional kick off time of 3pm on Saturdays to suit the needs of television. It will consult the Football Supporters’ Federation amog others in this part of the investigation.
Of course, there is an inherent tension between making more games available for television and using the traditional kick off time. However, one option open to Ofcom would be to remove the current ban on showing games that kick off at 3 pm on Saturdays. This was intended to protect attendance at lower league matches.