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Articles concerning television and broadcasting issues in football.
The Football Association was under pressure from the Coalition Government over its governance structures even before England’s exit from the World Cup. These pressures have now intensified. But in addition to those problems the FA faces serious financial challenges.
In summary these are:
1. Sponsorship deals are on a four-year cycle and are about to run out. Will sponsors be enthusiastic about renewing?
The USA team have come top of their group in the World Cup, ahead of England. Does this represent a new dawn for soccer in the US? Will Chang, the owner of MLS team DC United thinks so: ‘I’m 54 and in my lifetime I think this game of football is going to be the biggest sport in the US.’ Well, maybe.
Sky Sports News is to be taken off Freeview later in the year and made a purely subscription service. It means that viewers will have to pay to see the popular Soccer Saturday show hosted by Hartlepool fan Jeff Stelling which updates scores from around the country. As well as on the Sky platform, Sky Sports News will be available to Virgin Media and TalkTalk TV subscribers and BT Vision have now been given permission to offer it by the regulator.
The World Cup is particularly important for commercial broadcasters as it is a golden opportunity to earn bumper revenues from commercials after a period when the recession has hit advertising budgets hard. Online services are increasingly eating into the market with 7 per cent of British viewers planning to watch England online, a figure that increases to 14 per cent in the London area.
Over the last sixty years I have seen rapid technological changes transforming the way in which people live their lives. The internet and mobile technology has probably brought about the biggest changes. In contrast, the technology of football has not changed that much at all, and there are certainly many people who like it that way.
At one time Serie A was seen as the embodiment of all that was stylish in European football. But now the Italian competition is perceived to have slipped behind those in England and Spain in terms of its financial success and the regard in which it is held by fans. There have been a number of reasons for this, including allegations that the game in Italy is not always fair and square. Once that suspicion is implanted in the minds of fans, they tend to stay away from matches and watch them less on television.
Curry’s is offering fans who buy a television worth more than £599 a reward of £10 in cash for each goal scored by England. Wayne Rooney had better be on form!
The retail chain is owned by DSG International who also own the PC World chain. They are expecting to sell as many televisions during the World Cup as they would during the Christmas peak. It’s just one indication of how the important the World Cup is in economic and business terms and why England has put so much effort into its attempts to hold the 2018 tournament.
Soccer has never been an easy sell in the States, although the MSL has been making steady progress. But it’s still an also ran compared with baseball, American football, basketball, [ice] hockey and even golf.
ITV is splitting World Cup coverage with the BBC and is hoping for a big boost to its advertising revenue. It expects advertising in June to be 15 to 20 per cent up on last year, although there is a general upward trend anyway. However, government advertising could fall after the general election so an offset from football is particularly welcome.
An out-of-court interim settlement has been reached in a dispute between BSkyB and other content providers about whether the satellite broadcaster should be required to sell on Premier League matches wholesale to other platforms. The agreement is seen as a ‘score draw’ by analysts. BSkyB agreed to stop efforts to block an Ofcom ruling on April 1 that it must sell football content, but it will continue to pursue its main legal challenge to the ruling. This could take nine months to sort out.