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Articles concerning television and broadcasting issues in football.
It looks as is free to air broadcasting of international matches may be undermined with Sky poised to secure the rights for the new Uefa Nations League. The new competition is set to launch in 2018.
It will divide national teams into leagues and will replace most friendly matches. It is intended to tackle declining interest in international football outside of the major competitions.
Manchester United will become the first football club to launch a dedicated 24 hour television channel in China next week, as it seeks to keep up with growing Chinese interest in the game. Sina Sports, an online sports platform, will begin broadcasting the club’s MUTV on its website, mobile site and app next Sunday.
Recent turbulence on the Chinese stock exchange and a fall in the country’s interest has not dampened interest in the potential of the Chinese market for football.
Almost all the major deals for Premier League television deals are now done and the total looks like being around £3.2bn over three years. This represents a 50 per cent increase on the corresponding figure for 2013-16. When the Premier League started in 1992-3 the rights were worth £8m a year.
Hard nosed American investors are replacing the oligarchs and egoists who have invested in English football over the last twenty years. If the deal at Everton goes ahead, eight of the twenty Premier League clubs will have investors from the US.
Leeds United will face a misconduct charge if they persist in refusing admission to Sky staff to broadcast tonight’s match with Derby County.
Sheikh Mansour has sold a Chinese consortium a 13 per cent stake in Manchester City for £265m. It will also give the investors a stake in the Manchester City Group’s (CFG) clubs in Melbourne City and New York City. They also have a minority stake in Yokohama F Marinos.
Paul Breen discusses how fans are using live televised games to make a point. At Middlesbrough, it was a ‘Save Our Steel’ campaign. Elsewhere, Charlton and Leeds fans are increasingly cooperating over the mismanagement of their clubs with Addicks supporters hoping to make use of a live televised game against Ipswich Town on Saturday week.
For a long time Spanish football has been dominated by a duopoly of Real Madrid and Barcelona. The championship victory of Atlético Madrid in 2013-14, along with their Champions League final, challenged that pattern.
The Premier League has had increasing success in recent years in selling its television rights overseas, particularly in Asian markets. Eventually the income received from viewers outside the UK will exceed the domestic revenue.
This trend is highlighted by the news that over $400m has been paid for the Premier League rights for Hong Kong. LeTV have offered to pay more than double the $US200m paid by the previous rights holders.
The competitive imbalance in Europe caused by the Premier League’s latest television deal is a theme that is drawing increasing attention and the latest person to address it is the sporting director of Wolfsburg. Of course, the deal hasn’t kicked in yet, but the transfer dealings of leading Premiership clubs appear to anticipate it.