Knocking copy about the Premier League is pretty much standard and we’re seeing a lot of it on the 25th anniversary. A journalist once said I took a Panglossian view of the Premier League, but someone has to recognise that there are positives as well as negatives.
Knocking copy about the Premier League is pretty much standard and we’re seeing a lot of it on the 25th anniversary. A journalist once said I took a Panglossian view of the Premier League, but someone has to recognise that there are positives as well as negatives.
This is a serous but readable essay from universities blog The Conversation. It argues that the Premier League offers a classic case of what economists call demand-pull inflation, in fact hyper inflation. As the essay explains, ‘This is when there is an increase in the supply of money (demand) while the supply of goods stays constant or depreciates. This is precisely what is happening in English football – the increase in available transfer funds has not been matched by a growth in the number of world-class players and prices have rocketed.’
It picks up on the decline in Sky viewing figures and it is the case that Sky face a dilemma about what to bid for at what price in the new year. Its recent six per cent slide in profits was largely due to the increased cost of football rights. The Sky offer is less centred around football than it was. Chief executive Jeremy Darroch recently said that it was only one part of the mix. However, the essay overlooks the continued growth in overseas markets.
It also doesn’t take account of the likelihood of internet giants arriving on the scene as bidders.