- Aug 20, 2013
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- 15,679
Streaming passes
But what if you are not reassured or fail to get a seat in the ballot for that weekend’s big game?
For the last two months, British fans have been able to watch any game they want, live and legally, many of them on free-to-air TV channels. It is a right many supporters around the world take for granted but The Athletic revealed last month that next season will see a return to our usual schedules.
The rights are auctioned off every three years and though the number of games made available to broadcasters has been creeping up, as of today, UK fans will only have the opportunity to watch 200 of next season’s 380 Premier League games live, with Sky Sports owning the rights to 128 of those, BT Sport 52 and Amazon Prime the remaining 20.
Sky owns the live rights for EFL games, too, and it will broadcast up to 118 of the 460 Championship games and at least 20 League One and League Two matches.
EFL fans, however, do have the option of streaming games via the league’s iFollow service or their club’s own video streaming product. It is an option Premier League fans have been wanting for years, and now more than ever.
The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust recently published its five priorities for next season and number four is: “For the club to make arrangements for fans who can’t attend games to have access to a TV ticket pass/streaming for that game.
“With capacity greatly reduced, and a return to the broadcast arrangements that see only half the games broadcast live, it will be important to make TV access as easy as possible for fans not at the Emirates Stadium.”
Many other fans’ groups agree.
“Fans who watch their team regularly home and away, or even just at home, have to accept they may not be able to watch live regularly next season,” explains one member of a leading trust, who wished to remain anonymous.
“At the end of last season, season-ticket holders got free TV passes so they could at least watch their team. Now, unless there’s a similar arrangement, many fans won’t see their team play unless they get a pay-TV subscription and their team is chosen for a televised game. But every game is filmed. There will be a streaming market: fans wanting to watch their team.
“Most season-ticket holders and members have paid a fee of some sort, so there’s an argument for including a streaming option in what they’ve paid for until they can get in the ground. Even if there’s a small charge there’s an opportunity, because digital businesses can offer cheap products on a huge scale.
“Can clubs really be happy with their fans not seeing their team? Does that make sense if there is a worry about habits being broken and fans drifting away? If the rights package prevents any such deal, is that the best evidence yet that the TV tail is wagging the football dog? That the game has given too much power away to TV?”
This is not an argument anyone at the Premier League wants to enter into now, particularly as it is still negotiating last season’s rebate to broadcasters for finishing the season late and in empty stadiums.
But, privately, many in the game see the sense of giving fans more of what they want, which would also please sponsors and dissuade people from watching illegal streams of broadcasts intended for overseas viewers.
Phil Foden celebrates scoring against Arsenal in front of a display showing pictures of the team’s fans in June (Photo: Dave Thompson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
On Friday, with delicious timing, Tottenham contacted their season-ticket holders to tell them they had free access to all three of the club’s behind-closed-doors pre-season friendlies: home games against Ipswich Town, Reading and Birmingham City. Non season-ticket holders can watch these games, via the club’s N17 Live streaming service, for £20.
The counter-argument to streaming everything is the impact this might have on lower-division football. It is telling that the FSA did back the temporary lifting of the restriction against broadcasting live games on Saturday afternoons for the lockdown period, and will perhaps do so again next season, but does not support a permanent change to the Saturday 3pm blackout in the UK.
What happens next?
Well, Dr Hunt has been at The Crucible in Sheffield this weekend to continue the crowd dynamics studies she and British professional sport wanted to conduct for the last fortnight.
The World Snooker Championship being played there was one of three sporting events earmarked for a “return of fans” trial last month, along with a few games of county cricket and some horse racing at Goodwood, but those plans were rudely interrupted when the government saw signs the infection rate was ticking up again.
Those fears have allayed slightly and prime minister Boris Johnson announced on Thursday that test events could continue, hence Hunt’s late opportunity to catch Ronnie O’Sullivan in action, and the football industry is now scrambling to join the pilot project party.
It had initially been hoped the season’s traditional curtain-raiser, the Community Shield between Liverpool and Arsenal on Saturday, August 29, could be one of those test events. However, it was not included on the original list and the suspension of the tests ended any hopes of it being added later on.
Every ground will need at least one rehearsal before opening night, though, and this is likely to be a game with half of the ground’s revised capacity.
The EFL is understood to be keen on using September’s early rounds of the Carabao Cup or EFL Trophy for its test events.
A more sarcastic observer than us might suggest trying to fill 15 per cent of grounds is a bit ambitious for these fixtures. That is a bit unfair, though, as nobody can dispute how hard the clubs, leagues and local authorities are working on getting fans back into stadiums. And as with Project Restart, Zoom calls and elbow bumps, it will all seem very strange to start with but then become less weird with each passing week.
While nobody is pretending we are anywhere near getting through this crisis yet, football has already proved itself to be collegiate, resilient and resourceful.
The game and the government always talked about the return of fans being the fifth and final stage in sport’s resumption.
We are four-fifths of the way there and while the final fifth will not be completed until the Amex, Etihad, Old Trafford, St James’ Park and Roots Hall are packed to the rafters again, we have to start somewhere.
But what if you are not reassured or fail to get a seat in the ballot for that weekend’s big game?
For the last two months, British fans have been able to watch any game they want, live and legally, many of them on free-to-air TV channels. It is a right many supporters around the world take for granted but The Athletic revealed last month that next season will see a return to our usual schedules.
The rights are auctioned off every three years and though the number of games made available to broadcasters has been creeping up, as of today, UK fans will only have the opportunity to watch 200 of next season’s 380 Premier League games live, with Sky Sports owning the rights to 128 of those, BT Sport 52 and Amazon Prime the remaining 20.
Sky owns the live rights for EFL games, too, and it will broadcast up to 118 of the 460 Championship games and at least 20 League One and League Two matches.
EFL fans, however, do have the option of streaming games via the league’s iFollow service or their club’s own video streaming product. It is an option Premier League fans have been wanting for years, and now more than ever.
The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust recently published its five priorities for next season and number four is: “For the club to make arrangements for fans who can’t attend games to have access to a TV ticket pass/streaming for that game.
“With capacity greatly reduced, and a return to the broadcast arrangements that see only half the games broadcast live, it will be important to make TV access as easy as possible for fans not at the Emirates Stadium.”
Many other fans’ groups agree.
“Fans who watch their team regularly home and away, or even just at home, have to accept they may not be able to watch live regularly next season,” explains one member of a leading trust, who wished to remain anonymous.
“At the end of last season, season-ticket holders got free TV passes so they could at least watch their team. Now, unless there’s a similar arrangement, many fans won’t see their team play unless they get a pay-TV subscription and their team is chosen for a televised game. But every game is filmed. There will be a streaming market: fans wanting to watch their team.
“Most season-ticket holders and members have paid a fee of some sort, so there’s an argument for including a streaming option in what they’ve paid for until they can get in the ground. Even if there’s a small charge there’s an opportunity, because digital businesses can offer cheap products on a huge scale.
“Can clubs really be happy with their fans not seeing their team? Does that make sense if there is a worry about habits being broken and fans drifting away? If the rights package prevents any such deal, is that the best evidence yet that the TV tail is wagging the football dog? That the game has given too much power away to TV?”
This is not an argument anyone at the Premier League wants to enter into now, particularly as it is still negotiating last season’s rebate to broadcasters for finishing the season late and in empty stadiums.
But, privately, many in the game see the sense of giving fans more of what they want, which would also please sponsors and dissuade people from watching illegal streams of broadcasts intended for overseas viewers.
![Manchester City, Premier League, fans Manchester City, Premier League, fans](https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2020/08/15134958/Manchester-City-fans-return-Premier-League-scaled.jpg)
Phil Foden celebrates scoring against Arsenal in front of a display showing pictures of the team’s fans in June (Photo: Dave Thompson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
On Friday, with delicious timing, Tottenham contacted their season-ticket holders to tell them they had free access to all three of the club’s behind-closed-doors pre-season friendlies: home games against Ipswich Town, Reading and Birmingham City. Non season-ticket holders can watch these games, via the club’s N17 Live streaming service, for £20.
The counter-argument to streaming everything is the impact this might have on lower-division football. It is telling that the FSA did back the temporary lifting of the restriction against broadcasting live games on Saturday afternoons for the lockdown period, and will perhaps do so again next season, but does not support a permanent change to the Saturday 3pm blackout in the UK.
What happens next?
Well, Dr Hunt has been at The Crucible in Sheffield this weekend to continue the crowd dynamics studies she and British professional sport wanted to conduct for the last fortnight.
The World Snooker Championship being played there was one of three sporting events earmarked for a “return of fans” trial last month, along with a few games of county cricket and some horse racing at Goodwood, but those plans were rudely interrupted when the government saw signs the infection rate was ticking up again.
Those fears have allayed slightly and prime minister Boris Johnson announced on Thursday that test events could continue, hence Hunt’s late opportunity to catch Ronnie O’Sullivan in action, and the football industry is now scrambling to join the pilot project party.
It had initially been hoped the season’s traditional curtain-raiser, the Community Shield between Liverpool and Arsenal on Saturday, August 29, could be one of those test events. However, it was not included on the original list and the suspension of the tests ended any hopes of it being added later on.
Every ground will need at least one rehearsal before opening night, though, and this is likely to be a game with half of the ground’s revised capacity.
The EFL is understood to be keen on using September’s early rounds of the Carabao Cup or EFL Trophy for its test events.
A more sarcastic observer than us might suggest trying to fill 15 per cent of grounds is a bit ambitious for these fixtures. That is a bit unfair, though, as nobody can dispute how hard the clubs, leagues and local authorities are working on getting fans back into stadiums. And as with Project Restart, Zoom calls and elbow bumps, it will all seem very strange to start with but then become less weird with each passing week.
While nobody is pretending we are anywhere near getting through this crisis yet, football has already proved itself to be collegiate, resilient and resourceful.
The game and the government always talked about the return of fans being the fifth and final stage in sport’s resumption.
We are four-fifths of the way there and while the final fifth will not be completed until the Amex, Etihad, Old Trafford, St James’ Park and Roots Hall are packed to the rafters again, we have to start somewhere.