Interesting article on TV rights

This is a good article and does point at how absurdly ripped off we are in this country on this compared with pretty much everywhere else. Sports rights are an absolute scandal and should really be at the heart of a concerted fans and consumer campaign.

It is not a market-it is a cartel.  A proper market should act at the level of the consumer.  In sports rights the market is at the level of the provider so the result is that an expansion in the number of providers actually end up driving costs up.  10 years ago if I wanted to watch the full range of live English football games I paid Sky an exhorbitant (compared with pretty much every other country in Europe) amount for it.  These days if I want to watch all live English football games I have to pay both Sky and BT Sports an exhorbitant of money.  There is no actual choice there - expanding the number of packages and splitting the big matches between them has simply raised cost for the average fan if you want to watch all the big matches.  If a market worked properly at the level of the consumer you'd have multiple providers for the same match driving down the costs; in other words you could pay a full wack to watch all singing all dancing camera angles, 25 pundits and Alan Shearer doing a trapeez act at half time or you could pay bargain rates for a bloke who has just parked his mobile phone on the halfway line.  Of course, this doesn't work for either the TV companies or the Football Authorities who want to rake in the cash from the cartels created from the exclusive rights deals so it'll never happen.  But the idea that what we have is a rights market is flat out laughable - it's not a market as far as the consumer is concerned; the choice is like it or lump it and that's it.

It has created all kinds of perverse situations 2 spring instantly to mind;
-It has allowed Sky to marginalise League football to the point that I think I'm right in saying it is possible to watch more live games from the Conference than from League 1 and League 2 because Sky only really shows live Championship games consistantly (and even then doesn't come close to maximising the potential number of games it could be showing).
-Companies have the rights for events they then do not show.  This is a disgrace and, for me, the most notable example of this is the County Championship Cricket.  Despite the narrative of decline there is a lot of interest in County Championship cricket (judging by the number of people that tune into the BBC's blanket radio coverage and follow it online etc) but people can't go due to the time it is on.  It also has a large pensioner following who would watch it.  In other words there's a reasonably regular audience (and fairly well off one for advertising purposes) out there for this especially compared with a lot of the crap that is put on.  But Sky's deal with the ECB is exclusive regarding all cricket played in this country - they are the only people allowed to televise cricket.  They show 3 Championship games a year because they don't want to draw attention away from their international cricket circus and the big sponsors that has,

We are so far off maximising the amount of sports coverage we get or getting a fair deal for what we do get that it is ridiculous.  I'm a big Ice Hockey fan - I just signed up to potentially watch every single game of the NHL season online (from October through to June - about 40 games a week) for just under £100.  Similar deals are available for other sports.  It is ridiculous how much we are getting ripped off and what a poor service we get for that.  Personally, I think it's perfectly possible for every single professional sporting event in this country to be filmed (not lavishly but for there to be something to watch) and to be available to watch for people at affordable prices.  We are lightyears behind on this because it doesn't fit with our vested interests.

Yep- it's an absolute no-brainer really when you look at what happens in the US; both in terms of the range of content offerred and the price that it is shown at.  We are just getting totally ripped off.  Another way all those MLB/NHL packages work is that you can pay at the level to suit you; so I can pay to watch just the playoffs (which is what I do with the baseball actually) or for a specific month etc.  Or you can buy a specific game and you also have it on Demand and with (as you pointed out) loads of past stuff - so you don't have to watch it live.  I believe Sky have started offerring something like this but at silly prices.  The US system is not perfect either but it's a damnsite better than what we have to offer om about every level.

I think ITV4 would jump at the chance to show Championship Cricket given the potential marketing potential - my view is that if you have the rights to show something and don't show it then someone else should be allowed to; it's the TV equivalent of landbanking and it stuffs the consumer.

I am coming to the end of my 4th season as a Premium MLB.tv subscriber and it is insanely good value. This year I paid about £80 for access to 3000+ games (Spring Training/Regular and all post season games). All games are live (we have no blackout over here) and can be watched archived. Also there is an intense package of highlights and condensed games for each game played. I can access on my Apple Tv, Ipad, Iphone and laptop.

The package is cost effective and of a very, very high quality.

US sports are decadees ahead in terms of selling their rights to both broadcasters, but also selling directly to consumers through things such as MLB.tv, NHL Game Centre and NFL Game Pass.