[jfman]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

I think you are right here, there's definitely a market for fans who only want to see their team in action.

I certainly think the market is there - that customer exists. The problem is how the product they are interested in interacts with the other products.

If it impacts negatively on matchday ticket sales then it could be a negative for the league to allow it. A full season ticket is perhaps more likely to do this than an 'away' season ticket.

Would such a ticket include the games that are currently on Sky/BT (for ease I'm using existing rights holders, but know that this would be a future contract in reality)? If not, then a Manchester United/Liverpool fan could find maybe an additional half dozen games available. If it included all games the shift to a non-exclusive contract would impact on the value of the rights.

Of course - the League could retain the additional rights and endeavour to work with the main rights holder to incentivise subscription through their platform with a tapered cost - that'd also mean that someone who has the subscription services and wants to 'top up' to a full season wouldn't be paying for the same games twice.

It's not insurmountable, but does get more complicated the more rights holders there are. Pay per view football has, to date, generally not been a success in the UK. PremPlus most subscribers took the full year option. There's been a few attempts with minor European qualifiers over the years.

I know in the past France, Italy and Spain all dabbled with making additional games live on a pay per view basis on top of a 3/4 picks on standard subscription. However all now have wholly subscription models and all games live.

---------- Post added at 21:38 ---------- Previous post was at 21:34 ----------

Originally Posted by Raider999

Why pick on Sky - it is Sky and BT who are both doing this.

However, I have to agree - way over the top.

Bearing in mind there are 5 games not originally chosen in most rounds, these extra games have gone from being free to costing £75 per round if you want to watch all games!

Unless you are a supporter of a side on Ppv why would you subscribe - especially as all the better games are already on Sky/BT?

I'm not intending to 'pick on' Sky - however I think they've the most to lose with more games going onto BT. Your average BT/Virgin customer who has BT Sport in their package would be less likely to take Sky Sports with the additional games in their package.

I think BT would generally be content with Sky getting extra games so long as they did too.

When EPL was first on Sky (originally a monopoly) there was talk of being able to subscribe to a season ticket for all a selected teams games - this never materialised.

Not sure why they think many people will pay £15 per game.

I think season ticket holders might, but beyond that I'm not sure what the market is for games generally turned down for television already.