[bitontheslide]

Premier League games not selected for broadcast in October will be available to fans on a pay-per-view basis.

The five fixtures per round not already picked to be shown live, will be available on BT Sport Box Office or Sky Sports Box Office, priced at £14.95.

Clubs have agreed this "interim solution" to allow fans to continue watching their teams live.

The Premier League said it and its clubs "remain committed to the safe return of fans as soon as possible".

Fans have been unable to attend Premier League games since football was halted on 13 March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The top flight resumed on Wednesday, 17 June with the remaining 92 games of last season being played behind closed doors and the opening games of this season have followed suit.

The Premier League and UK government had hoped to bring fans back into stadiums from 1 October but those plans were scrapped following an increase in coronavirus cases.

BT Sport said fans without a subscription would still be able to access their Box Office service.

"With supporters still unable to return to stadiums, we want to help fans watch the games they would usually attend and clubs generate critical revenue," the broadcaster said.

Former Manchester United and England right-back Gary Neville, now a television pundit, said on social media it was a "really bad move" by the Premier League.

In a statement, the Football Supporters' Association urged broadcasters to "reconsider their pricing".

"Today's announcement shows that fan power works," the FSA said. "At the start of this season the Premier League and its broadcasters had planned to leave match-going fans entirely locked out of their side's matches; now thanks to the sustained pressure of our #LetUsWatch campaign all games will be available for fans.

"Many Premier League clubs have already taken money from fans for matches they can't attend, so we urge them to get refunds out to those supporters as soon as possible, particularly season ticket holders.

"We've already heard from many supporters and FSA members who are concerned about the £15 per game being charged and we'd urge BT Sport and Sky Sports to reconsider their pricing for these games."

Alex Hurst, the chair of Newcastle United's Supporters Trust said: "The idea that Premier League clubs NEED to implement PPV because of economic needs would carry more weight if they hadn't just spent £1bn on players, furloughed staff, received government loans, weren't charging fans for games they aren't going to and hadn't just made thousands of staff redundant."

Supporters of EFL clubs can buy match passes to watch their teams for £10 using the iFollow service.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54481945

[Nicky91]

who cares about football in times like these


people stay home

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Nicky91

who cares about football in times like these, just vold all competitions


people stay home

People will be at home watching on TV

[Cherie]

15.00 is steep

[LeatherTrumpet]

Originally Posted by Nicky91

who cares about football in times like these, just vold all competitions


people stay home

every actual football fan

[Nicky91]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

every actual football fan

i also love football, but now without audiences so boring

i rather have no football during this coronacrisis, and once we got rid of corona, bringing football back

[LeatherTrumpet]

people not happy about the prices

[bitontheslide]

i guess its a lot cheaper than attending a normal premier league game, that really is the reference point for pricing

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

i guess its a lot cheaper than attending a normal premier league game, that really is the reference point for pricing

A game on the Now TV app is usually 9.99 and you get 24 hours so depending on game times you could watch two or three games...if they pitched it right they would get slot more sign ups that seems greedy

[Black Dagger]

Prices are a disgrace. The working class fan priced out of football. No wonder IPTV boxes are on the rise.

[James]

Sky (and other tech companies and broadcasters) promote the lockdown, and then they profit from it like this.

[Swan]

This will just encourage people to find the games by other means, for free on the internet basically. This will just end like that Prem Plus thing did.

[LeatherTrumpet]

its easy to find a stream via youtube

[MTVN]

Tbh we've had more Premier League games on telly than ever since lockdown so I don't think viewers can feel too hard done by now even though £15 is quite steep

Majority of football fans can't get to games live and don't have their team on the telly much in normal circumstances so this does provide an option at least

[Shaun]

sad thing is this'll actually by used by plenty who can afford it, and Sky/BT will take that as a successful model going forward. One of the very, very few positives about the end of the last season was that the BBC were able to show at least one game a week, and I think that should be the norm in or out of a pandemic.

[Nicky91]

Originally Posted by Shaun

sad thing is this'll actually by used by plenty who can afford it, and Sky/BT will take that as a successful model going forward. One of the very, very few positives about the end of the last season was that the BBC were able to show at least one game a week, and I think that should be the norm in or out of a pandemic.

yes Match of the Day


but coverages/discussion for all premier league, championship, scottish league matches, i find Final Score quite great

[Dogeatdog]

So this service is for the games that are not being broadcast on Sky Sports? I don’t see why the clubs whose games aren’t being shown on Sky can’t just have a stream of the game live set up on the clubs website and the fans pay to watch it that way instead? Why do they choose to go through all this PPV crap.

At least the money would be going towards the club? Or am I wrong here?

[bitontheslide]

it's not as simple as it seems to broadcast/stream a football match with commentary etc. and collect payments. Sky and BT are setup to do it already.

£15 is less than most fans would pay to attend a match

in 2019 .....

- Most fans (53 per cent) continue to pay £30 or less per match.
- The average price paid for a Premier League ticket is £32, compared with £31 in 2018/19 and £32 in 2017/18.
- 21 per cent of fans pay £20 or less per match.
- 52 per cent pay between £20 and £40.
- 20 per cent pay between £40 and £60.
- Only six per cent pay £60 or more.

[bitontheslide]

Newcastle United fans donated £20,000 to charity over the weekend in protest against the Premier League's controversial pay-per-view scheme.

The Magpies' 4-1 defeat by Manchester United on Saturday was one of several Premier League games only available live in the UK for a £14.95 fee.

It applies to the five fixtures in each round of games not televised in the UK.

The "Charity Not PPV" campaign asked fans to donate to the city's West End food bank rather than pay to watch.

Supporters from a number of other clubs who have featured in pay-per-view matches - including Aston Villa, Burnley, Leeds United and Manchester United - have also been raising thousands of pounds for local food banks.

On Monday, Clarets fans raised several thousand pounds for the "Burnley FC in the Community" campaign that has been running all season, while the "Leeds United Fans Food Bank" campaign had hundreds of donations before their club's pay-per-view match against Villa on Friday.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54597058

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

Newcastle United fans donated £20,000 to charity over the weekend in protest against the Premier League's controversial pay-per-view scheme.

The Magpies' 4-1 defeat by Manchester United on Saturday was one of several Premier League games only available live in the UK for a £14.95 fee.

It applies to the five fixtures in each round of games not televised in the UK.

The "Charity Not PPV" campaign asked fans to donate to the city's West End food bank rather than pay to watch.

Supporters from a number of other clubs who have featured in pay-per-view matches - including Aston Villa, Burnley, Leeds United and Manchester United - have also been raising thousands of pounds for local food banks.

On Monday, Clarets fans raised several thousand pounds for the "Burnley FC in the Community" campaign that has been running all season, while the "Leeds United Fans Food Bank" campaign had hundreds of donations before their club's pay-per-view match against Villa on Friday.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54597058

Sock it to the greedy gits

[Cherie]

Friday night matches used to be free, now ppv

[Shaun]

oh ffs I even wanted to watch tonight's

I'm so tired of what football has become

[LeatherTrumpet]

its been carved up by greedy men

fact

[Cherie]

Fee scrapped and some games on BBC until at least the New Year

[bitontheslide]

Originally Posted by Cherie

Fee scrapped and some games on BBC until at least the New Year

The Premier League has scrapped its pay-per-view method for matches until at least the new year, and some fixtures will now be shown on the BBC.

Fulham's game against Everton on Sunday, 22 November (12:00 GMT) will be screened live on BBC One.

The Premier League said all remaining games in November and over the Christmas and New Year period will be shown on existing broadcast services.

The £14.95 pay-per-view fee was introduced in October.

It led to significant protests among fan groups and more than £300,000 has been raised for charity by fans boycotting pay-per-view games after top-flight clubs voted 19-1 in favour of the "interim solution".

Now, the Premier League has reverted to the model used in September, in which all 28 Premier League matches were shown live with all broadcast partners - Sky Sports, BT Sport, the BBC and Amazon Prime - screening matches.

It has announced the broadcast selections for the rest of this month, with the competition resuming after the international break on Saturday, 21 November.

The selections for December and January will follow later.

"There is a full schedule of Premier League games over the festive period and clubs are committed to an accessible solution for fans," said the Premier League in a statement.

"These plans have been made with the cooperation of our broadcast partners, working with us to deliver these additional matches while stadiums are missing the supporters who are such an integral part of the game.

"The agreement will be reviewed in the new year following consultation with clubs, broadcast partners and in line with any decisions made by government regarding the return of spectators to stadiums."

Spectators have been unable to attend Premier League games since football was halted on 13 March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

After the restart of the 2019-20 season, the BBC broadcast its first live Premier League matches, one of which - Southampton's 1-0 win over Manchester City - became the most-watched game in the UK in the league's history, attracting 5.7 million viewers.

In December, two full sets of fixtures will be broadcast on Amazon Prime - on 15/16 December and 28 December - as part of its standard broadcast deal with the Premier League.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54932314

People power!