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What are the benefits of paying to watch sport on TV?


Scooter

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When I was growing up we had all the big football, golf, boxing, tennis, rugby etc. events on the TV, free to air. Admittedly it wasn't wall-to-wall coverage but we all watched it when it was on and we all talked about it and it encouraged us to take part and play it.

"Did you see the game last night?", started enthusiastic conversations that could go on for hours and end up anywhere.

Now most of these big events are behind a paywall, with boxing behind a double paywall!

"Did you see the game last night?". "No!"

The Women's World Cup football was free to air, we watched it and talked about it ...and the viewing figures dwarfed anything on satellite telly. Hopefully it will inspire more girls to take up playing football and grow the game.

The Cricket World Cup was behind a paywall and nobody really knew what was going on till C4 were allowed to show the final. Folk watched it and talked about it.

The Open golf was behind a paywall and I never saw a ball being hit. The Netball World Cup is behind a paywall. International Test cricket is behind a paywall. Formula 1 is behind a paywall.

Coming up are The Ashes, UEFA Super Cup, US Open & ATP Tennis finals, Premier League football, Euro 2020 qualifiers, Super League Grand Final rugby, all behind paywalls.

The viewing figures for these paywall events are atrocious compared to smaller free-to-air events and it seems TV is strangling sporting participation at birth in favour of armchair viewing.

So the question I have is, if you can't watch sport without having money, and if you can't play it without having any money, is it any mystery that we're not seeing more sports people cutting through to the highest level?

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One benefit is that coverage is much better and more extensive.

The satellite companies don't have to worry about cutting away to the schedule - in fact, they will expand coverafe of a match to three hours or more because it fills airtime and earns advertising.

The coverage of something like the Champions League with multiple matches available on red button is great for fanatics.

Another is that they cover many more events than the terrestrial companies ever did. If you like tennis, you can watch all the ATP and WTA events, and not just the grand slams. Same with golf, cricket, rugby and so on.

The increased coverage has certainly been good for players' earning-power!

Sports coverage on terrestrial TV was only ever a niche part of the schedule whereas dedicated sports channels can give more exposure to minority sports - cycling, speedway, pool, baseball, for example.

It's not for everybody and is expensive but, if you are into your sport, I think it's worth it. I agree that there should be more events protected for free-to-air transmission though.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Shropshire_killie said:

given how few watch games on BT/ Sky Sports erc it disgusts me and would n3ver subscribe. 

Agreed. And it's just gonna get worse with the number of subs you'll need to pay to watch what you want.

Plenty folk feel the same through the years, we've went from hacked freeview boxes and dodgy Sky cards to Kodi and now cheap IPTV on the go.

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2 hours ago, skygod said:

One benefit is that coverage is much better and more extensive.

The satellite companies don't have to worry about cutting away to the schedule - in fact, they will expand coverafe of a match to three hours or more because it fills airtime and earns advertising.

The coverage of something like the Champions League with multiple matches available on red button is great for fanatics.

Another is that they cover many more events than the terrestrial companies ever did. If you like tennis, you can watch all the ATP and WTA events, and not just the grand slams. Same with golf, cricket, rugby and so on.

The increased coverage has certainly been good for players' earning-power!

Sports coverage on terrestrial TV was only ever a niche part of the schedule whereas dedicated sports channels can give more exposure to minority sports - cycling, speedway, pool, baseball, for example.

It's not for everybody and is expensive but, if you are into your sport, I think it's worth it. I agree that there should be more events protected for free-to-air transmission though.

If you like your armchair, the coverage is a hundred times better than it used to be but it is only getting more expensive.... and the money isn't trickling down in big enough amounts to the grass roots as far as I'm concerned.

How do the younger generation get the bug to play a sport if their parents can't afford all the subs, so the kids can't be inspired by new heroes?

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 7/25/2019 at 9:58 PM, Scooter said:

If you like your armchair, the coverage is a hundred times better than it used to be but it is only getting more expensive.... and the money isn't trickling down in big enough amounts to the grass roots as far as I'm concerned.

How do the younger generation get the bug to play a sport if their parents can't afford all the subs, so the kids can't be inspired by new heroes?

This is an important point imho, in my school days in primary school every lad wanted to be a professional footballer. Speak to kids at that age now and all they want to be is a youtuber or video game streamer. The likes of Ninja, Tfue, DrDisrespect, CourageJD are all virtually free to view and super accessible on ipads, phones, firesticks etc these days. We still have plenty kids playing  football but that number will only dwindle as the cost of doing it increases.

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On 7/22/2019 at 4:09 PM, Scooter said:

So the question I have is, if you can't watch sport without having money, and if you can't play it without having any money, is it any mystery that we're not seeing more sports people cutting through to the highest level?

Is that really true though? I think the UK are possibly having their most successful sustained period of success across the sporting landscape than they’ve managed in the last 50 years. Across almost all sports they have at the very least least competitive athletes near the top of their rankings. From Olympic minority sports to professional team games I struggle to think of another similar sized nation with such a breadth of talent. A lot of this is can be attributed to Lottery money but in boxing, F1 and motorsport, Cricket, Football, Rugby, Golf and many others generally behind a paywall GB sport still bats way above its average in my opinion. 

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54 minutes ago, casual observer said:

Is that really true though? I think the UK are possibly having their most successful sustained period of success across the sporting landscape than they’ve managed in the last 50 years. Across almost all sports they have at the very least least competitive athletes near the top of their rankings. From Olympic minority sports to professional team games I struggle to think of another similar sized nation with such a breadth of talent. A lot of this is can be attributed to Lottery money but in boxing, F1 and motorsport, Cricket, Football, Rugby, Golf and many others generally behind a paywall GB sport still bats way above its average in my opinion. 

That is true but how many of these sports are accessible to families on a low income ? The only way a family that is struggling to make ends meet can watch the sports you listed is illegally, and thousands, possibly millions, do.  F1 can be ignored because you practically have to buy your way in now, and I doubt if many working-class children are drawn to golf, cricket, or rugby. Even football isn't so accessible as it used to be. A family with a child/children who have an interest in sport are going to have to have a fair bit of free income if they want to persue that interest to a decent level. 

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