Sky Sports and BT Sport tell locked-out football fans they will screen five extra matches in each round of fixtures on pay-per-view – but charge a whopping £14.99 for EACH game
- Premier League’s main UK broadcasters to reveal new pay-per-view service
- An extra selection of top-flight games will be screened live but at extra cost
- The live games won’t form part of current Sky or BT subscription packages
- Each game will cost £14.95 to view with service launching on October 17
- Manchester United’s trip to Newcastle among the first games screened on it
- Premier League had grown agitated at giving away product for free in lockdown
The Premier League has revealed plans to launch a new pay-per-view service which will see punters asked to pay £14.95 per game to view extra matches.
In a strategy likely to infuriate viewers, Sky Sports and BT Sport will screen an additional selection of matches on their Box Office channels from next weekend.
These games aren’t included in the designated televised schedule already announced for October and are Saturday 3pm matches available for an additional cost to subscription fees.
The first fixtures shown on the service will be the five 3pm kick-offs on Saturday October 17 – Chelsea vs Southampton, Newcastle United vs Manchester United, Sheffield United vs Fulham, Leicester City vs Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion vs Burnley.
Sky Sports and BT Sport are poised to announce a pay-per-view service for Premier League matches that are not part of their usual coverage schedules
A number of Premier League games were shown free-to-air in lockdown but the league has grown agitated at giving away its product for free in the UK
Fans who remain locked out of grounds amid the Covid-19 pandemic are likely to be angry they now have to pay more to watch their team on TV
The broadcasters won’t receive any additional revenue from this service with all profits split between the clubs to compensate for lost matchday revenue with supporters still absent from stadiums amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since football returned in June, all matches have been televised through Sky, BT, BBC and Amazon as part of each broadcasters’ general service.
But the Premier League have grown agitated at essentially giving away their product for free since lockdown.
Additionally broadcasters do not want to pay extra for the rights to more games – the new pay-per-view service a product of those concerns.
Sportsmail understands the idea for the new service was spawned by the Premier League – and that the league’s broadcasting partners are facilitating the move.
But the move has still angered customers who already fork out significant subscription costs every month.
Fans of Fulham and West Bromwich Albion will be hit hardest in the pocket with three October games set to be on the Box Office platform. They would have to pay £44.85 to watch all three games.
Sky Sports pundits Jamie Carragher (left), Gary Neville (centre) and presenter Kelly Cates at a Premier League match earlier this year
A statement released by the Premier League said: ‘The Premier League today confirmed all fixtures until the end of October will continue to be made available for fans to watch live in the United Kingdom.
‘Under these new arrangements, the current live match selections will remain in place and will be broadcast as normal.
‘In addition, the five matches per round not already selected will be made available to supporters on a pay-per-view basis, accessed via BT Sport Box Office and Sky Sports Box Office platforms.
‘Clubs today agreed this interim solution to enable all fans to continue to watch their teams live.
‘The Premier League has worked closely with Sky Sports and BT Sport to provide this arrangement and is grateful for their support.
‘The agreement will be regularly reviewed in consultation with clubs and in line with any decisions made by Government regarding the return of spectators to stadiums.
‘Football is not the same without supporters at matches. The Premier League and our clubs remain committed to the safe return of fans as soon as possible. An updated broadcast list of matches will be announced later today.’
A BT Sport statement read: ‘BT have agreed to support the Premier League and Clubs make Premier League games that wouldn’t normally be televised available to fans via BT Sport Box Office in October.’
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.
We will make further information available about how fans can watch the Premier League on BT Sport Box Office next week.
Sky’s Neville leads fan criticism
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has led criticism of the Premier League’s decision to charge fans £14.95 per match to watch extra games.
And fans have reacted furiously at the prospect of being made to pay even more money on top of existing subscriptions to watch their team in action.
Even though Sky will be showing many of these extra games on their Box Office channels, pundit and commentator Neville voiced his criticism on Twitter.
Sky Sports pundit has joined angry fans in criticising the Premier League decision to charge fans £14.95 per match for additional televised games from next weekend
Neville posted the tweet despite many of the games being set for Sky’s Box Office channel
He wrote: ‘This is a really bad move by the @premierleague to charge £14.95 for single matches that have been shown free for 6 months!’
Neville then retweeted a post that pointed out the 20 Premier League clubs spent £1.2billion on transfer during the recently-closed summer window.
fans described the move as ‘genuinely disgraceful’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘another nail in the coffin’ for the game.
Others calculated the cost of their various TV sport subscriptions at well in excess of £1,000 and that even before these extra games.
Others said they would be cancelling their Sky and BT subscriptions in protest even though the broadcasters don’t stand to make any money.
Angry fans rushed onto Twitter to voice their disgust at having to pay more to watch their team
When the Premier League restarted in June following lockdown there was pressure from the Government to allow each of the remaining 92 fixtures to be televised live.
Sky made 25 of their remaining matches available free to air on Pick TV, while four matches were screened by the BBC. All Amazon’s matches were also available without charge.
When the new season kicked off in September, all 28 games that month were televised live instead of the usual 17 with staggered kick-off times across the weekend.
However, only one – Leicester City vs Burnley – was made free-to-air and was broadcast on BBC One.
Last weekend’s round of games were also all screened live, either on Sky or BT Sport but the two-week international break was always likely to see a shift in plans.
