Web-only coverage shows lack of insight
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Showing an England international online might sound modern and progressive but Saturday's World Cup Qualifier against Ukraine exposes flawed ideals and a lack of understanding of the football market in 2009.
The UK rights to show the game were originally held by Setanta Sports, the astroturfers supreme who collapsed in the summer. The company's spending on football it couldn't afford, most notably England and Premier League matches, forced it out of business as far as UK coverage is concerned, leaving the Ukrainians with rights to sell. Unsurprisingly, nobody of note was willing to pay. It's likely the asking price was astronomical.
As a result, the coverage has wound up online. Omnisport, who've been blitzing the football blogosphere with invitations to take part in an affiliate scheme to help sell the game, are charging £4.99 until midnight today and putting prices up thereafter. The same prices are available on some of the newspaper websites including The Sun.
The purchasers have shown a serious lack of insight here. The game is meaningless, with England having already qualified for next year's World Cup in South Africa. The assumption that supporters will pay for the game is a dangerous one. Many, like myself, would have watched the game on free television or even gone to the pub to watch it on paid TV. But pay for a match online? Not a chance.
There are also a number of oversights on Omnisport's part:
- Bet365.com are showing the game for free to customers with a funded account
- The game would likely have struggled for an audience anyway
- If it's online, it's online for free - people will watch illegally
- The market isn't ready to pay for football online, by and large
- Football supporters hate being ripped off
On the plus side, we like a freebie. So well done to the Football Association who (having taken advice from it disgital agency, I'm sure) is showing Friday's England under-21 international against Macedonia online for the princely sum of zero pounds.
6 comments:
Spot on mate. Not quite as negative as what I put on my own blog where I basically condemn football to a sorry death! But spot on nonetheless! Sometimes I think I have fallen out of love with football... then I see or hear the two most beautiful words in the world: Aston Villa. I then forgive football for its many, many sins.
Nobody in their right mind should be paying to watch that game online, as there will be plenty of 'illegal' web-feeds available as usual.
Surely the game should have been offered free to air, because well it's actually not important?
It's all about asking price. The companies with the means to show it free to air presumably weren't going to get ripped off for a nothing game. Good for them.
Im not against paying to watch games online, but the prices must be reasonable - here in the US, you can get the entire MLS season for under $20.00. Some sort of England qualifer package would be nice, but a ways off I imagine
Elliott, I think you're right on the money in both senses of the phrase. It's naive to think football supporters won't pay, but they certainly won't be ripped off.
Chris - the TV rights battles remind me of the music-Napster fiasco a decade ago. Itunes showed that individuals were willing to pay for music, just not the same (ripped off) price as a decade ago.
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