Sport for all... for a price

(PIC: Metro)

Following the removal of Sky Sports News from Freeview, there is no dedicated sports channel on Free to Air television in the UK. Since Sky arrived on the British broadcasting scene over twenty years ago, sport on television has experienced unprecedented expansion through the arrival of satellite television and dedicated sports networks. While sports that had never had much air time previously have benefited from this trend, more and more sporting events have been removed from FTA and placed behind a pay wall.

While Premier League football is the classic example of sport being used to attract subscribers, most sports and leagues have deals with Sky, ESPN or Eurosport. England home tests, which were broadcast on the BBC and later Channel Four, were removed from FTA in 2006 as part of a new broadcast deal between Sky and the ECB. This is but one recent example of a governing body seeking to maximise revenue from broadcasters eager to pay more for sports to strengthen the lure of their subscriptions. Premiership Rugby and Super League had already been on pay TV for many years and it is possible that the only major sport that it is possible to view comprehensively on FTA is Formula One, which is now one of the pillars of the BBC’s ever dwindling portfolio.

The movement of these mainstream sports to subscription television has been followed by many niche sports. Only two years ago, Channel Five’s late night schedule offered the insomniac viewer a variety of American sports including American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey. Coverage of these sports was cut as five sought to reduce expenditure in the current media climate. While the cost of the rights was relatively low, the studio production costs were unjustifiable given the limited audience and advertising revenue available in the small hours. While Channel Four and ESPN have picked up the NFL games that were on five, the NHL and MLB are now exclusive to ESPN America, who provide no studio production to accompany the American feed.

While the BBC continue to show many of the ‘crown jewel’ sporting events such as Wimbledon, The Open and the Olympics, it has recently lost exclusive rights to the US Masters to Sky Sports and the World Athletics Championships to Channel Four. The BBC does provide a substantial amount of sporting programming and its coverage is second to none but the loss of such important events is worrying. ITV 1’s sports strategy has shifted in recent years with its resources allocated to showing blue chip events such as the UEFA Champions League, the FA Cup and England internationals. It infers that ITV believe that football is the only sport that merits the increased cost of securing television rights, although it has extended its deal with the IRB to show the Rugby World Cup.

The UK is seen as one of the biggest pay TV markets in the world and broadcasters are keen to exploit that as viewers are willing to pay for premium content, chiefly sport. In the US, the market is different as most premium sports channels cater for a specific audience such as local sports teams or niche sports such as football or cricket. While ESPN isn’t strictly free as it does require a basic cable subscription, the cost is minimal and the main networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX all show a variety of NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA action. In many countries across Europe, Eurosport is part of basic packages, while in Germany it is joined by Sport 1 which shows a variety of sport such as Moto GP, Bundesliga programming and even Premier League highlights.

The closest example that the UK has is ITV4 which has steadily built up a substantial portfolio of sporting rights. It broadcasts live UEFA Europa League football as well as programming from ITV’s other football properties, live coverage of the Tour de France and the British Touring Car Championships. In addition to this it provided the first FTA cricket coverage in five years when it showed the 2010 Indian Premier League and gave rugby union a Match of the Day style round up with its Premiership highlights which were joined this season by highlights from the Heineken and Challenge Cups. While many have criticised ITV’s sports coverage in the past, most notably when their HD channel missed England’s goal against the USA in the World Cup, its commitment to FTA sports should be commended.

We will probably never see Premier League football or even test cricket back on FTA television, but there remains the hope that one day we will be able to have a service similar to ESPN or Eurosport. The BBC have repeatedly rejected the possibility that they could create such a channel, arguing that the current red button service is effectively a sports channel while others believe that the boat has been missed.  Given that sport remains one of the few unifying events in an increasingly fragmented media market (programmes like the X Factor being another example), many sports could benefit from the increased exposure rather than the money that pay TV companies are willing to give them. Sports such as snooker increased in popularity because of coverage on television in the 70s and 80s and it is no coincidence that the organisers of Power Snooker, which aims to imitate the success of Twenty20 cricket and rejuvenate interest in the sport, have signed a deal with ITV4 to show the inaugural event this weekend.