Apologies again for Daily Hate content: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-consider-moving-22-games-11am-kick-offs.html Premier League consider new TV deal that could see clubs kick off at 11.30am as chiefs try to increase value in Asia. The Premier League are considering a package of late-morning Sunday kick-offs for the extra 22 live games to be included in the next three-year rights sale starting in season 2019-20. The 11.30am or noon kick-off times are designed to appeal to the Asian market where the matches would be broadcast at peak time. The proposal was included in briefing notes for the PL summer meeting this week. But there is likely to be outrage from fans at such a move which would mean them having to travel to away matches early on Sunday mornings when public transport is at its most unreliable — as well as taking even more action away from the traditional Saturday 3pm kick-off. However, the PL are aware that Asia is still a big growth market for them and such a package would bring a considerable increase in the value of rights in the next overseas tender. But it will also resurrect the battle between the Big Six (Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool) and the rest of the top flight over overseas revenue which is currently split evenly. The top clubs, aware they are the main draw in Asia, want to be paid on a sliding scale based on matches shown over there. Skipping past the jokes about people on here having to get up earlier to sit in front of their internet streams - I really hope this doesn't happen. Twelve pm kick-offs are bad enough, but starting even earlier just to appeal to TV audiences on the other side of the world is ridiculous. I know that the wealth in the premier league is heavily dependent on global TV audiences, but surely the greed has to stop somewhere? Perhaps the most important point raised in the article is that the "big 6" want a bigger slice of the pie. Thoughts?
FIFY Seriously though, I have to travel a couple of hundred miles to get to the Vic so if this happens I might as well just not to to bed the night before. Or I could just not bother & watch it on a river.
We all know football is a business, but the PL is in danger of allienating it's core support, which are the fans who actually go to games! Where are the future fans of our great game going to come from to create atmosphere in the stadiums? Which afterall is part of what makes football a fantastic visual entertainment. Unless of course TV intends to use virtual technology to create that atmosphere, which would not surprise me at all. Having said that, if people did not actually go to games etc. would they ever develop their love for football in the first place? Then where would be the TV audience, non existant perhaps?
On a Sunday morning at 11.30 I'm usually at the side of a pitch watching my son play. That's one h*ll of a lot more important to me than Watford FC.
If they're trying to win the Asia market and saw Watford play this season, it shouldn't afect us too much.
Quite interesting point made above. The minute games don't have a good atmosphere with big crowds is the moment the marketability drops through the floor. How far can they push it before it happens?
