Saturday, November 14, 2009
"The Crown Jewels" - Pay TV and Major Sports
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David Conn/Guardian
The decision to strengthen the crown jewels is a bold oneAdministrators are entitled to be frustrated by David Davies' recommendations as the Premier League gets off scot-free
David Davies and his Crown Jewels panel have shown backbone in expanding the list of sporting events recommended for protection on "free to air" television, facing down BSkyB's dominance of televised sport, and the intense lobbying from sports governing bodies already howling about the Sky millions they now stand to lose.
Yet before they protest too much, the England and Wales Cricket Board and other governing bodies should acknowledge Davies' panel's headline finding in the report delivered to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport today. Even after 17 years of Sky dominating live sport on TV, since BSkyB first claimed the Premier League football rights in 1992, 82% of British people still believe they are entitled to watch major sporting events without paying extra, because they have already paid a licence fee.
We have become used to Sky's capture of sport over the years, there is admiration for the quality of its coverage, and sports have enjoyed golden windfalls on BSkyB cheques. It seems a far-off world in which, when the Premier League rights were first sold exclusively to Sky, 67 Labour MPs signed a motion in Parliament protesting against it as a seizure of the people's game. Buying up sports rights exclusively here has transformed BSkyB's fortunes from a financial drain then pitching Rupert Murdoch's whole News Corporation empire into serious financial difficulties, to a cash cow fundamental to his empire's current corporate profits and political power.
Yet for all Sky's undeniable success, the pay broadcaster has still accumulated under a quarter, six million, of British homes as subscribers. Despite huge marketing spend and a tempting offer of exclusive sport and other programmes, the overwhelming majority of British people remain unwilling to pay for Sky. For many, £400 or so for TV packages annually is an expensive luxury they cannot justify, and some still reject it on principle, resisting the idea that in Britain, where the major sports were invented, we have to pay Rupert Murdoch's company to watch them live.
Davies' panel's job was to decide which events should qualify as having "national resonance," and they decided all competitive home football internationals do, the Open golf and rugby union World Cup, as well as the Ashes. The ECB is taking issue with the selection and the rigour with which it was arrived at, but the Ashes provided to Davies' panel the clearest evidence of free-to-air's broader public benefit. In 2005, the peak Ashes moments drew more than eight million viewers to Channel Four, while this year, for another tense, gripping England series victory, Sky's audience struggled to reach two million.
The ECB, seething at the prospect of losing money - BSkyB has paid £300m for exclusive cricket rights from 2010-13 – is arguing that the process was flawed, and that the BBC should be encouraged to bid competitively against Sky to show cricket live on terrestrial TV, not be anointed effectively as the sole broadcaster. The BBC is under a duty to pay "a fair price" and Davies recommends sports governing bodies can appeal to the BBC Trust if they feel they are being short-changed, but the ECB does not accept that is a robust appeal process.
Those are all valid arguments, and Ben Bradshaw, the secretary of state for culture media and sport, now has to consult and consider the recommendations, weighing in the balance the "economic impact" of removing the Sky dollars from the sports recommended by Davies.
Yet the sports should also celebrate the prospect of retaining a mass, terrestrial audience, and Davies, partly, is challenging them to make the most of it, commercially and in other ways. His strengthening of the "crown jewels" list is a vote for the principle, which has been under pressure in these free market, multi-channel days, that sport fundamentally still belongs to everybody. Most people appear to agree with that, including fans of the sports complaining most today.
The ECB's argument that its grass roots programmes will suffer does have some validity of course, but the bulk of Sky's money, to any sport, does not find its way to the grass roots. Last year the ECB's largest spending by far, £32.8m, went to the 18 first-class counties, who spend most of their money in wages to cricketers, while £12m went under the broad heading of "enthusing participation at grass root and recreational level." Listing would mean that the governing bodies affected would suffer a drop in income, but they can reorder their priorities for how they spend the money.
One competition, though, has escaped glaringly lightly. The Premier League did not fall to be considered at all, because the tradition of the "crown jewels" is that they protects moments of "national resonance" which have never included club league football, only the FA Cup Final. Yet the Premier League's own success, achieved despite Sky's live monopoly but with the ever-present tempter of Saturday night highlights, has turned matches between its top clubs into "watercooler moments" too. The audience even for a Manchester United v Chelsea match is still barely 2 million on Sky (although Sky claim more people watch games in pubs), while viewing figures would swell above 10 million if prime Premier League matches were shown live on terrestrial TV. It is an irony that the English Premier League is watched extremely cheaply by multitudes around the world, but costs a chunky direct debit to see live here.
It does seem a little cruel on the ECB, FA and SFA that they will now appeal desperately to the government against the recommended listing, while the world's richest league is sailing away with a £1.7bn TV deal already struck for 2010-13 exclusively with Sky and ESPN, and has never shown a single live match free to air, in 17 years. Guardian
David Conn/Guardian
The decision to strengthen the crown jewels is a bold oneAdministrators are entitled to be frustrated by David Davies' recommendations as the Premier League gets off scot-free
David Davies and his Crown Jewels panel have shown backbone in expanding the list of sporting events recommended for protection on "free to air" television, facing down BSkyB's dominance of televised sport, and the intense lobbying from sports governing bodies already howling about the Sky millions they now stand to lose.
Yet before they protest too much, the England and Wales Cricket Board and other governing bodies should acknowledge Davies' panel's headline finding in the report delivered to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport today. Even after 17 years of Sky dominating live sport on TV, since BSkyB first claimed the Premier League football rights in 1992, 82% of British people still believe they are entitled to watch major sporting events without paying extra, because they have already paid a licence fee.
We have become used to Sky's capture of sport over the years, there is admiration for the quality of its coverage, and sports have enjoyed golden windfalls on BSkyB cheques. It seems a far-off world in which, when the Premier League rights were first sold exclusively to Sky, 67 Labour MPs signed a motion in Parliament protesting against it as a seizure of the people's game. Buying up sports rights exclusively here has transformed BSkyB's fortunes from a financial drain then pitching Rupert Murdoch's whole News Corporation empire into serious financial difficulties, to a cash cow fundamental to his empire's current corporate profits and political power.
Yet for all Sky's undeniable success, the pay broadcaster has still accumulated under a quarter, six million, of British homes as subscribers. Despite huge marketing spend and a tempting offer of exclusive sport and other programmes, the overwhelming majority of British people remain unwilling to pay for Sky. For many, £400 or so for TV packages annually is an expensive luxury they cannot justify, and some still reject it on principle, resisting the idea that in Britain, where the major sports were invented, we have to pay Rupert Murdoch's company to watch them live.
Davies' panel's job was to decide which events should qualify as having "national resonance," and they decided all competitive home football internationals do, the Open golf and rugby union World Cup, as well as the Ashes. The ECB is taking issue with the selection and the rigour with which it was arrived at, but the Ashes provided to Davies' panel the clearest evidence of free-to-air's broader public benefit. In 2005, the peak Ashes moments drew more than eight million viewers to Channel Four, while this year, for another tense, gripping England series victory, Sky's audience struggled to reach two million.
The ECB, seething at the prospect of losing money - BSkyB has paid £300m for exclusive cricket rights from 2010-13 – is arguing that the process was flawed, and that the BBC should be encouraged to bid competitively against Sky to show cricket live on terrestrial TV, not be anointed effectively as the sole broadcaster. The BBC is under a duty to pay "a fair price" and Davies recommends sports governing bodies can appeal to the BBC Trust if they feel they are being short-changed, but the ECB does not accept that is a robust appeal process.
Those are all valid arguments, and Ben Bradshaw, the secretary of state for culture media and sport, now has to consult and consider the recommendations, weighing in the balance the "economic impact" of removing the Sky dollars from the sports recommended by Davies.
Yet the sports should also celebrate the prospect of retaining a mass, terrestrial audience, and Davies, partly, is challenging them to make the most of it, commercially and in other ways. His strengthening of the "crown jewels" list is a vote for the principle, which has been under pressure in these free market, multi-channel days, that sport fundamentally still belongs to everybody. Most people appear to agree with that, including fans of the sports complaining most today.
The ECB's argument that its grass roots programmes will suffer does have some validity of course, but the bulk of Sky's money, to any sport, does not find its way to the grass roots. Last year the ECB's largest spending by far, £32.8m, went to the 18 first-class counties, who spend most of their money in wages to cricketers, while £12m went under the broad heading of "enthusing participation at grass root and recreational level." Listing would mean that the governing bodies affected would suffer a drop in income, but they can reorder their priorities for how they spend the money.
One competition, though, has escaped glaringly lightly. The Premier League did not fall to be considered at all, because the tradition of the "crown jewels" is that they protects moments of "national resonance" which have never included club league football, only the FA Cup Final. Yet the Premier League's own success, achieved despite Sky's live monopoly but with the ever-present tempter of Saturday night highlights, has turned matches between its top clubs into "watercooler moments" too. The audience even for a Manchester United v Chelsea match is still barely 2 million on Sky (although Sky claim more people watch games in pubs), while viewing figures would swell above 10 million if prime Premier League matches were shown live on terrestrial TV. It is an irony that the English Premier League is watched extremely cheaply by multitudes around the world, but costs a chunky direct debit to see live here.
It does seem a little cruel on the ECB, FA and SFA that they will now appeal desperately to the government against the recommended listing, while the world's richest league is sailing away with a £1.7bn TV deal already struck for 2010-13 exclusively with Sky and ESPN, and has never shown a single live match free to air, in 17 years. Guardian
