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Hannibal

Sky tv is ruining British Football!

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After is was announced yesterday that BskyB had won the rights to 5 of the 6 packages for Premier league football for three year from 2010 onwards, for a record 1.78 Billion. Yes thats 1.78 Billion! I felt a very deep sadness for the way English football is heading. 

I am worried on two points really. First, surely this will only serve to make the rich richer and the poor, well stay poor. How are the likes of the BBC and terestrial televison supposed to compete with this? I subscribe to Setanta for the modest 12.99 that it costs but i will have to cancel come 2010 as its really not worth it for just 23 live games on a Saturday evening which i might miss due to drink after city games or just not want to watch someone like Wigan v''s Hull!

My second worry is that the Premier league has become too realiant on this money from BskyB. 1.78 billion is a big sum of money especially in todays climate. What happens if BskyB pull out or go under much like the old ITV sport deal. The Premiership would simply be brought to its knees and robbed of all its best players. Even i must admit i am glad that players like Ronaldo and Torres chose to play here and it will be a sad day if the top players in the world do not wish to play in our top league.

While i''m going at BskyB, Another thing that gets me about them is the way they handle Champoinship matches. Its is looked upon seemingly as the Premierships poorer cousin, viewed the same as the Blue Square league in thier eyes. In fact i would say Setanta''s coverage of the Blue Square is superior to that of Sky''s coverage of the Championship. The comentators are always rubbish and there is always useles Don Goodman what has he ever done? The Championship has the 4th highest average league attendance in Europe only behind the Premiership, La Liga and Serie A. So why the is the coverage so bad?

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[quote user="1st Wazzock"]It should read HAS ruined British football.[/quote]

That''s for sure ! Most of the extra revenue just goes straight into player''s and agents already inflated pay packets.

 

 

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I actually couldn''t agree with the heading more. all the extra pressures that the refs are put under, the rewards for success encouraging cheating and the constant 24 hour debate from each week end.

BUT

They can only offer this sort of money because people choose to pay the monthly subscriptions. If people don''t pay they won''t get advertisers, with out advertisers the income goes, if the income goes then they can''t pay this sort of money and prevent the terestrial television companies competing.

The choice really is ours. May be in the current climate the number of subscribers may drop but while enough people pay the fatcats (premiership) will claw it in and who can blame them. So for the foreseeable future there will be a lot of average players earning ridiculous money and believing that they are above the law and treat "normal" people with disregard (i''m sure they''ll be another in the Sunday papers tomorrow).

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Very true Wiz if the shoe were on the other foot. Although we did get promoted not so long ago and i think we recieved around 60m total after relegation payment ect... and i can honestly say i think we are in a worse position now having been promoted than we would be if we had just plodded along in the Championship like say Burnley who would apear to be on a much sounder footing than us at the present. I think it really is a double edge sword, most teams relegated from the Prem struggle to return at the first time of asking.

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im going to go as far as saying english football would be nothing without bskyb. the amount of money theyve poured into our game has resulted in a higher standard of player, better facilities like stadiums, and also a far superior viewing experience to that on offer by bbc itv, and more lately setanta. i think they offer very good value for money for their sports package and i for one am delighted they have won back some of the matches off setanta.

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Footballs already ruined. It''s crap these days.  I always said the three things to ruin football were Sky, Hillsbrough and Euro 96.

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yeah the prem league is full of very average players earning massive wages but the bubble will burst just a case of when then it may be competitive again

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[quote user="1st Wizard"]Sorry guys, you sound bitter and jelous to me, were we to get promoted...................[/quote]

Not really Wiz, my opinion was for football in general not Norwich specifically.

As one who loves "football" I can hardly be pleased the way the game is going.

 

 

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Interesting debate this one. On one hand I would love sky to just dissappear from the face of the earth leaving all the Premier league clubs and over paid players deep in the brown stuff. Pre sky any team had a chance of competeing. The big clubs like Man Utd always had an advantage because of their crowd size but the differential between clubs was not big and quite managable.

On  the other hand i subscribe to sky and watch the so called overpaid players 3 or 4 times a week.

What a dilema!! If i mhonestly thought that cancelling my sky would make a big change i would. Unfortunately there are just too many armchair fans who only watch football on tv

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Unfortunately this is how things will continue to go.  Sky will continue to offer stupid amounts of money like this because we the general public are stupid enough to pay for it.  Unfortunately it’s now a circle that can''t be broken as they pretty much have the market tied up so we have no choice but to watch it through them.  On Sky''s part it’s a genius piece of business. I read somewhere about 8 years ago that technically BSKYB couldn''t go bust because the amounts of money involved meant that if banks called it in and BSKYB didn''t pay up they too would go under!  However with the current climate it’s not beyond possibility that a bank could now go under. Unfortunately until a large Prem club goes into administration or bust the ridiculous amounts of money in the game will continue.  If any of Middlesbrough, Pompey or Newcastle go down this year I believe that will be the wake up call everybody needs, I''m not sure about Newcastle and Pompey but I know Boro have a current debt of around £135m, which is just about serviceable in the Prem, if they went down and there''s a real chance I could honestly see them folding.The future isn''t bright, unless you have a billionaire sugar daddy.

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PS.  When I say the general public are stupid, I include myself in that as I too have had Sky Sports subscriptions! [:)]

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What all us hypocrits need is a return to the old ITV digital age where you could pay some dodgy bloke in North Walsham £15 for a pirate card to watch all sky sports for nothing. We could still get our sky fix without feeding the big sky monster with cash.

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[quote user="jbghost"]

What all us hypocrits need is a return to the old ITV digital age where you could pay some dodgy bloke in North Walsham £15 for a pirate card to watch all sky sports for nothing. We could still get our sky fix without feeding the big sky monster with cash.

[/quote]You can do that now with Cable.  There are cracked boxes available available on auction sites on the old t''interweb so I''m told.  However that would be highly illegal and immoral! [;)]

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[quote user="Christov"][quote user="jbghost"]

What all us hypocrits need is a return to the old ITV digital age where you could pay some dodgy bloke in North Walsham £15 for a pirate card to watch all sky sports for nothing. We could still get our sky fix without feeding the big sky monster with cash.

[/quote]

You can do that now with Cable.  There are cracked boxes available available on auction sites on the old t''interweb so I''m told.  However that would be highly illegal and immoral! [;)]
[/quote]

More immoral than what Sky is doing to grass roots football?

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[quote user="jbghost"][quote user="Christov"][quote user="jbghost"]

What all us hypocrits need is a return to the old ITV digital age where you could pay some dodgy bloke in North Walsham £15 for a pirate card to watch all sky sports for nothing. We could still get our sky fix without feeding the big sky monster with cash.

[/quote]You can do that now with Cable.  There are cracked boxes available available on auction sites on the old t''interweb so I''m told.  However that would be highly illegal and immoral! [;)][/quote]

More immoral than what Sky is doing to grass roots football?

[/quote]I’m trying to cover my back by not endorsing piracy on a family friendly football forum! Yarrrrrrrgh!

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was interesting reading platini''s plans for the game all clubs will be made to run within there means and live of there income ending the sugar daddy influence if they dont run there clubs this way they will be expelled from euro competition. cant see them being able to enforce it but it could be a good thing.

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To start with I don''t have Sky. Sky money has created an elite FOOTBALL structure where the Prem clubs will always be far better off than anyone else and with no thought for what that means to other clubs and how in the end it will destroy football as a whole. We blame Sky but its the Prem chairmen who grasp the blood money with no thought for others. I hope sometime in the future the whole Sky/Prem cesspit collapse and we can get back to real FOOTBALL for every one but the truth is we will end up with just 2 leagues and most other clubs will be just a memory. I''ve heard what the Prem chairman are pushing for in the long term is a complete split from the other leagues so there would be no relegation from the Prem or promotion into it. That would sound the death nail for FOOTBALL in England.

 

FOOTBALL MUST COME FIRST

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if sky hadn''t aquired the rights to the football in 1992 then i think its fair to say BSB wouldn''t exist as a company today.... there was no "lost" or 24 back then... just MTV and the simpsons.. hardly enough to attract customers.... they would of been gone years ago if they hadnt of taken the risk.

jas :)

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[quote user="Christov"][quote user="jbghost"][quote user="Christov"][quote user="jbghost"]

What all us hypocrits need is a return to the old ITV digital age where you could pay some dodgy bloke in North Walsham £15 for a pirate card to watch all sky sports for nothing. We could still get our sky fix without feeding the big sky monster with cash.

[/quote]

You can do that now with Cable.  There are cracked boxes available available on auction sites on the old t''interweb so I''m told.  However that would be highly illegal and immoral! [;)]
[/quote]

More immoral than what Sky is doing to grass roots football?

[/quote]

I’m trying to cover my back by not endorsing piracy on a family friendly football forum! Yarrrrrrrgh!
[/quote]

*cough* you can watch the games for free online leaglly anyway *cough*

jas :)

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[quote user="1st Wizard"]I should declare that I love Sky TV and their phone service too, far cheaper than BT, and yes, I subscribe to both.[/quote]

 

...and you love Jamie too for he is your love child - Come on Wiz, it''s time to come clean. [:-*]

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I suggest anyone interested in this would enjoy reading ''The Football Business'' by David Conn. It is very intersting to see an insight into all this. Many would be surprised that Alan Sugar had a major role in starting all this as his cheap Amstrad Sky dishes and boxes were vital to the original deal. The former Spurs chairman who had no interest in football helped sway the deal to Sky for his own contract and persuaded other chairman to steer clear of ITV''s rival deal. This saved Sky who were on the brink of financial melt down and once people switched to Sky it was the beginning of the end for any rival bid.

"The truth is it''s been more page 3 than romance. The beautiful game, slapped all over a Murdoch medium between Andy Gray screaming at a pitch of constant near-orgasim. Spend an evening with Sky and it''s as if they''re trying to sell you something, not just in the adverts."

Sky took free football away and we are all paying to see it, we want to see the game, but now at a price when once it was free for everyone.

I am in the process of writing a piece on football finance, profits and player power.

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[quote user="The Duke"]

After is was announced yesterday that BskyB had won the rights to 5 of the 6 packages for Premier league football for three year from 2010 onwards, for a record 1.78 Billion. Yes thats 1.78 Billion! I felt a very deep sadness for the way English football is heading. 

I am worried on two points really. First, surely this will only serve to make the rich richer and the poor, well stay poor. How are the likes of the BBC and terestrial televison supposed to compete with this? I subscribe to Setanta for the modest 12.99 that it costs but i will have to cancel come 2010 as its really not worth it for just 23 live games on a Saturday evening which i might miss due to drink after city games or just not want to watch someone like Wigan v''s Hull!

My second worry is that the Premier league has become too realiant on this money from BskyB. 1.78 billion is a big sum of money especially in todays climate. What happens if BskyB pull out or go under much like the old ITV sport deal. The Premiership would simply be brought to its knees and robbed of all its best players. Even i must admit i am glad that players like Ronaldo and Torres chose to play here and it will be a sad day if the top players in the world do not wish to play in our top league.

While i''m going at BskyB, Another thing that gets me about them is the way they handle Champoinship matches. Its is looked upon seemingly as the Premierships poorer cousin, viewed the same as the Blue Square league in thier eyes. In fact i would say Setanta''s coverage of the Blue Square is superior to that of Sky''s coverage of the Championship. The comentators are always rubbish and there is always useles Don Goodman what has he ever done? The Championship has the 4th highest average league attendance in Europe only behind the Premiership, La Liga and Serie A. So why the is the coverage so bad?

[/quote]Surely it''s is only because of the BskyB money that we have the likes of Ronaldo and Torres playing in this country. Without their funds English clubs would not be able to pay the wages they command and the would be plying their trade in Spain.As for the Championship being the poor cousin of the Premiership, well it is. As a City fan you should know better than most that the Championship is Short on  skill and at time dire to watch. Harsh? realistic. Ok I agree that they pay lip service to the Championship but who else is going to cover it at any great level. Answer nobody. Supply and demand. They know the televised sports business better than anybody. There scheduling reflects that.Your trying to buck against the very thing that has made our Premier football league the best in the world.

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This is a very interesting topic and i will agree that Sky has ruined football in the way that it has created the ''big four'' at the top of the premiership and made the premiership a for gone conclusion most seasons. But without the ''big four'' the premiership would not have been able to attract so many world class foootballers to this country. This in turn, beleive it or not, has improved the ability of our national side! As there are so many world class players in the league and all but one of Englands squad players applying their trade in the league, it means that our players are playing against and with these players which is progressing their learning and understanding of the game. Also true with the world class managers within the league.

Sky will never go under as they have now monopolised the premiership market and it wasn''t until 2004 that ruling came in that they had to relinquish their tight grip on the premiership. This meant that there were now two packages to bid for. The largest one Sky out bids everyone every time (60+ premiership games a season), but the second one sky cant afford to bid for again as it becomes to dear even for them so instead they agree with an individual company to bid for them and in turn they will advertise and include its channel in the sky sports package e.g premeiship + and now setenta sports. Obviously a subscription fee has to be paid to these companies otherwise they gain little from it. This leaves ITV and BBC with little chance of ever being able to televise a premiership match and fighting each other for England games and the other sport e.g rugby, tennis, formula one etc.

The only way that sky would lose their grip on the premiership is if the league adopted the rules of Spain and Italy. To gain the rights to broadcast games in these countries the clubs sell each of their home games individually to the highest bidder, not the league sells a package to the highest bidder. Thats why Sky has Barcelona and Real Madrid almost every week as there spanish correspondants bid for the games, win the bid and then bounce the signal from their satellite to Sky''s satellite back home!! If this happened here then ITV and BBC would be able to afford some games as Sky wouldn''t be able to afford all the games the clubs would be offering as they have commitments with other sports too. This is just one way around it but the chances of it happenong are very slim unless another ruling was to occur.

Hope this is to everyone''s interest on the topic. 

 

 

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[quote user="1st Wizard"]I should declare that I love Sky TV and their phone service too, far cheaper than BT, and yes, I subscribe to both.[/quote]

Well this is a first we agree on something as i too have the sky package [ tv, phone , broadband ] and find their football coverage second to none and yes it glorifies the so called big clubs but without their financial input we would not be able to see some of the worlds finest players so regularly .

The so called champions league has done far more harm in my humble opinion , you only need to finish forth to qualify ? and yes i know sky cover these matches also but its part of the package i pay for , there has been rumours for some time of a prem 2 forming to replace the championship hopefully if this ever takes off we would be a part of it [ the extra money would certainly help right now ] and i don''t think so many of you would be mooning about sky if some of their funds came our direction . 

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