Analysing the Impacts and Effects that Broadcast Media and Television Rights have had on English Football, specifically the Premier League since 1992.

1. Analysing the Impacts and Effects that Broadcast Media and
Television Rights have had on English Football, specifically the
Barclays Premier League, since 1992.
April 2016
A research project submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements
for award of the degree of BA (Hons) Football Business and Media
of UCFB in partnership with Buckinghamshire New University.
Word Count: 10,683
Louis Joseph Parrinello
21311850

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Abstract
Broadcast Media and television rights have been identified within previous literature as
a constantly evolving and changing focus of modern day football. With both positive
and negative impacts and effects, this research project looks to piece together
literature and opinions to investigate how English football, specifically the Premier
League, has evolved since 1992. When conducting the research, this project set out
to collect the views of what people thought about the impacts and effects that broadcast
media and television rights have had on English football over the years. The process
started with a literature review that went into detail breaking down previous literature
that had been studied on the nearby surrounding topics of broadcast media and
television rights. The research project also looks in detail at how broadcast media has
had an effect on social media as we view it today and attendance at football games in
England.
A questionnaire was conducted and reached out to 80 people on their views on the
topic in question. The questionnaire had a total of 8 questions and this was conducted
as primary research to consider the thoughts and opinions of others to analyse and
assess the potential impacts and effects of broadcast media and television rights. The
evaluation of the results showed that there is both positive and negative impacts on
English football but the opinions of those asked believe the negativity surrounding the
potential deals with broadcast media and TV rights could have a big effect on English
football’s lower tiers, thus segregating them from England’s top league, the Premier
League. Finally, a discussion is presented around the findings of the results and
recommendations are made on what could be done to make English football fairer with
the distribution of broadcasting rights and how money can be spread out evenly to

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make sure that there is more of an emphasis on the way lower league teams are
affected when broadcasting deals and TV rights are brought up into the discussion.

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Acknowledgements
To David Horrocks and Tom Buck for the continued support and guidance in the
completion of this research project.
To Colm Griffith for being my personal tutor and for the 1-on-1 guidance which kept
me on track in the step-by-step process of my research project.
To all those that filled in my survey and gave me consent to use their key answers in
the completion of the analysis of the results, findings and methodology sections.
To my mum, Eliza Gawthrop, for allowing me to take the trip to university and backing
me every step of the way throughout my 3 years.
To all those that kept pushing me on and willing for me to succeed in a subject area
that I’m deeply passionate about, thank you.

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Contents
Contents
Abstract..................................................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgements................................................................................................................. 4
Contents.................................................................................................................................... 5
1.0 Introduction........................................................................................................................ 6
2.1 The Rise of Satellite Television in English Football...................................................................9
2.3 Ticket Pricing and Broadcasting........................................................................................... 13
2.4 Technology Advancements, the Internet and Social Media ................................................... 14
3.0 Methodology....................................................................................................................19
4.0 Results..............................................................................................................................22
4.3 Question 3......................................................................................................................... 25
4.6 Question 6......................................................................................................................... 29
5.0 Discussion........................................................................................................................32
6.0 Conclusion and Recommendations .............................................................................41
7.0 References ......................................................................................................................44
8.0 Appendices......................................................................................................................49
8.1 Figure 1.1: £5 Billion Broadcast Deal Table........................................................................... 49
8.4 Figure 1.4: Broadcasting Historyfrom 1983- 1997 ................................................................ 50
8.10 Question 2 Comments ...................................................................................................... 55
8.13 Question 8 Comments ...................................................................................................... 65

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1.0 Introduction
“This is unprecedented in world sport. You can’t find me another sport that is committed
to this level of sharing. It’s sharing in the success of English football. And this, in my
view, is the right thing to do.”- Richard Scudamore, 2015, speaking to BBC News on
the ground breaking television deal over the Premier League rights with BskyB and
BT.
Football is changing. Football has always been changing. Ever since the establishment
of the English Premier League (EPL) in 1992, football within England is continuing to
reach heights that looked improbable 24 years ago when the First Division became the
Premier League. Deal after deal, television rights for the EPLhave continuously broken
record after record ranging from 191.5 million pounds in 1992, to the more current deal
of 2015 where BskyB and BT reached a deal of 5.1 Billion pounds for the Premier
League fixtures beginning in the 2016-2017 season and ending after the 2018-2019
season (See Appendices 8.1 for Figure 1.1 breakdown of the 2016-2017 3 year
broadcasting deal). Throughout this time period, BT and Sky will share 168 live
Premier League games between them with every game costing a total of 10.19 million
pounds. The clubs within this time period are expected to earn £81m each season
under the new deal (BBC, 2015). Also viewed by many people as the most popular
domestic league in world football, the Premier League is broadcast in over 212
territories around the world and an estimated 80 different broadcasters show the action
every weekend (Premier League, 2015). The league sells its television rights on a
collective basis (See Appendices 8.2 for Figure 1.2 collective selling table). The
way the league sell its rights is in contrast to some other European leagues, including
Spain’s first division, La Liga, in which each club sells its rights individually, leading to

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a much higher share of the total income going to the top few clubs in the league, which
creates more of a divide from top to bottom in league position come the end of the
season. (Blythe, 2010). However, following on from Blythe’s research, the
broadcasting deals within Spain are set to change for the beginning of the 2016-2017.
The new legislation set in place by the Spanish government will replace the current
arrangement and will aim to bring Spanish football in line with that of the broadcasting
deal for the Premier League where equal amounts of money is injected into every team
within the league (Guardian, 2016).
With a global brand created through these television deals comes a global influx of
stars from other domestic leagues around the world. With the likes of Cristiano
Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil, Sergio Aguero, Radamel Falcao and Angel Di Maria bracing the
Premier League throughout the years, the interest in the league surpasses any other
domestic league in world football by its overall competitive demand and star appeal to
the players. Star appeal in English football attracts a worldwide viewing audience. The
worldwide TV audience for Premier League games currently stands at 4.7 Billion
people across the whole season. A major reason for the league being able to reach so
many people worldwide is because of the increased output from the Premier League
through the Premier League content service which provides international broadcasters
with 24/7 programming, including live matches, live studio analysis, news, archives
and recorded programming (Premier League, 2015).
News that surrounds football is now mainly covered online and through the mean of
television. With live football being broadcast every week and a 24-hour news service
that is just purely dedicated to sport and football, fans across the country are now able
to view football on television almost whenever they want. Developments of information
technology has revolutionised the process of editing and production of newspapers

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more than a decade ago. As a result, paper has virtually disappeared from the scene,
apart from the constant dedication to sports pages and sporting events, creating the
concept of print without paper. The process begun with online journalism utilising the
internet with individual computer screen replacing news print with new communication
channels such as social media websites (Kogannuramath, 2011). Social media and
the power of the broadcasters has also impacted heavily on the fall of written based
media as social media has become a platform for quick paced news rather than waiting
every day for the morning newspaper.
2.0 Literature Review
The literature review of this research project aimed to look at past literature and articles
on and around the subject and link the points of previous theorists to those that this
research project will be aiming to analyse when looking at the potential impacts and
effects of broadcast media and television rights in English Football. The literature
review aimed to look at certain key areas of the subject to get a better understanding
in how times have changed: The Rise of Satellite Television in English Football,
Football Highlights and Attendances, Ticket Pricing and Broadcasting, Technology
Advancements and Social Media and The Rise of the Premier League and the decline
of the Football League. By looking at and breaking down these sections, the literature
review can create a discussion on which the results and discussion sections of the
research project can be linked together to view the potential impacts and effects of
broadcast media and television rights on English football whilst creating an overall
conclusion on the subject.

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2.1 The Rise of Satellite Television in English Football
The rise of satellite television in English football has played a major role in the history
of the Premier League and history of broadcasting as we know it. In November 1990,
media tycoon, Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Television company merged with satellite
competitor British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) to form a new company- BSkyB
(Wittstock, 1990). BSkyB won the rights to the Premier League’s first broadcasting deal
in a join partnership with BBC, who won the rights to the highlight show, Match of the
Day freezing out the rights that STV broadcaster ITV had previously held over the
show. BSkyB paid £304 million over a five-year deal for the first major broadcasting
deal seen in English football that started the significant rise in the costs and power of
the television rights in English football (Whannel and Williams, 1993:2). At the time,
the bid from Sky was seen as a risky move due to the nature of the pay-per-view
concept. The deal was the first ever pay-per-view deal in English football. Up until
2007, Sky Sports was the only broadcaster who covered live games through the
concept of pay-per view television. In 2006 a deal between the European Commission
and the Premier League was put in place to start at the beginning of the 2007 season
to end the BSkyB monopoly which allows the television rights to be split to another
broadcaster so that they could win some packages to broadcast live Premier League
games. This deal was confirmed under article 81 for the join selling of television rights
in England. (European Commission, 2006).
“The commitments offered by the Premier League should ensure that the media
rights are sold in a fair and transparent manner.”- Neelie Kroes, European Competition
Commissioner
This deal saw BSkyB being able to only bid for 4 of the available 6 packages. The other

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two packages were won by Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports who paid £159 million for
the remaining two packages with rights to 69 games over the three year period from
2007-2010, which equated to £2.3 million a game (European Commission, 206).
Prior to the formation of the Premier League and the first major deal for broadcasting
rights in 1992, the main competition in England was the Football League which
comprised 92 clubs throughout four divisions, with promotion and relegation to facilitate
team mobility (Forrest, 2003). In 1991, bigger clubs in the four divisions such as
Manchester United and Liverpool, who had dominated the scale of English football
from the early 1980’s, became increasingly frustrated by the small sized broadcasting
deals that came from selling the broadcasting rights to terrestrial channels. The
Football Association (FA), the governing body of football in England, proposed the
creation of the “Premier League” (The FA, 2016). With the creation of the Premier
League, the league was then successfully able to negotiate its own TV contract and
thus retain all of the money that the broadcasting of the game was sold for, leading to
the ground breaking deals of today. Compared to the world scale of sport, specifically
big American sports, the Premier League’s newest television deal has only just started
to catch up on the scale in terms of broadcasting rights and money involved with them.
The American model is a model that English Football could learn from in the fair
distribution of television rights equally across different teams throughout the Premier
League and Football League. For example, the National Football League (NFL)
negotiated a deal for their TV rights from a 8 year period from 2014-2022 for a total
cost of $39.6 billion dollars. (£25.95 billion pounds) The TV rights that will be injected
into the 32 clubs will be equal from top to bottom ( (See appendices 8.2 for Figure
1.2 Biggest TV Deals worldwide, specifically American sports, compared with
the Premier League).

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Since the Premier League’s formation in 1992, broadcast media and television rights
have become its own separate entity in the way football is viewed and focused on in
everyday life due to the rise of satellite TV in English football. Grundon (2012) claims
that in the Premier League’s first season it is estimated that only 8 to 10 per cent of the
UK had non-terrestrial TV. Moving forward 19 years, Weed (2011) compares this stat
to the 2010/2011 Premier League season, where globally 643 million homes received
roughly a ground breaking 185,000 hours of live TV coverage, equating to a global TV
audience of 3.9 billion viewers. It is clear to see that with the significant rise in satellite
TV, there is now a higher demand for games to be broadcast as fans have now been
given an alternative route to the live match day experience. Following on from this, a
review by Deloitte (2014) showed that the Premier League generated more revenue
than of any football league in the world, with total club revenues of £2.5 billion in the
2012-13 season.
2.2 Football Highlights and English Football Attendances
According to Baimbridge et al (1996) the history of live televised football as we know it
in England is a relatively recent phenomenon only commencing with experimental
transmission on Friday nights during the 1983-1984 season (See Appendices 8.3 for
Figure 1.3 of Broadcasting history of live football from 1983-1997). Up until then
the number of matches shown on TV at the time were restricted due to the football
authority’s fears concerning the secondary effects on attendances at grounds and
second, in part to the broadcasters’ requirement to schedule matches at periods when
peak audiences would be attracted to increase the perception of viewing figures (FA
Premier League, 1994).

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It is clear to see that previous literature in the field surrounding the rise of satellite
television has recognised the importance of television but it has largely ignored the
impact on English football and attendances due to the ease of being able to watch
games without leaving the house (Sloane, 1980; Cairns et al., 1986). The Chester
Report (1968) believed that television had a major but complex impact on football, as
a substitute, for people’s leisure time. Similar to this Hart et al. (1975) and Peel and
Thomas (1988) suggested that most televised sporting events can be seen as specific
alternative attractions. However, previous literature had no choice but to ignore the
impact of live coverage because, for a long time and still now to modern times, the
majority of matches were only seen as highlight footage rather than a live game.
Highlight footage of games can be seen on programmes such as Match of the Day,
which has been the leading programme in the field since its on air debut in 1964 (BBC,
2003), and The Football League Show, which has recently just signed a ground
breaking deal with Channel 5 and ITN productions to show highlights of the 72 Football
League teams games (Football League, 2015). Wiseman (1977) argued that edited
highlights would raise expectations and hence reduce attendances at games since
actual live games has significant periods of inactivity throughout the game. Bird (1982)
acknowledges the popularity of televised football and believes that the coverage and
the ability to edit full games and shorten them down into highlights is having a
detrimental effect on match day attendances. Taylor (1995:5-6) has also suggested
that contemporary changes in television broadcasting have had profound effects upon
English professional football. Taylor argues that the movement of games to weekdays
and the increased new features such as player and manager interviews have
increased with advent of satellite television in Britain. Duke (1994) has also suggested
that the Premier League and the extensive live coverage of games have now been

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aimed at attracting a new type of football spectator; that is to say satellite television
has helped accelerate the move towards a “new fandom”. The second Chester Report
(1983) concluded that the continued focus on the more well-known teams, such as
First Divisionteams, might lessen attendances at lower level games due to the demand
of the higher level teams and that fans would be viewing better football with higher
regarded footballing stars and icons.
2.3 Ticket Pricing and Broadcasting
As the modern era progresses forward, a lot has been discussed and contested that
the big broadcasting deals gracing the Premier League’s stage is one of the reasons
that ticket prices have continued to rise. Linking back to Bainbridge et al (1996), football
broadcasting is only a recent phenomenon. With this being a recent phenomenon there
have been more demands to watch football live on the TV, which could lead into ticket
prices at games significantly rising due to the overall demand for the sport and games
in question. According to the Premier League (2016) games between opponents are
set into three different categories: Category A, B and C. These games are based off
league position from the previous season and derby games. The higher the category
means the higher the ticket price. Using Arsenal as an example, they have 4 category
A games which are: Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham
(Arsenal.com, 2016). These games are seen as their biggest games of the season and
hence would be expected to have category a status. Live televised games are no
longer just broadcasted on a weekend now. Due to other cup competitions such as the
FA Cup, League Cup and the Champions League, some games are now played on
Tuesday and Wednesday nights meaning that there is a high demand for live games
to be broadcast across all points of the week. According to Cox (2012) television
broadcasters will want to show the most attractive matches to gain the largest
television audiences across the country as possible. Cox also explains that due to the

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broadcasters broadcasting the most attractive matches, this will have two opposing
effects on gate revenue and ticket pricing. Firstly, gate revenue will be greater for the
category a games and the more attractive matches as more fans will want to watch the
game or get a ticket. Secondly, the attractive match is broadcast live, which has the
potential to reduce gate attendance which ultimately leads to the rise in ticket prices.
However, Forrest et al (2005) and Alavy et al (2006) discuss the fact that broadcasters
examine the choice of game to watch that could potentially increase viewing figures on
a minute-by-minute basis respectively. In the first half of the season the points that Cox
make are valid points and stand true. During the second half of the season both Forrest
and Alavy say that broadcasters have a lot more discretion over the games that are
televised with uncertain outcomes increasing the likelihood of a game being shown
live. This point can be followed up this season as odds on relegation favourites
Leicester City still find themselves at the summit of the Premier League with only a
handful of games to go. With the research that they conducted they found that more
fans will buy tickets to the games that could turn out to be more eventful contests when
spoken in the context of league position and match importance. Buraimo et al (2005)
also conclude that even if the ticket prices to games are at a high price, such as those
that are marked category a games, fans will still go, even if the ticket prices were to be
raised for the game, based on the attractive characteristics and high team quality on
play which would also drive ticket demand on for the game.
2.4 Technology Advancements, the Internet and Social Media
The internet, television and mobile technologies have transformed the way a fan can
now view and access sports games and sports news with access on an anytime,
anywhere, basis (Hutchins, 2014). With the rapid success of 3G and 4G networks,
football fans bow have a new option to enjoy a football game: watching it on a mobile

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device. As technology continues to advance, a rapidly increasing number of people
are now able to reach vast amounts of football-related content on the internet through
their mobiles device at their workplaces, homes and when they are constantly on the
move out and about. The access comes from various apps such as BT Sports, Sky
Go, BBC IPlayer, ITV Player and social media applications such as Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram. Another highlighted and key way of now watching football for some
fans is the use of legal and illegal streaming (Gordon. 2011). According to Gordon,
millions of websites are now set up to stream content to those that wish to access it
illegally. Gordon also says that in 2005 the contribution alone on sports broadcasting
in England generated £15 billion in revenue, thus illegal streaming will surely begin to
have an impact on these figures as these illegal websites will soon be accessible to
more people learning about illegal streaming. Streaming has become integrated into
the way that football is now viewed due to the costs of both the pay per view packages
of Sky Sports and BT Sports (Association of Internet Security Professionals, 2014).
Another advanced way of watching football now is through the use of HD and Ultra HD
TV’s. Other than that, consumers now have the opportunity and access to considerably
higher amounts of information as well as more frequent updates compared to
traditional print and broadcast media such as newspapers and radios. As a result of
this vastly improving way to view sports and football games, second screen, which is
defined as “a mobile devised used while watching television, especially to access
supplementary content or applications” has emerged to the current spectacle of
watching football on TV (Oxford Dictionary, 2016).
According to Nicholson (2007) the internet provides greater access to a greater variety
of football than any other media platform. The internet’s depth and breadth of coverage
is unrivalled and with such easy access allows for most news and live coverage to be

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online based. Nicholson (2007) also suggests the point that the internet is global whilst
newspapers and radio are necessarily local, regional or national in their content and
audience, thus adding up to the point that online and social media is now at the
forefront of breaking news and sports broadcasting, due to the ease of being able to
break stories on a quicker basis keeping content fresh and always moving forward.
Despite this point, Kaplan and Haenlin (2010) argue the point that despite the ability to
break news stories in a fast and progressive way compared to print media in the
modern era, social media, specifically Twitter, has limitations of its own. The limitations
that they specifically speak of are Twitter’s 140 character use and being limited in how
much information you can pass through one tweet, thus leading to the way that certain
tweets are wrote and the fact that they miss out certain pieces of information that could
help progress a story in a little bit more detail. Son (2006) believes that internet and
mobile technology has its limitations. Son says that because of limited bandwidth on
networks and the bandwidth-hungry nature of video, video transmission requires
extremely efficient resource management. Son also says that there are ways around
this through the use of buffering to load the connection of the video transmission but
then goes onto to say that the problem is that it might work fine for non-real time but
real time broadcasting has the ability to suffer due to a low connection status. Son
believes that the use of social media has many positives such as being able to send
news out to sources quickly but also believes it has limitations in the way that due to
technology advancements and the internet, print media is suffering and soon all
newspapers will be online. As technology continues to advance and progress forward,
so is video broadcasting and systems within football. As of the 2013/2014 season in
the Premier League goal-line technology systems were integrated into the league after
widespread speculation that FIFA and the Premier League had agreed to implement it

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into Europe’s top domestic league (Premier League, 2016).
2.5 The Premier League and Grassroots Football
A lot has also been discussed about the money from broadcasting deals being injected
into the “future” generation by helping Grassroots football. The unbalance between the
Premier League and the money being filtered into the next generation and Grassroots
football is a topic that has been debated heavily and will continue to be debated until
more is done to help the sports future, especially in England.
A new millennium hit and so did another ground-breaking deal of television rights with
the Premier League and the broadcasters. In 2000 the TV football world changed once
again. Under pressure from the European competition authorities, the English Premier
League managed to negotiate a 66 match deal with BskyB for only three years, but for
the astonishing sum of £1.1 billion (Williams, 2002). 50% of the money was divided up
equally between clubs in the top flight of English football, 25% on final position and
25% according to TV appearances. Williams (2002) says that this led to the bigger
clubs doubling their money compared to the smaller clubs who happens to miss out
due to not making as many appearances on satellite TV (See appendices 8.4 for
figure 1.4 of Premier League Domestic TV payments 2000/2001).
“You can’t defend the issueof player wages. The issue is that the money comingdown
to grassroots football is not entirely correct” Mark Palios, 2015, CEO of Tranmere
Rovers speaking to BBC Sport.
When discussing these big deals towards Premier League clubs there is a clear effect
on Grassroots football. A study by BBC (2015) showed that only 5% of what the
Premier League makes on broadcasting rights gets filtered down and distributed into

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Grassroots football. This has massive impacts when it comes to the next generation
as facilities will not be available due to amateur clubs not having the funds to be able
to orchestrate a pitch or changing rooms for the sports next generation. Many
politicians have wanted more youth engagement through the use of football but it is
because of their structure and distributions of money that the next generation are
almost being punished because of the attention that the broadcasting deals have
received. Subsequent impacts and effects on this could end up hitting academy
systems and then this could potentially hinder the movement of youth systems. Lusted
(2009) claims that there is a “colour-blind” failure by the countries governing bodies
when it comes to recognising the impacts and effects that broadcast media and
television rights have had on the future of grass-roots football. However, Gruneau
(1989) claims that the televising of football in Britain has generated vast sums of money
for the sport and that grassroots football will always see a share of it. Barnett (1990)
claims that football broadcasting can also open new doors for bigger sponsorship deals
now that the sport has now that the Premier League has put itself on the global stage.
Whannel & Williams (1993) conclude by saying that the influx of money and capital
has allowed for many aspects of the game to improve. With the improvement comes
new resources to be able to try and support the next generation through the continued
ideological beliefs that grassroots football can be benefited by the big broadcasting
deals.
2.6 Conclusion
In conclusion to the literature review there is a need for the governing bodies in English
football, such as The Football Association (The FA), to understand the size of the
broadcasting deals and therefore take into mind that other clubs may not be able to
push on to add to the history of their club if they were to not be getting a fair share of
the massive broadcasting and television rights deals. Potential impacts and effects on

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the fans can also come into the discussion as ticket prices look as if the broadcasting
deals have had an effect on them too with the imminent rise since the new £5 billion
broadcasting deal came into play. The methodology and the following research will aim
to analyse and asses why fans believe there is a big effect on lower league clubs when
it comes to the power of the Premier League and why grassroots football could
potentially start to become neglected as football moves into another era.
3.0 Methodology
Methodology used within the subject area gives the analysis of results a clear light
shined upon them in the opinions of others. The methodology used in this research
project was completely opinion based through the use of a custom made questionnaire
and it aimed to gain a further in depth analysis of what several young people from the
ages of 18-22 thought about the impact and effects of broadcast media and television
rights upon English football.
3.1 Questionnaire
Questionnaires are used to gain the opinions and thoughts of those who complete it.
A questionnaire is a well-established tool for acquiring information on participant’s
attitudes and beliefs and reasons for action with respect to the topic under question
(Bulmer, 2004). The questionnaire that was used for the research in this project was
that of both a qualitative and quantitative research method, allowing for both closed
and open answers. The reason for this is because closed questions produce results
that are easily summarised and clearly presented whilst open questions produces
longer sections and comments which can add to depth and meaning following on from
the closed questions. A questionnaire was also used in the collection of results in this

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research project because it is cost effective and also an easy way to collect findings
which take an anonymous view.
3.1.1 Qualitative Research Method
Qualitative questionnaires are mainly used to gain and gather facts about the
participants’ beliefs feelings and experiences in certain situations. This questionnaire
type is designed in such a way that the participants have freedom to express their
views in response to the question asked without any influence from the creator
(Oppenheim, 1992). Open ended questions also allow time and space for free-form
responses, these invite participants to share their understandings as well as their
reactions to certain situations and processes (McGurik and O’ Neill, 2005).
3.1.2 Quantitative Research Method
Quantitative questionnaires are mainly used to gain and gather responses for closed
end questions that is based around numerical research. Closed questions are easy to
administer and be analysed, allow comparisons and quantification and they are more
likely to produce fully completed questionnaires while avoiding irrelevant or skipped
responses that can be a hindrance to data collection (Sarantakos, 2005). Participants
are normally required to choose answers from a set list, meaning there is no way for
them to express their views or opinions about the questions other than by simply
clicking a box.
3.1.3 Primary Research
The main reason that the methodology used throughout this research project was
primary research is because of the ever changing views of topic in question. Driscoll
(2011) says that primary research is often based on principles of the scientific method,

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a theory of investigation first developed by John Stuart Mill in the nineteenth century.
Using the scientific method, researchers develop research questions or hypotheses
and collect data on events, objects, or people that is measurable, observable and
replicable. Driscoll also says that the ultimate goal in conducting primary research is to
learn about something new that can be confirmed by others and to eliminate our own
biases in the process. Following on from Driscoll’s definition, It was important to use
the opinions of those that completed the questionnaire to form the results because
when bringing forth an argument for the discussion section these views can be
compared and contrasted to link back to the research projects main point of the impacts
and effects that broadcast media and television rights have had on English football
since 1992. Once the primary research links back to the main point other secondary
research, such as previous literature, can be incorporated into the research project to
aid the points conducted by the primary research.
3.1.4 Conclusion
The reason that both qualitative and quantitative research has been used for the
research is to ensure that once the results have been collected and analysed it can
allow for a full supportive end results as just tick box answers on the questionnaire may
not highlight key aspects of answers and why those that took part in the questionnaire
decided to choose what they did. This also allows for the primary research to be
conducted and viewed alongside secondary research so that once it comes down to
the discussion it can potentially support or even go against specific patterns and key
findings to strengthen or weaken the end view.

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4.0 Results
The results section of this research project was achieved by sending an online
questionnaire to students from the age ranges of 18-22. The reason a questionnaire
was used is because of the cost-effective access aswell as the ease in sending it to
wide-range of football fans. The questionnaire had 8 questions, both of qualitative and
quantitative data, and allowed fans to both express their opinions in more ways than
one and just simply click a box of which of the following statements they agreed with.
All of the comments from the questions that allowed a more detailed response can be
found in the appendices sections from 9.0-9.5 so that the research project can provide
a deeper level of understanding to the question and the results. The questionnaire had
a total of 80 responses. The questionnaire asked respondents a wide range of different
questions about how they watch football to if they agree with ticket pricing within the
structure of broadcasting and the Premier League.
4.1 Question 1
20%
7%
23%
28%
22%
How do you watch Football when it is Broadcasted?
Sky Sports BT Sports
Freeview (Match of the Day, Euros, World Cup) All of the Above
Other (Legal and Illegal streaming)

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The results for this question show that most respondents used all of the above (28%),
which included Sky Sports, Freeview and BT Sports, to access live football when it is
on TV. As individual choices it was no surprise to see that Sky Sports (20%) and
Freeview (23%) both received a combined 43% of the vote overall as since 1992 that
is the direction that football has been broadcast. However, BT Sports had a very small
vote total with only 7% of the overall vote. BT Sports is a recent phenomenon in the
world of football broadcasting, having only surfaced to air in 2013. During the
2014/2015 season BT Sports also won the exclusive rights to both the UEFA
Champions League and UEFA Europa League packages. BT Sports also holds rights
to 38 live Premier League games per season in the newest broadcasting deal dating
from the 2016/17 season, so as the future of broadcasting progresses it is imminent
that more people will begin to tune into BT Sports. Surprisingly the other option which
was about legal and illegal streaming had a total of 31 responses, which equated to
22%. This shows that consumers could potentially be finding the pay-per view
packages of both Sky Sports and BT Sports to be too expensive which is ultimately
leading to consumers breaking the law so that they can find an online stream for a live
broadcasted football game. As illegal streaming on technological platforms is only a
very recent phenomenon in terms of research, it is clear to see that this area could be
investigated further to see just how much of an overall impact and effect illegal
streaming has had on those watching from home, public houses, at the game and
those that pay for broadcasting subscriptions (Multiple responses were allowed for this
question).

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4.2 Question 2
Question 2 focused on the impact of broadcasting rights directly on that of ticket pricing
in English football. The result for this question was very mixed with almost a 50/50 split.
However, coming out on top of the vote was the yes vote (52%). Ultimately this shows
that out of all of the respondent’s answers it shows that the majority believe that TV
rights does have an effect and at the same time, due to a split vote, they believe that
TV rights might not directly hold the overall reason as to why ticket prices in English
football were rising (48%). Below are a few quotes from the questionnaire answers.
These quotes give better detail into the response surrounding the question. The
responses are both of positive and negative nature regarding the rise in ticket prices
and the power of TV rights. The split nature to the question shows that some fans can
see why ticket prices would rise because of the power of the broadcaster but at the
same time it also shows that other fans believed that ticket prices were always going
to rise regardless of the broadcasters’ power and dominance. (See appendices 8.9
for more detailed responses following the question)
52%
48%
Yes
No
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Do you believe that TV rights in English Football have had an
effect on the rise in ticket prices to football matches?
Yes No

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- “TV = More Money, More Money = Higher cost transfers, higher cost transfers =
better football, better football = higher ticket price”.
- “The clubs don't admit it but it is having a clear affect. More TV money seems to
equal clubs putting ticket prices up to help with the clubs paying ridiculous wage bills
on big money players”.
- “Ticket prices were always rising, regardless of TV deals, so I don't think it's had too
much of an impact.”
4.3 Question 3
59%24%
17%
Does the overallcostof football games put you off paying
to go and watch your team? (Overallcostincludes: Ticket
prices, Travel, Programmes, Food and Drink)
Yes No Doesn't bother me

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The results to question 3 suggest that the overall cost of football games, with all
expenses included, put off fans from going to see their clubs. With the most answers
to this question with 59%, yes shows that most football fans are put off by the cost.
With this point, it could be linked into the fact that it is now easier to stay at home and
watch the game on TV or follow it on radio or through live text applications due to the
power of the broadcasters and the technology advancements that have seen
significant movement since 1992. However on the other hand both the “No” (24%) and
the “Doesn’t bother me” (17%) answers combined a total of 41% of the vote showing
that fans are willing to go and see their team perform live no matter the potential cost
of a match day.
4.4 Question 4
Question 4 shows a result that is very one sided on the top of how much power the
broadcasters hold over English football and their schedules. 80% of the 80 people that
filled in the questionnaire believed that the broadcasters hold all of the power when it
comes to Premier League and Football League Schedules which shows that fans do
80%
7%
13%
Do you believe that in modern day football the broadcasters
hold all the power regarding Premier League and Football
League schedules?
Yes No Yes and No

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believe that if clubs wanted to move games to midweek to suit the broadcasting
calendar then they would just do it with no consideration to the fans or the fact that
they may have other commitments. With the constant changes of games for the
purpose of TV time the standard 3pm kick off times on Saturdays may take a toll as
games soon could be spread across every day of the week. Only a very low total of
7% said that they didn’t believe that the broadcaster holds all the power when it comes
to fixture arrangement. Below are some responses surrounding the question and
whether or not fans believe that the broadcaster holds all the power in modern day
football. These responses allow for a more in-depth analysis on the question and
ultimately show that the majority of the fans who answered this question believe that
there is a clear dominance from the broadcasters over English football. (See
appendices 8.10 for more detailed responses to the question).
- “Broadcasters hold all the power for games broadcast on SKY and BT, however,
even for those games broadcast on foreign channels power is still held due to making
sure everything is to time, hence, there’s a schedule planned down to the minute. No
at the same time because lower leagues schedules can evidently change last minute
with very little power to the broadcaster”.
- “Reschedulinggames for TV rights is a joke. The supporters suffer, having to change
plans, get extra days off work and lose out on pay just because Sky want to broadcast
a game on a different day!”.
- “Mostly broadcasters do because they change a reasonableamount of the schedules
of Premier League and Football League clubs. I would have thought there would be

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some leeway discussed at the start of each contract agreed”.
4.5 Question 5
Question 5 of the questionnaire was based around the question that asked: “What is
your opinion on the broadcasters having a potential effect on moving routine weekend
games to midweek games to suit the broadcasting calendar?”. The answers to this
question were both positive and negative but the overall outcome suggested that more
people were against the broadcasters moving games to midweek to suit the
broadcasting calendar. In favour of the broadcasters moving games to midweek, some
fans suggested that it is a good idea because it means there is more football on TV
and it keeps content fresh with different live games broadcast at different moment:
- “I’m in favour of it. If it means having football on more regularly that I can watch,
then I am all for it.”
However on the other hand some fans believe that it has negative implications because
they believed that moving games to midweek to suit the broadcasting calendar would
only hinder fans travelling to and from the games and that this could have a negative
impact on the attendance at games, especially as the games were going to be
broadcasted live on TV.
- “Midweek games will generally effect the attendance at games due to the nature of
consumer may not be able to make midweek games due to other commitments, work,
family etc.” (see appendices 8.11 for more detailed responses to the question)

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4.6 Question 6
The results for question 6 showed a clear indication that fans believed that the cost of
TV rights in English football could potentially have an effect on segregating the lower
leagues away from the Premier League, as a massive 91% of people believed that TV
rights could have an effect. Only 9% of responses believe that TV rights in English
football might not completely segregate the lower leagues from that of the giant that is
the Premier League. This result shows clearly that more fans than not believe that the
Premier League and the media surrounding it can only have a negative effect on the
lower leagues, which could potentially lead to problems for the lower league clubs.
91%
9%
Yes
No
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Do you believe the cost of TV rights in English Football
could potential segregate the lower leagues away from the
Premier League?
Yes No

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4.7 Question 7
The purpose to question 7 was to see if fans would still attend live games on a
traditional Saturday afternoon if the 3pm blackout wasn’t a law within public houses
and homes across the country. With 76% of the vote most people said they would still
attend games. This point backs up the traditional values of English football in that
Saturday afternoons are seen as a time for going to watch the game rather than staying
at home. This can be followed on when analysing the results from that of question 4
when broadcasters and the schedules are bought into the question of the impacts and
effects that broadcast media and television rights have had on football. With 24% of
the vote, fans said they wouldn’t go and watch the game live which does show that
some people would stay at home if the broadcasters could broadcast every game
possible.
76%
24%
Yes
No
10% 100%
The "3pm Blackout" takes place from 2:45pm till 5:15pm on a
Saturday afternoon when most Premier League and Football
League games are played. The blackout stops broadcasters and
public houses from showing football games from that specific
period. If there
Yes No

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4.8 Question 8
The results for the final question of the questionnaire were based around the question
“As a final question: In your opinion what sort of an effect do you believe television
rights has had on the whole of English football from the Premier League right down to
League Two and below?”. The reason for this question being the last question is
because it allowed a more qualitative response, which is useful to the research project
because it allows for a more in-depth response as a final point in summarising fans
opinion on the overall effect on TV rights in English football. The views to this question
were mixed with some fans saying that TV rights are becoming uncontrollable and that
they have led to a massive gap between the top leagues and bottom leagues in English
football.
- “It has led to an ever growing gap between the top and bottom. Premier Clubs are
continually growing in terms of revenue, evident in this years Deloitte Football Money
League, whole clubs in League Two and below are struggling to operate on what little
revenue they have”.
However, on the other hand some fans said that they believed that TV rights has
allowed English football as a whole to be the most competitive in Europe and is bringing
financial stability to all clubs across the country due to the size of the broadcasting
deals.
- “It has increased the level of accessibility to the sport and increased
broadcasting of lower leagues over recent years. This has also given lower league

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teams the opportunity to gain a greater income to increase financial sustainability.
Premier League and Championship clubs now have much greater financial stability as
a result of the television rights contracts of Sky, which has increased the
competitiveness of the leagues due to clubs able to purchase higher quality players
than they could have done prior to these TV deals taking place”. (See appendices
8.12 for more detailed responses to the question)
5.0 Discussion
In terms of the question “The impacts and effects that Broadcast Media and Television
Rights have had on English Football since 1992” the questionnaire and the subsequent
results have both gathered a different point of view on how broadcast media and
television rights have had different impacts and effects on English football since 1992.
The results that were found in this research project aimed to shed some light upon the
subject of what fans thought about the power of the broadcasters and the extent or
television rights and their potential impacts and effects on the English football pyramid.
The research conducted for the results was all based on primary research. The reason
for basing the results on primary research is because it allowed to get a broad
opinionated view of what fans from the age ranges of 18-22 thought about who could
be effected by the potential impacts of broadcast media and television rights
throughout English football. With this being the chosen method it allowed for previous
secondary research to also be analysed and discussed alongside the primary research
findings to find a clearer understanding of the question and the results.
5.1 Primary Research
The first question on the questionnaire asked “How do you watch Football when it is
Broadcasted?” The choices for this question fell into five categories: Sky Sports,
Freeview, BT Sports, All of the Above and Other. Following on from the results of this

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question, a surprise pattern in the results was that of the “Other” option which consisted
of two choices: legal and illegal streaming. The other option received 22% of the vote
which immediately begins to ask questions of broadcasters and technology
advancements. Both Sky Sports and BT Sports require pay-per view subscriptions and
with the internet being as powerful and in-depth as it is today it is easy for people who
want to access live games through websites that have been created and made to
power and generate streaming systems for people to do that. Sky Sports currently has
its package deal at £47.50 per month, with line rental and broadband, for new
customers with it also being half price for 6 months (Sky, 2016). The BT Sports
package for new customers is £19.99 per month without BT Broadband and only £3
per month if you have an existing BT broadband package (BT, 2016). It’s clear to see
that the overall cost to watch football on television includes buying add-ons such as
broadband and other packages as such. Ultimately with the cost being so high fans
are going to look elsewhere for a cheaper alternative, in this case that happens to be
websites that can offer streaming services. There is cause for concern for broadcasters
and for English football in general if fans see it easiest to break the law than to pay for
the pay-per view subscriptions.
The second question of the questionnaire simply asked “Do you believe that TV rights
in English football have had an effect on the rise in ticket prices to football matches?”.
The reason that this question was asked is because of the discussion about the
impacts that the broadcaster has over the power of games and if ticket prices were
always going to rise in the first place as English football, specifically in the Premier
League, continued to move forward. When discussing the results to the question it is
clear to see that there is almost an identical split in the responses that the fans gave.
On analysing the more in-depth responses to the question there was a lot of discussion

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about the fact that clubs will increase their ticket prices as the broadcasting deals go
up to allow the clubs to pay the “big wage bills” on “big money players”. For example,
in the 2014-2015 Premier League season it was reported that Manchester United were
paying their on-loan striker Radamel Falcao £300,000 per week. The club’s ticket
prices on a match day for 18-22 year olds ranged from £53-£31.50 (Manchester United,
2015). This example supports the discussion that clubs did have an average gate
revenue price that was seen as too costly to boost their match day revenues to help
aid with the big player wages that they had been spending on star players. This directly
has an impact on certain fans as they simply won’t be able to afford to come to see
most of the games as the tickets would be too costly. On the other hand after an in-
depth analysis of the results the discussions suggest that other fans always thought
that ticket prices were always going to rise regardless of multi billion pound TV deals
as clubs know they won’t take too big of an impact on increasing ticket prices,
especially those at the top level, because fans are always willing to pay the gate fees
to come and watch their club play every week.
The third question of the questionnaire was in a way a follow up from the discussion of
the second question. The question asked if the overall “cost” of football games put fans
off from going to watch their team live on a match day, with the overall cost including
confectionary items. When analysing the results there was a clear swing in the trend
that a considerable amount off fans are put off by the overall cost of football games. At
the top level of English football, the Premier League there is potential evidence that
fans are being priced out due to the demand of the broadcasters. The cheapest match
day ticket in the Premier League now costs on average £30.68 starting from the
beginning of the 2015-2016 season (See Appendices 8.5 for figure 1.5 Premier
League table of lowest priced match day tickets). This sum has actually increased

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as the previous season it was £28.80 on average for a single adult ticket which shows
the rise in ticket prices as 11/20 clubs put up their ticket prices for the new season
(Independent, 2015). What this shows is that there is a trend between the top clubs in
English football in that they look for profit maximisation through their gate revenues
(See Appendices 8.6 for figure 1.6 Premier League table of highest price single
match day ticket). In doing this it could potentially have impacts and effects on the
fan that attends the game as because of the big television deals and the extreme
amount of money that clubs are spending on player transfers and wages it is almost
segregating the fact that the fans matter because the clubs are looking for ways to try
and level out the amount of money that is being spent internally at the club due to the
way that the broadcasters have an effect over clubs as a whole.
When analysing and discussing the results for the fourth and fifth questions, it was
clear to see that the results were one sides across both questions but there was also
discussion in that fans believed that there was good in the broadcaster’s intentions.
The questions asked if people believed that the broadcasters held all the power across
English football in terms of the schedules and how fans felt about the broadcasters
moving standard weekend games to midweek to suit the broadcasting calendar and
major moments in the English football season. The majority of the vote went to those
that said they did believe that the broadcasters held all the power and that they
believed the broadcasters now rely too heavily on the constant movement of game
changes to suit their needs across the broadcasting schedule for the season. Recently
there has been an increased movement of the broadcasters being able to move
standard 3pm Saturday kick off games to different days at short notice just for the live
televised coverage. For example, the game between Arsenal and Leicester City
scheduled for Saturday February 13th was moved to lunchtime the following afternoon

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with only 3 weeks’ notice. As it was at such short notice some fans were infuriated by
the decision as they had already purchased their tickets and booked hotels and travel
way in advance of the move in days (Telegraph, 2016). When discussing the impacts
and effects of the move it is important to understand that at the time both Arsenal and
Leicester were the league’s top two teams so this match could have potentially had a
“major bearing” on the title race. Along with this also comes positivity for the
broadcaster. The game will have been seen as a “must watch” game to fans of both
clubs and to neutrals so the move to make the game televised would have also
benefited both clubs and the broadcaster massively due to the mass audience that the
game is able to reach out too. Despitethe Premier League being the most broadcasted
league in English football Sky have proceeded to do this on other occasions further
down the league pyramid. In late March 2016 Sky moved the League One game
between Southend United and Sheffield United match to a Wednesday evening kick
off rather than keeping it at its original Easter Monday date so that Sky could broadcast
the game live (Southend United, 2016). This resulted in a group of Sheffield United
supporters sending Sky an invoice of costs as they had already booked hotels, tickets
and travel for the original Monday date (See appendices 8.7 for Sheffield United
fans bill). As positive as this could be due to broadcasting audiences it could also have
a major effect on the fans as some may not be able to make the new fixture changes
and this then leads to a low capacity stadium which, when broadcasted on live
television, looks bad on the broadcaster.
When discussing the potential segregation threat that the Football League faces when
mentioning the 3 leagues in comparison to the Premier League, there has been many
different views. Question 6 asked if people felt that the Football League could be
potentially segregated from the Premier League because of the big money television

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rights and the money that gets injected into the Premier League clubs through the
broadcasters and the television rights. Since 1992 television rights from then till 2016
have risen by approximately £5 billion (See appendices 8.8 for The Rise of the
Premier League and TV Rights). Of the 168 live Premier League games every
season covering the 2016-2019 broadcasting deal, each game will cost a massive
£10.2 million (BBC, 2015). With such a high amount of money being split between just
20 clubs it has a big impact on lower league clubs. The impacts it has comes in the
form of players. For example, clubs in the lower league will find theirselves financially
struggling so when it comes round to buying players the most likely and financially
secure option would be to just loan from the bigger clubs. If this was to happen then
these clubs would have no real way of building a full team where the players can gel
together season after season but instead an integral part of the team could be sent
back to his parent club, leading to these impacts on the lower league club in question.
With the Premier League having already split from the Football League to become its
own separate entity there is always going to be money issues impacting on the lower
leagues because of the big broadcasting deals. To get an extent of how much a swing
the broadcasting money plays a part in clubs financial futures, Burnley Football Club
will be used as an example. Burnley Football Club made a record £30.14 million net
profit during their Premier League season in the financial year ending June, 2015
(Burnley Football Club, 2016). The figure reverses a £7.6 million pre-tax loss reported
in the previous 12 months, earned during their subsequent promotion to the top flight
of English football.
“ A net profit of £30.1 million is not only the biggest recorded by the
club, but also one of the highest in the Premier League as a whole”- Mike Garlick,
Burnley Football Club Chairman, 2016.
With the new found profit coming mainly from broadcast media and television rights

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Burnley have been able to invest some of the money they have made into stadium
improvements, redeveloping the training group so that the club can attract the best
possible playing talent and paying off various external and internal debts. The big
broadcasting deals with television rights has obviously played a positive impact on a
club like Burnley but it’s mainly due to their one season stay in the Premier League
before they were relegated. Clubs of a lower league stature only just remain financially
secure to operate so if more money was spread evenly across the lower leagues and
lower league games were to be broadcast more then television rights could create a
positive impact across the whole monopoly of English football.
3pm on a Saturday afternoon has always been seen as the time to go and watch club
football all around the country. Question 7 discussed if fans would still attend games if
the 3pm Blackout wasn’t a law within the country. The 3pm blackout rule prevents live
football matches being televised between 2:45pm and 5:15pm on Saturday afternoons.
The blackout rule was introduced in the 1960’s when Football League chairmen
believed televised football matches going forward could have a potentially negative
impact on attendances at other matches being played at the same time (Ofcom, 2014).
When discussing the question in topic to that of the research project its evidently clear
to see that more fans said they would still go and watch their teams during the standard
3pm Saturday time. However, when analysing the field of research if the 3pm blackout
wasn’t a rule of law then it would be easier for fans to congregate together at public
houses to watch the live broadcasted games, thus having a potential negative impact
on attendances across games throughout the country.
5.2 Literature Review
By going back through the literature that has been used in the research project in
relation to the primary data, it allows the project to give a much clearer indication of

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whether or not the research that was undertaken has any academic underpinning and
if it can discuss the original question of the research project with the impacts and
effects in mind.
When discussing the impacts of the rise of satellite TV within English football it was
evidentially clear to see the power that the broadcaster have over the English leagues
and game. The game of football is now very modern with different technologies and
different ways to watch the game. Globally 643 million homes received roughly a
ground-breaking 185,000 hours of live TV coverage (Weed, 2011). Linking this point
to the results just shows that English football is across the country. When taking into
consideration laws such as that of the 3pm blackout this shows the scale of the
broadcasters and how far they have come with the television rights. Looking through
the results also showed a pattern that many fans still watch football the most through
televised highlight programmes, hence raising expectations and cutting out the inactive
periods of the game (Wiseman, 1977).
With such high broadcasting and television rights deals there will now be more
increased pressure on clubs lowering ticket prices. The primary research results found
that there was a mixed view upon fans about going to see their teams play or whether
or not they would just stay at home and watch the game. Certain games however will
always be at a high price depending on the category for the game or the attractiveness
of the match in question (Buraimo et al, 2005). Most of the results that came back
suggested that fans did believe that grassroots and lower league football would
become segregated because of the big money being pumped into the giant that is the
Premier League. When linking this back to the literature review it links up to the BBC
study of the fact that grassroots football is receiving a mere 5% of the money from the
broadcasting deals and television right money.

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5.3 Research
The primary research for this research project was controlled, measured and analysed
in the most accurate way possible. By using just the one single method of research,
such as the questionnaire that was used, this can only ensure that all data collected
doesn’t conflict with any other research and can be analysed clearly and precisely to
then progress with the critical analysis of the results that were found.
As the study was based around both quantitative data and qualitative data it was
important to separate the two in a way that can mean both were analysed in the most
accurate way possible. As qualitative data is typically descriptive data, it becomes
harder to fully analyse than quantitative data, which focuses more on statistical and
graph based data. With qualitative primary research coming from a questionnaire it
was mostly all based on the opinions of what certain 18-22 year old fans had encounter
in their lifetime and seen from the broadcasters and their power over the structure of
English football.
When looking over the answers there was slight bias when certain questions were
discussed in more in-depth detail. Some of those who answered certain questions
would relate to their own personal experiences at their clubs, whereas others who
answered the question didn’t experience that so they just answered the question in a
neutral way.

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6.0 Conclusion and Recommendations
In conclusion to this research project, it is clear to see that the impacts and effects of
broadcast media and television rights on English football have been both positive and
negative in several ways. With the multibillion pound deals that now take place for TV
rights in English football, teams will become more financial secure and the Premier
League will be shown on a bigger scale to other leagues making it a more desirable
league to play in, thus securing the bigger stars of world football. Along with the
positives there are also the negatives. The negatives impacts and effects of broadcast
media and football rights can be seen through a divisional divide as the Premier
League continues to surge both economically and globally, which is creating the divide
as it leaves the lower English leagues and grassroots football behind due to the sheer
size of the deals in question.
With the size of the broadcasting deals it should be clear to see that the FA and the
Premier League clubs should talk about potentially investing some of this money into
the lower leagues and also into grassroots football to aid the next generation of
superstars as they look to pursue a career in football. With the potentially segregation
of the next generation it could have a detrimental effect on the academy systems at
clubs aswell as the England national team. If the managers of the domestic clubs at a
higher level continue to keep buying players then this will ultimately lead to a poor
academy structure and will also have impacts and effects on lower league clubs as
most of the time superstars of the future end up getting loaned out to lower league
clubs, which helps both the growth and helps lower league clubs in there push to
remain stable in their current league or aids with ambitions of being promoted to a
higher division.

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6.1 Suggestions for Further Research
As the field is always and changing it would be ideal for all researchers within the field
to keep up-to-date with the potential impacts and effects over English football. Going
forward there needed to be some suggestions made so that new research can be
linked to this research project and many others like it. One suggestion that can be
made is to potentially do a more in-depth focus on other leagues around the world,
particularly other European leagues, to see how their broadcasting deals and televising
rights impacts and effects their league. The focus would ideally be on:
• Broadcasting Deals
• Ticket Prices and Stadium Attendances
• Internal and External effects
• Distribution of money across secondary leagues
• Technology and Social Media advancements
• Illegal Streaming
If the focus was to remain on these points, then more research can be conducted within
the field both on the topic in question and even branching off the topic in question in
hope to build more literature surrounding the whole situation of the impacts and effects
of broadcast media. With topics such as Illegal streaming and Technology
advancements it allows the further research to capitalise on research that this research
project discusses in line with the impacts and effects on English football.
6.2 Overall Conclusion
For an overall conclusion regarding the question surrounding the impacts and effects
of broadcast media and television rights on English football it is evident that the roots
of the game could become severely damaged by the high money transfers, wage bills
and television rights deals. However, looking at the argument from both sides these
big broadcasting deals have shown that the Premier League can attract the best

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players in the world, this also shows that the league is well respected by a lot of industry
experts and in a term can be classed as the best domestic club league in world football.

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7.0 References
1. Alavy, K., Gaskell, A., Leach, S. and Szymanski, S. (2006). ‘On the Edge of your
Seat: Demand for Football on Television and the Uncertainty of Outcome
Hypothesis’, International Association of Sports Economists Working Paper 06-31.
2. Arsenal Football Club. (2016). Match Categories. Available:
http://www.arsenal.com/tickets/matchcategories. (Last accessed 1st April 2016).
3. Association of Internet Security Professionals. (2014). Illegal Streaming and Cyber
Security Risks. A dangerous status quo?. 1 (1), p1-25.
4. Baimbridge, M. Cameron, S. Dawson, P. (1996). Satellite Television and the
Demand for Football: A Whole New Ball Game? Scottish Economic Society.
Blackwell Publishers LTD. Vol.43. p1-17.
5. Barclays Premier League (2011) Research & Insight. London. Available:
http://fansurvey.com/premierleague. (Last Accessed: 10th March 2016).
6. Barnett, S. (1990) Games & Sets: The Changing Face of Sport on Television (BFI:
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49. 49 | P a g e
8.0 Appendices
8.1 Figure 1.1: £5 Billion Broadcast Deal Table.
Broadcaster
Total
16/17-
18/19
amount
paid (£)
Total
Amount
Per
Season
Total
Per
Game
(£)
Number
of
Matches
Percentage
Increase
on the
Previous
Deal
Number
of
Packages
Won
Previous
Amount
Paid (£)
Sky 4.176bn 1.392bn 11m 126 83% 5 2.3bn
BT 960m 320m 7.6m 42 18% 2 738m
(Adapted from Geey, 2014)
8.2 Figure 1.2: Premier League Television Rights Distribution- Collective Selling.
(Extracted from Ofcom, 2007) (Rights are sold by the sports organising body/league
on behalf of its members. Income generated from rights sale is redistributed to clubs
through the Premier League)
8.3 Figure 1.3: World Broadcasting Deals in comparison to the Premier League
Competition Annual Cost Total Cost Duration
NFL $4.95bn (£3.24bn) $39.6bn (£25.95bn) 8 Years
NBA $2.6bn (£1.7bn) $24bn (£15.73bn) 9 Years
MLB $1.55bn (£1.02bn) $12.4bn (£8.13bn) 8 Years
Clubs
Clubs Sporting Body, eg. BUYERS
Clubs Premier League
Clubs

50. 50 | P a g e
Premier League £1.7bn £5.14bn 3 Years
8.4 Figure 1.4: Broadcasting History from 1983- 1997
(Table adapted from Bainbridge et al 1996, Satellite Television and the Demand for
Football)
Year Length of
Contract
Broadcaster Live matches
per season
Annual rights
Fee (£m)
£m per live
match
1983 2 Years BBC/ITV 10 2.6 0.26
1985 6 Months BBC/ITV 6 1.3 0.22
1986 2 Years BBC/ITV 14 3.1 0.22
1988 4 Years ITV 18 11.0 0.61
1992 5 Years BBC/BSkyB 60 42.8 0.71

51. 51 | P a g e
8.5 Figure 1.5: Premier League Domestic TV Payments 2000-2001
(Data extracted from BBC Sport, 2015)
0 5 10 15 20 25
Man United
Arsenal
Liverpool
Leeds United
Ipswich Town
Chelsea
Sunderland
Aston Villa
Charlton Athletic
Southampton
Newcastle United
Tottenham
Leiecster
Middlesbrough
West Ham United
Everton
Derby County
Man City
Coventry City
Bradford City
Premier League Domestic TV Payments 2000-2001(Millions)
Premier League Domestic TV Payments 2000-2001 (Millions)

52. 52 | P a g e
8.6 Figure 1.6: Lowest Premier League Single Matchday Ticket
(Data extracted from BBC Sport, 2015)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Leicester
Crystal Palace
Aston Villa
West Ham
Stoke
Sunderland
West Brom
Arsenal
Newcastle
Norwich
Man United
Tottenham
Bournemouth
Southampton
Everton
Watford
Liverpool
Man City
Chelsea
Lowest-priced singlematchday ticket
Lowest-priced single matchday ticket

53. 53 | P a g e
8.7 Figure 1.8: Highest Premier League Single Matchday Ticket
(Data extracted from BBC Sport, 2015)
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Arsenal
West Ham
Chelsea
Tottenham
Liverpool
Man City
Man United
Southampton
Stoke
Leicester
Norwich
Everton
Crystal Palace
Newcastle
Aston Vila
Watford
Sunderland
West Brom
Bournemouth
HighestPremier League Single Matchday Ticket
GBP (£)

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8.8 Figure 1.8 Sheffield United Fans Bill
Quantity Description Line Total (£)
1
47
Additional hotel requirement
for Wednesday
Hotel nights no longer
required
65.00
3,458.00
14 Increase in rail fare for
Wed/Thurs travel
808.50
3
20
Day off work
Concert tickets no longer
required
237.60
600.00
13 Train fares no longer
required
656.40
1 Taxi from station now
incurred and evening meal
30.00
12 Flights booked to Gatwick
from England match to attend
original fixture
GRAND TOTAL
1,416.00
7,271.50
(Data extracted from The Star)

55. 55 | P a g e
8.9 Figure 1.9 The Rise of the Premier League and Television Rights
(Data extracted from BBC, 2015)
8.10 Question 2 Comments
Added responses from the Question “ Do you Believe that TV rights in English Football
have had an effect on the rise in ticket prices to football matches?”
1. I'm not sure if it would directly effect ticket prices!
2. Clubs seem to be trying to maintain the same level of match day revenues as well
as having the broadcasting rights. This as a result is meaning an increase in price of
tickets to cover the loss of reducing attendances.
3. Ticket prices were always rising, regardless of TV deals, so I don't think it's had too
much of an impact.
4. I feel it should have had an effect on ticket prices so that they could now be lowered
but this is not the case. Despite the vast amounts of revenues coming from
broadcasting, ticket prices have continued to rise.
5. More broadcasting worldwide, has developed a vacuum of interest where tickets are
a sort after commodity so the demand is there therefore clubs can charge higher prices
6. TV = More Money, More Money = Higher cost transfers, higher cost transfers =
better football, better football = higher ticket price
7. Ticket prices are rising every year. And the more games which are on TV, the more
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
1992-1997 1997-2001 2001-2004 2004-2007 2007-2010 2010-2013 2013-2016 2016-2019
Rise of Premier League TV Income(Millions and Billions)
Rise of Premier League TV Income

56. 56 | P a g e
people want to attend the game.
8. Ticket prices have risen as modern day football is all about rich owners and wages.
9. The clubs don't admit it but it is having a clear affect. More TV money seems to
equal clubs putting ticket prices up to help with the clubs paying ridiculous wage bills
on big money players
10. The game is everywhere now. It should be lower but games are that in demand to
get tickets for that the clubs just view the fan as dollar signs.
11. I think that football clubs are always going to put the price of tickets up down to the
fact most clubs are money driven. Fans love the club they support and will pay over
the odds to watch them play, protests such as the Liverpool one recently was good
and should send alarm bells ringing for other clubs who are planning on hiking there
prices.
12. Looking at recent reports with current Liverpool FC owners trying to charge £77 a
ticket shows that football is changing from a sport to a business. Tv rights currently in
the billions show that. In comparisson to the early 90's its amazing to see how much
ticket prices have changed the game up to a point where clubs are almost pricing fans
out.
13. For cup games if a paid subscription based service had a couple of unmissable
games on their schedule it could work out cheaper for the consumer to go and watch
the games live. With the clubs realising this they probably feel like they could justify
highering the ticket prices as it could still work out cheaper than subscribing.
14. Owners want as much money as possible
15. Because I believe the sale of TV rights should have the opposite effect as it means
clubs can become less dependent on Match day revenue.
16. I expected a drop in prices but am yet to see it
17. Not too sure
18. Championship football games have rocketed in price, Leeds being £37,
Wednesday being over £40 on a Tuesday night, never mind the PL.
19. Broadcasters have a lot more control of the game
20. Yes, they have risen significantly. Some are complete extortion.
21. I feel that both factors are independent of each other and that the rise in ticket
prices would have happened regardless of how TV rights have changed.
22. People being willing to pay them
23. Because there's an increase of money in football

57. 57 | P a g e
24. Ticket prices would rise without TV deals as clubs would need other ways of
increasing revenue
25. Due to the increase in televised games and the attraction of the leagues on the
television pretty much everyday, tickets are more in demand therefore the clubs can
charge extortionate prices to supporters.
26. I feel tv rights should have decreased the costs of tickets.
27. It's a possibility that the tv companies want to price fans out of football so that they
watch the game through their services/channels instead which is a cheaper option.
28. I think that ticket prices have rised gradually regardless of broadcast money. If
anything, the increase in television money should have led to football clubs lowering
ticket prices.
29. It is easy to stay at home or go to the pub to watch games so attendance at games
is lower and therefore prices need to go up to keep revenue up
30. Personally I think inflation is the main issue.
31. Due to the increased availability of football on television, clubs are now at risk of
losing fan attendance and are having to potentially compensate with an increase in
ticket prices for the fall in numbers.
32. With clubs needing more money to find transfers they transfer this to the fans
33. Corporate experience, hospitality more effectual that tv money. Clubs
implementing these boxes have less general seating so increase prices to cover costs
34. Prices are raised depending on the demand for the game (bigger teams)
35. The TV rights deal for english football continues to increase, giving premier league
clubs more money to spend. So this should really lead to lower prices.
36. The influx of money has made the premier league more commercial and this has
had an effect on the ticket prices
37. Quick and easy
38. If anything it should have an adverse affect. Prices are going up because there is
more demand
39. i think the rise in costs of players are partly responsible for the rise in prices but
ultimately I think greed is the core reason
40. I answered no as I think the whole commercialisation of football has led to the
increase in ticket prices. Also, I feel that as Broadcasting has increased clubs don't
require the need to have such expensive ticket prices.

58. 58 | P a g e
41. The rise of ticket prices is a case of demand exceeding supply. Even though there
is broadcasting money and football on TV is easily obtained, the demand for tickets is
still so great that clubs can charge large amounts of money to fans. I believe the
broadcasting rights have had little or no effect on ticket prices going up or down.
42. The fact that they can charge the prices and people will pay them
43. Ticket prices are related more to players' wages and club greed
44. Because I believe that although ticket prices have risen, I don't hold tv rights
account for this rise.
45. Cause people have to get bt sports to watch football at home, the actual clubs can
charge more for tickets
46. I believe the tv rights have increased the prices on footballers which are then
passed on to the fans.
47. With teams being shown on television it is therefore effecting the attendance at
games therefore leaving football clubs to increase their ticket prices.
48. in comparison to other leagues the premiership ticket prices are substantially more.
49. Having to pay to watch a football match on TV has denied access to football for
many
50.Broadcasting rights are expensive, and therefore the price of the ticket helps the
cost of this.
51.There is now more money given out by TV companies which means there is more
money generally in the football which generally allows teams to charge more.
52. It has had an affect, along with the attraction of certain players at clubs too and as
certain clubs eg. Chelsea have bigger TV deals that lead to their signings of world
class players, it gives them a platform to charge the prices as they believe fans should
pay premium to see the "world class" clubs play.
53 .Games on TV tend to be cheaper not dearer
54. Eventhough ticket prices have rose in the past couple of years, tickets for cup
games are much cheaper whether it is being broadcast on TV or not.
56. I think that the football 'industry's' realisation that it can function more as a business,
and an advertising board for owner's other companies and the companies of their
associates perpetuates the idea that they can use clubs to increase their capital. In this
sense, football in the 21st century has evolved into a product to be sold as oppose to
a sport that unifies the masses. This leaves fans feeling alienated. However, the fans
also - perhaps unconsciously, but certainly willingly - financially support this industry
through subscriptions to watch their favourite team, the purchasing of merchandise
and other activities which are presented as an alternative to attending the
matches...What was the question again?

59. 59 | P a g e
57. Prices only go up
58. I think clubs just get away with it because of the loyalty to chosen teams
59. If tv rights are so high and clubs get this as a main source of income then they do
not necessarily need to raise ticket prices
60. The TV money has turned the game into a lucrative sport
61. The money sky have put into football has made clubs greedy, and therefore
charging more for tickets
62. Prices have been driven to overwhelming levels, families and low-income families
are priced out
63. Tickets prices have increased massively with the influence of TV. Lower league
clubs have to raise their prices to compete with the higher teams budgets whilst trying
to still attract more fans.
8.11 Question 4 Comments
Do you believe that in modern day football the broadcasters hold all the power
regarding Premier League and Football League schedules? (If you answered Yes and
No please expand on your answer)
1. Broadcasters hold all the power for games broadcast on SKY and BT, however,
even for those games broadcast on foreign channels power is still held due to making
sure everything is to time, hence, there’s a schedule planned down to the minute. No
at the same time because lower leagues schedules can evidently change last minute
with very little power to the broadcaster.
2. Various factors involved in schedules but broadcasters definitely play a big part in it
3. Yes, the big names get them even though there is meant to be a balanced allocation
down the league?
4. More so in the premier league and championship not as much in lower leagues.
5. Because they have the power to hold the rights to watch the games we all want to
watch on TV.
6. Games are often moved without consideration of the effect on fans.
7. The introduction of friday night games.
8. They hold some power but not all of it.
9. The schedule changes throughout the season in accordance with more high profile

60. 60 | P a g e
games, so, there is constant rescheduling taking place as a result of Sky and BTSport
broadcasting rights.
10. More games to put on tv, so moved from the normal 3 oclock kick off and Monday
night football.
11. They hold the power because they also hold a lot of the money. Money is power.
12. Money seems to take control of these situations (a fixture will move for the right
amount paid in TV deal)
13. No, they don't hold all of the power. Ultimately it comes down to the organisers and
security bodies (Polices, Steward providers etc.) as they will not put games on if it is
not safe, regardless of the demands of Broadcasters.
14. They rearrange certain games for TV, but not all games.
15. Leeds fan and fixtures keep getting changed. Doesn't happen with all matches
though.
16. Sky decide when kick off is with no regards to fans. Then again if you pay millions
of pounds for the rights you have the right to move fixtures. As much as I disagree with
it.
17. Broadcasters should base it around their schedules, but the FA should also have
a fair say.
18. For most of the reasons stated in my earlier answer. Football is capital to be
exploited by the rich.
19. This was evident with FC United who did not want to play on a Monday night in the
FA Cup because of the game being on BT however when they refused to play on the
Monday they were threatened with being kicked out of the cup.
20. They over run timings and days of kick offs, making it for the 'armchair' fan rather
than the people paying their hard earned cash to be their in the stadium
21. Mostly broadcasters do because they change a reasonable amount of the
schedules of Premier League and Football League clubs. I would have thought there
would be some leeway discussed at the start of each contract agreed.
22. The broadcasters have the money and I believe what they say, goes.
23. Rescheduling games for TV rights is a joke. The supporters suffer, having to
change plans, get extra days off work and lose out on pay just because Sky want to
broadcast a game on a different day!
8.12 Question 5 Comments
What is your opinion on the broadcasters having a potential effect on moving routine
weekend games to midweek games to suit the broadcasting calendar?

61. 61 | P a g e
Responses against the idea
1. Shouldn't be allowed to happen
2. It’s unfair on fans. Eg, Burnley playing at Brentford on a Friday night. 4-and-a-half-
hour journey back at 10 is unfair
3. Not a fan of this, I think it is damaging to the integrity of the game and inconvenient
for fans
4. The broadcasters do not think of the fans and how it will affect them. The club should
be able to have more of a say on the movement of games.
5. Negative - can effect attendances - moving games to early/late kick off prove
problem for way fans - eg. travel
6. I don't like the idea. The whole thing around the premier league is having weekend
games it's what people look forward to. I think viewing figures could be affected if they
moved games to midweek too.
7. Again, focus is on the fan at home rather than those paying to be there
8. Not the best because it can be an inconvenience to clubs, especially in League One
and Two, where the finances and fan bases are not as big as the higher leagues. This
can mean clubs are taking a hit just so broadcasters can fill their TV schedules.
9. It's a joke. Broadcasters should have absolutely no effect on it whatsoever.
10. I believe it is wrong as they don't take into account the fans who attend games.
This can be seen if a game takes place in mid week and many fans will travel by train.
Often what happens is fans will watch a game but by the time it has finished the trains
will no longer be running so they won't be able to get home.
11. It's an absolute joke!!! It's good for smaller clubs in FL as they get an extra
£100,000. But for bigger clubs, who usually are the ones moved, they end up making
a loss as £100,000 isn't enough to cover loss in attendance. For example, Leeds have
5th highest in country for viewing figures, including premier league and yet, are subject
to FL compensation which is not enough for such a big club.
12. Just makes things harder for the fans who attend games to actually get to some
games. Football should focus on those who built it than those casuals.
13. 100% against it, fair enough changing the kick off time is okay, but not the day. The
fans suffer. The TV broadcasters and Football think about the money not the
supporters.
14. A little bit silly; a lot of fans can't make travel arrangements as easily as they can
during the weekend.
15. Annoying, impacts on people’s attendance due to work commitments.
16. It’s unfair on fans, however, the financial benefit for clubs could be seen as the