The Premier League Network...

Cena · January 10, 2014

Us wrestling fan lids were just talking in the other thread there, basically, the WWE has just launched it's own Network.

It will stream live shows, classic shows, every single pay-per-view ever, all PPV shows during the year, new reality and talk shows and all other sorts of things. For $9.99 you get unlimited, 24/7 access on any device that you can watch anytime you want. It has basically cut away from the cable TV channels.

We got onto saying would this now be the next step in football. Imagine for £10 a month you got live matches, classic matches, youth games, all your club's classic moments, player interviews, talk shows, highlights shows and the rest - the Premier League could in theory cut out the middle man in Sky & BT and just have there own network that you could stream on your phone, iPad, games console, laptop, Internet TV.

A netflix for football if you like.

It's the next step surely?

Garrick · January 10, 2014

Actually all of the "big 4" sports in the US do this, and even MLS has an online streaming package.

Generally you can watch your hometown team on basic cable or sometimes terrestrial TV, as well as selected marquee type games (such as Monday Night Football), but there are also extended channels that you many times have to pay extra for that show every game the league is holding. When there aren't any games, they show 'classic' games and other league related coverage like you're saying.

Even some college sports conferences do it, kind of crazy.

riddick · January 10, 2014

quite honestly i think it would be a step down in terms of finances being supplied to clubs. and it would fragment the finances too. do you think, for one second, if it was shown Liverpool have 40% of all viewership they would be happy splitting 1/20th of the income generated by this?

johnnydawg68 · January 10, 2014

Garrick said:
Actually all of the "big 4" sports in the US do this, and even MLS has an online streaming package.

Generally you can watch your hometown team on basic cable or sometimes terrestrial TV, as well as selected marquee type games (such as Monday Night Football), but there are also extended channels that you many times have to pay extra for that show every game the league is holding. When there aren't any games, they show 'classic' games and other league related coverage like you're saying.

Even some college sports conferences do it, kind of crazy.

I have made this point before. It's incredible the Prem doesn't do this in the UK. The NFL package over here is ace but it isn't cheap. They also have the ability to block out local home games, but the rules are different here. Basically if the game is sold out, you can get it locally. If not, they black it out. I'm sure they could do something similar there.

SerenityNigh · January 10, 2014

riddick said:
quite honestly i think it would be a step down in terms of finances being supplied to clubs. and it would fragment the finances too. do you think, for one second, if it was shown Liverpool have 40% of all viewership they would be happy splitting 1/20th of the income generated by this?

Teams don't get paid based on viewership, do they? I thought they were paid flat shares plus a bonus based on performance? Seems like a PL Network will be how they go in the future, but I'm sure they enjoy selling rights to existing networks in multiple nations. The only thing better than selling a product for a lot of money is selling the same product multiple times for lots of money.

Garrick · January 10, 2014

johnnydawg68 said:
I have made this point before. It's incredible the Prem doesn't do this in the UK. The NFL package over here is ace but it isn't cheap. They also have the ability to block out local home games, but the rules are different here. Basically if the game is sold out, you can get it locally. If not, they black it out. I'm sure they could do something similar there.

I know for MLB and I think NBA as well, you can't stream a game from your home market unless it's not on cable (which is rare).

Kind of sucks for me, I'd totally pay for an MLB package to watch the Brewers since I don't have cable, but since the local Fox Sports affiliate gets pretty much all of them it wouldn't mean squat. There are maybe 5 games a year that I can get over-the-air.

johnnydawg68 · January 10, 2014

Garrick said:
I know for MLB and I think NBA as well, you can't stream a game from your home market unless it's not on cable (which is rare).

Kind of sucks for me, I'd totally pay for an MLB package to watch the Brewers since I don't have cable, but since the local Fox Sports affiliate gets pretty much all of them it wouldn't mean squat. There are maybe 5 games a year that I can get over-the-air.

Yeah it's great for me since oddly I support all the KC teams but live in St. Louis (grew up here but lived in Kansas when I was 4-8 so developed my loyalties at that age and haven't changed).

So I can watch all the Chiefs and Royals games, and KU basketball is on TV pretty much every game anyway.

Have you tried Apple TV? They have an MLB app on there but I don't know if they have blackout restrictions on there as well. Maybe not. Worth looking into.

ijjysmith · January 10, 2014

I'd be for it I think.

Garrick · January 10, 2014

johnnydawg68 said:
Yeah it's great for me since oddly I support all the KC teams but live in St. Louis (grew up here but lived in Kansas when I was 4-8 so developed my loyalties at that age and haven't changed).

So I can watch all the Chiefs and Royals games, and KU basketball is on TV pretty much every game anyway.

Have you tried Apple TV? They have an MLB app on there but I don't know if they have blackout restrictions on there as well. Maybe not. Worth looking into.

I'm sure the same restrictions would apply. The one way I could get around it is streaming and then using a VPN or proxy service, which I'd probably have to pay for one to get enough bandwidth.

Or convince a friend outside of Wisconsin to let me stick a computer in their house, but eh, it's not that big of a deal for me.

riddick · January 10, 2014

SerenityNigh said:
Teams don't get paid based on viewership, do they? I thought they were paid flat shares plus a bonus based on performance? Seems like a PL Network will be how they go in the future, but I'm sure they enjoy selling rights to existing networks in multiple nations. The only thing better than selling a product for a lot of money is selling the same product multiple times for lots of money.

nah its not for viewership, but i could easily see the douches over the park be upset that they get more viewers and not more of the revenue.