No More Live TV Football

I would love for it to go back to the good old days which made the FA Cup and England games on the telly special. I don't have Sky or Sultana as I really only enjoy going to a game unless it is a national game or final. My friends often work their social life around 'getting back to the match'

I do however like the idea of some games being shown in pubs as this could be the saving of some of them (maybe inc post offices too as they have big tellys too these days!). Over the next few years I see football changing in total as the bigger clubs that have relied on the prawn sandwich brigade start to suffer. The ones to survive will be smaller clubs with a true local following and those bought by these billionairses.

Jerry, If you visited Sky's main site at Isleworth, I am sure you would be surprised to see that the Sky Sports building is just one of 14, which in total employs tens of thousands of people, most of whom are working in other departments. The football section within that is just one of many, and you may be surpised to learn that the biggest expanding of those at the moment is actually darts, not football.

Sure, the football rights are probably the single most important thing Sky owns, but don't expect them to disappear if football disappeared from their portfolio.

Currently the work site is being expanded with a new hi-tech set of studios, offices and production areas which will also see the Piccadilly Line re-routed at some point - I am sure Ealinggull and Chris Hayes have seen the work that is going on, possibly being delayed by some of the junction work on the A4 after Gillette Corner as well.

From what I can glean out of the regular Intranet statements, Sky were actually keen to keep things where they are regarding the Premier League with the next contract, but Setanta attempted to get their Monday night package of games on the cheap after spending a ridiculous sum of money to get hold of rights to the Guinness Premiership rugby union next season. That is a sport where viewing figures on Sky are way down on, because of the quality of the league being so much poorer now international players are rested from many games as part of their contract. Add in a lot of top players heading to the salary-cap free French Top 14 and that is certainly not money well-spent.

Dave was spot on with regards to his opening post about Setanta. They seem to have some kind of idea that their money, coming all from banks and individual financiers as it does, will never run out but they are coming to the stark realisation that money does not grow on trees...hence defaulting on their payment this week. The fact that their subscriptions are down, cancellations are up and people are no longer keen to add £10-15 to their Sky payment for quality of programming that is not particularly high outside the live games doesn't seem to have hit home. They may soon pay 'the ultimate price' which would probably see someone like ESPN move in on their territory with more of a part of the British action - they already own the likes of Wisden, Cricinfo, Soccernet, etc, plus have the backing of the Disney Corporation, so maybe continuing to cover the BSP would be ideal for them (that's for the dear departed Dave Shaw of course!).

And despite working for Sky, I also believe there is far too much football on the TV now, and far too much football not being played on Saturday afternoons to fit in with TV and the plethora of competitions played. I don't see it happening, but I would much rather see the end of the 'no live games to be shown at 3pm on a Saturday' ruling and have one played then, and one more played on a Sunday. I'm not saying who should have them, but I know who would cover them best

And I also agree that England games should always be shown on terrestrial TV, whoever bids the most for it. Of course if the Beeb and ITV end up not wanting them or sadly in these times not being able to afford to cover them, then there has to be a backup plan. You imagine now what people are used to with regards to watching live sport, would they be able to cope without some kind of live sport on every day? Would they cope just seeing highlights from the West Indies for example? Remember in the past, overseas England tours were not covered.

I fear for sporting coverage on the main five channels. You may soon be limited to the Formula One on the BBC, and the odd game of football between the rest of the main broadcasters. When you see that mainstays of programming like The Bill are being cut because of financial troubles, sports are going to follow...hence the BBC cutting back their racing coverage to only 13 days a year from 2010 as has been mooted. There will soon come a time when Live Score will be the only sport on BBC on Saturday afternoons all year round apart from maybe the World Snooker Championships and the indoor bowls, plus of course the Olympics which will remain a priority based on the BBC website's main banner!

BBC - The Olympic Broadcaster - (and not a lot else)

Sadly it's not just going to be sport that suffers. Channels are going out of business with regularity, and I see now that Virgin Media are trying to sell some of their channels (Dave, Living, etc) because of money troubles....do you seriously think anyone will pay £500m for them in this climate??

I know there are people out there who consider Sky to have been bad for sporting coverage, but I couldn't honestly see it even if I wasn't a little biased as someone in their employ. Maybe just a little overkill on some things, but given that subscriber numbers are still going up, who am I to argue?

If people are that desperate to watch 3pm Saturday games, they are easy enough to find on the internet, so I'd imagine if they were made official, the impact on attendances lower down the leagues would be minimal. I would expect, if it were to happen and I am not saying for one moment it will, there would be a limit on the amount of times a team was shown live in that particular slot to stop attendances at Woking plummeting when Man Screw are on, or Stevenage complaining when Spurs are being shown.

I can see where you are coming from Shane, and would guess your reasoning behind the ban is correct, but the Saturday game has become so diluted now it's getting silly.

Is that you Mr Harris? Or am I barking up completely the wrong tree?

But whoever you may be, you are spot on regards both parts of the post. Most television is absolute rubbish these days, yet I still end up watching hours of it.

Happily, though, I would never go out of my way to watch a football match that involved another British club apart from perhaps the FA Cup final or a Champions League final...not even England anymore.