Fans of the English Premier League across the UK and Ireland have been left fuming after the league confirmed that some of its games are to be moved to Pay Per View.
In a move to make up for declining revenue with fans being unable to attend matches, the Premier League has confirmed that a number games that weren’t originally to be televised pre Covid-19 will now be Pay Per View Only.
It is understood that five games this month will now cost £14.95 (€16.95) instead of being aired for free on Sky Sports or BT Sport.
The move which has left football fans angered has led to a major outcry on social media with many slamming England’s top flight division for extorting fans during what has already been a challenging pandemic.
Under the new agreement games that were not initially included in the massive £4.464bn (€5.010) four year broadcast deal will now behind yet another pay wall as clubs try to regain lost revenue from gate receipts.
Although all games from England’s top flight were broadcast on TV via Sky, BT, Amazon, Premier Sports and BBC following their resumption post Covid-19 lockdown, technically the broadcasters were showing some of the games for free as they weren’t included in the initial broadcast package due to the UK’s black out ban which prohibits matches being shown on TV at 3pm on Saturday afternoon.
However the latest deal has left fans on both sides of the Irish sea angry as they will now have to pay extra on top of their current Sky and BT subscriptions to watch their favourite team in action.
Although both Sky and BT say they won’t profit from the latest agreement, they have confirmed that the games will be shown on Sky Box Office and BT Sports Box Office.
The agreement which was voted in on Friday passed by 19 votes to 1 with only one club Leicester City voting against the deal.
It is believed that all revenue generated by the Pay Per View games will go directly to the clubs involved.
The extra cost per week has led to questions amongst fans and former players with many citing the fact that Premier League clubs combined spent £1.2bn on transfer fees in the last transfer window which ran from August until October.
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