Matches on Sky are usually chosen on the basis of attracting the most armchair viewers.
It keeps their advertisers happy. The football is secondary.
They would be a crap business if they only catered for the less glamerous games...
I love football and watch pretty much every game that's on the box...however, most fans would prefer to watch the bigger ties...thus sky need to cater for the mass market...
Football is very unpredictable, Barcelona vs real Madrid could be a 0-0 bore draw while bradford vs crawley could be a 6-5 thriller...they can't base what games to pick on chances of a good game...so most games are picked to cater for the biggest audience, to keep the advertisers and the majority of customers happy....
I guess you are an old cynical football fan....I bet you boo players before they have even kicked a ball....
I've thought for a number of years that all the prem games should move to the sunday, except for the 1 or 2 games involving teams playing the Tuesday champs league game, and say 2 televised games (1pm kick-off and 5:15pm kick-off). That would mean 2-4 games on the Saturday, 1 on the monday and 5-7 games on the sunday.
This would have a number of advantages:
1. Fans wouldn't be dicked around as much, the majority of prem games would be on a Sunday 2. Football league/Non League attendances would rise as the only 3pm saturday prem games would be any untelevised games involving Tuesday CL teams (and as we've seen, it's a rare week when the teams involved in the CL aren't the televised games) 3. Sky could pick and choose which game they're going to televise far closer to the actual game date. Meaning a better selection of games (hopefully). 4. The football league show could start an hour earlier, meaning our highlights might be on TV before 12:30!
Robert said: "I guess you are an old cynical football fan....I bet you boo players before they have even kicked a ball...."
I believe most posters on here already know my views on booing. So you would have lost that bet.
Maybe you think of me as an old cynic - but there's a lot of football fans who remember football before it was hijacked by Sky, when the top flight consisted of more than 4 clubs so overexposed that some of us are sick of it being rammed down our throats very day.
It has certainly given rise to a whole generation of ' the Sky 4' supporters who can't be arsed to go to an actual match to see 'their' team.
Robert said: "Maybe you think of me as an old cynic - but there's a lot of football fans who remember football before it was hijacked by Sky, when the top flight consisted of more than 4 clubs so overexposed that some of us are sick of it being rammed down our throats very day.
It has certainly given rise to a whole generation of ' the Sky 4' supporters who can't be arsed to go to an actual match to see 'their' team."
There really is nothing wrong with armchair fans. Your just bitter.
Not everyone can afford to go to football matches..sky brings football to the masses....which can only be a good thing
Far from "only" being a good thing, I think it can, and probably is, a bad thing.
For a start it's worth considering why people can't afford to go to football. For some people it is down to their own personal finances, for many though is just that live football has priced itself out of contention. Now, there are a many reasons for this including all-seater stadia, over paid players and leech like agent scum. But we can't ignore Sky in all of this. Sure they pump a lot of money into the game, but it is their hype that has helped fuel the ticket inflation that has happened over the past 20 years. Sky tv has had a direct influence on pricing people out of the game.
Secondly let's consider what happens to these stay-at-home masses. They aren't supporting their local club, or their family's club, or some club chosen on seemingly random grounds. They are are getting behind one of the Sky 4. Whichever one of the four they choose, they are getting drawn into to supporting some great behemoth of a club, rather than a deserving one. A vast overpowerful entity that is helping to suck the lifeblood out of football, by making it an increasingly dull four horse race. They are not football fans though. They are fans of corporate success; they might as well claim to support Microsoft or Boeing or Virgin as any football team. In fact it's made easy for them as even the job of supporting a corporation has been chosen for them. It's AIG, Samsung, Carlsberg, Emirates...
Sky tv have helped to take the First Division of English football, a great division to which all medium to large clubs in the country could realistically hope to win one day, and have turned it into a league which only a select few will win. A league that is almost as fantastically boring and uncompetitive as the Scottish league. Not to worry though, because for the price of a direct debit no-one has to leave their own living room. We can all watch the same puffed up superstars and pretend that we are justified in our choice to do so. Come on AIG!
Pre-Sky, most people could afford to go to matches.
I guess Robert and Sam B09 have grown up with Sky and their Premiership - and have never known anything other than wall-to-wall TV football overkill and its media circus?
im struggling to name em , is it the same 4 as before cos i've noticed one of my top 3 wasn't in my top 6 predictions a few years back
we all know that football revenue is top end but that's cos success is rewarded and yes the top end is rewarded too much relative to others i dont realistically know how that can stop
pre sky crowds were so so much lower we were 5k for second tier and united were 35k for top tier
we're nearly 15k for third tier as opposed to 10k for 2nd tier cos we've held on to some new glory fans who enjoyed the prem experience
and united are 75k+ sell outs for most matches
theres more empty seats at our ground
and they clearly have a huge support and they always have relative to everyone else
leeds v man utd was shown just like the man utd v leeds fa cup shock the other year which we were all talking about at the time cos leeds were a third tier team battling with us for promotion, it has history and passion and was a no brainer imo
i really enjoyed man utd v chelsea the other day top drawer entertainment loads of chances and a top class game of footy to watch in a full stadium
can't say i was that excited about ipswich v coventry in the not so full portman road
as a football fan i prefer to watch a top game for my footy fix , i get my pony football addicktion sorted by blind love/loyalty following charlton
we'll see how many of our armchair fans can make it to the valley in the game against brentford in the jpt soon where the stadium will be less than 20% full
yet man utd's fixtures are usually sold out if not 90+ % full so showing them helps the people who struggle to get in to the games...
see you alll at the valley for the jpt match , maybe not i'll watch it at home in my armchair
Not everyone can afford to go to football matches..sky brings football to the masses....which can only be a good thing
Not everyone can afford a Sky subscription either!
Sky is £45 a month, which is the cost of one game (when you include travel, beer and food) ....watching on sky is cheaper.....and you get everything else with it too....
No, Sky is £60 a month if you want all the sports, which frankly you need because of their pesky habit of switching matches between the channels. And then you might want to add ESPN on top of that.
I'm afraid you can't crawl away from the fact Sky has changed football and in many people's eyes, including my own, for the worse. I'm a big fan of F1 and was appalled at the recent decision to switch it to a share deal between the Beeb and Sky. They will ruin the sport and it's audience share in this country. No matter, my way around it is to purchase a standard satellite dish and receiver, point it at Europe and receive F1 free-to-air, as it should be. I refuse to pay for Sky, it's that simple.
Must be the younger generation like watching Man Utd?
Very strange comment. I would say that any sentiment towards Man U would be from the older generation. Always has been.
Anyway, I'd rather watch Man Utd on TV than any other English team, so long may it continue. If you don't like watching Man Utd, you don't like football.
So you are not young then? My apologies, but I still think that what I said stands. Older generations were not subjected to wall to wall Man Utd on TV and in the High Street, there may have been some sympathy for them post Munich, but people who supported their local club did not change as a result of it. Now as others have said, they would not even consider their local club when they claim to support a team from 200 miles away and somehow think that gives them some kudos with their equally spineless friends. I don't think people are saying they don't like watching Man Utd, but as proper football fans, we would like to see other teams play as well. If you don't like watching other teams, THEN you don't like football...
Not everyone can afford to go to football matches..sky brings football to the masses....which can only be a good thing
Not everyone can afford a Sky subscription either!
Sky is £45 a month, which is the cost of one game (when you include travel, beer and food) ....watching on sky is cheaper.....and you get everything else with it too....
I agree, Skysports is good value for the armchair viewer, top games in both rugby codes, football and cricket as well as an ever expanding portfolio of other sports; golf, sailing, horse racing, US football and basketball and soon of course formula 1. There are 3 downsides, ESPN has come into the markets and reduced the number of available games for Sky viewers. If you want all the top football you need an ESPN subscription. ESPN is part of Disney so is in it for the long haul. Secondly, The BBC is priced out of all the markets that are not 'nationally significant'. The present rugby world cup for example, the Beeb has not even got the radio rights or TV highlights. The sports fan is getting bad value for his/her TV licence, though I contend that for £3 a week the BBC provides a superb all round service. Lastly, as discussed before, the commercial/satellite channels have pumped up wage bills and made football quite expensive. But a £20 or £30 seat still compares favourably with theatre, opera, ballet, even cinema seats. What pushes up the price of live football viewing is the crazy prices asked for generally rubbish food and beverages and programmes, hats, kits etc. THAT to my mind is where the fans are really being ripped off.
Must be the younger generation like watching Man Utd?
Very strange comment. I would say that any sentiment towards Man U would be from the older generation. Always has been.
Anyway, I'd rather watch Man Utd on TV than any other English team, so long may it continue. If you don't like watching Man Utd, you don't like football.
So you are not young then? My apologies, but I still think that what I said stands. Older generations were not subjected to wall to wall Man Utd on TV and in the High Street, there may have been some sympathy for them post Munich, but people who supported their local club did not change as a result of it. Now as others have said, they would not even consider their local club when they claim to support a team from 200 miles away and somehow think that gives them some kudos with their equally spineless friends. I don't think people are saying they don't like watching Man Utd, but as proper football fans, we would like to see other teams play as well. If you don't like watching other teams, THEN you don't like football...
Well that's what I said! If you don't like watching other teams, you don't like football. I just narrowed it down a bit. Man Utd have been an attractive side to watch in my whole lifetime, tha stretches just a little before Prem etc! They were even good to watch when they went down and they were certainly good to watch throughout the 80's, even though they never got a sniff of the league.
Man U are on TV the most because they are the biggest, best and most popular team in the UK and probably Europe and the world.
In my experience, and I'll try and put it better this time, people who regulary go to football to watch one team in particular are a bit one-eyed when it comes to the game as a whole. Loyal supporters can often not see the wood for the trees and are totally occupied with the play and off field issues of their own team. Also if you are 18-35 and usually go to home games that shows you do not actually play football and therefore don't really understand it and are probably only interested in your club from a tribal point of view rather than a football one.
Must be the younger generation like watching Man Utd?
Very strange comment. I would say that any sentiment towards Man U would be from the older generation. Always has been.
Anyway, I'd rather watch Man Utd on TV than any other English team, so long may it continue. If you don't like watching Man Utd, you don't like football.
So you are not young then? My apologies, but I still think that what I said stands. Older generations were not subjected to wall to wall Man Utd on TV and in the High Street, there may have been some sympathy for them post Munich, but people who supported their local club did not change as a result of it. Now as others have said, they would not even consider their local club when they claim to support a team from 200 miles away and somehow think that gives them some kudos with their equally spineless friends. I don't think people are saying they don't like watching Man Utd, but as proper football fans, we would like to see other teams play as well. If you don't like watching other teams, THEN you don't like football...
Well that's what I said! If you don't like watching other teams, you don't like football. I just narrowed it down a bit. Man Utd have been an attractive side to watch in my whole lifetime, tha stretches just a little before Prem etc! They were even good to watch when they went down and they were certainly good to watch throughout the 80's, even though they never got a sniff of the league.
Man U are on TV the most because they are the biggest, best and most popular team in the UK and probably Europe and the world.
In my experience, and I'll try and put it better this time, people who regulary go to football to watch one team in particular are a bit one-eyed when it comes to the game as a whole. Loyal supporters can often not see the wood for the trees and are totally occupied with the play and off field issues of their own team. Also if you are 18-35 and usually go to home games that shows you do not actually play football and therefore don't really understand it and are probably only interested in your club from a tribal point of view rather than a football one.
Also if more people supported their local team, a concept ruined by Sky then there would be a lot less travelling involved.
i must have imagined all the liverpool and man utd supporting kids at my school during the late 70's - early 80's.
my dad grew up a man utd fan and used to take me to a lot of the london games and to old trafford when he could afford. i must have also been hallucinating the coach loads of 'devon branch', 'south wales branch' supporters clubs etc that came to those matches.
There were also loads of Liverpool kids at my school (Canvey Island) in the 70s. The difference is though that for those that were genuinely interested in football this wasn't a reasonable option, and after a while even the thicker ones began to realise this. By the time they were old enough those that wanted to watch football had switched allegiance, mostly either West Ham or Southend in our case. That was the only way they'd see a game. The kids left supporting Liverpool were the ones that had no interested in watching football and only wanted whatever pathetic reflected glory they may have got in picking the winner in a race that was already over.
Sky has changed all that. Kids who at five or six pick Man U because they are the Champions, or top of the league, or have Rooney or whatever, never have have that wake up call. Because Sky altered the rules and took away the alarm clock. Now they can watch Man U every week for the rest of their lives. They can see (practically) every match. Over the course of a season, they'll see more of their team than most people who choose Charlton, Southend, West Ham or whoever can hope to and they don't have to leave their living room. Also, if the average Joe starts watching football at 5 and doesn't leave home until 20-25, then they have 15 to 20 years in which they never have to pay a penny for it, so they are quite unaccustomed to spending their money on match tickets.
Comments
It keeps their advertisers happy. The football is secondary.
They would be a crap business if they only catered for the less glamerous games...
I love football and watch pretty much every game that's on the box...however, most fans would prefer to watch the bigger ties...thus sky need to cater for the mass market...
Football is very unpredictable, Barcelona vs real Madrid could be a 0-0 bore draw while bradford vs crawley could be a 6-5 thriller...they can't base what games to pick on chances of a good game...so most games are picked to cater for the biggest audience, to keep the advertisers and the majority of customers happy....
I guess you are an old cynical football fan....I bet you boo players before they have even kicked a ball....
those that don't wanna watch it, just do what you did pre sky.
for live football watch that FA cup final, the schoolboy internationals and whatever england matches the bbc get.
for highlights watch match of the day. but you can't have it both ways so no watching the football league show.
This would have a number of advantages:
1. Fans wouldn't be dicked around as much, the majority of prem games would be on a Sunday
2. Football league/Non League attendances would rise as the only 3pm saturday prem games would be any untelevised games involving Tuesday CL teams (and as we've seen, it's a rare week when the teams involved in the CL aren't the televised games)
3. Sky could pick and choose which game they're going to televise far closer to the actual game date. Meaning a better selection of games (hopefully).
4. The football league show could start an hour earlier, meaning our highlights might be on TV before 12:30!
"I guess you are an old cynical football fan....I bet you boo players before they have even kicked a ball...."
I believe most posters on here already know my views on booing. So you would have lost that bet.
Maybe you think of me as an old cynic - but there's a lot of football fans who remember football before it was hijacked by Sky,
when the top flight consisted of more than 4 clubs so overexposed that some of us are sick of it being rammed down our throats very day.
It has certainly given rise to a whole generation of ' the Sky 4' supporters who can't be arsed to go to an actual match to see 'their' team.
I guess Robert and Sam B09 have grown up with Sky and their Premiership - and have never known anything other than wall-to-wall TV football overkill and its media circus?
Perhaps they think it has always been like this.
In honour of their ever-escalating bills, of course.
Sky is £45 a month, which is the cost of one game (when you include travel, beer and food) ....watching on sky is cheaper.....and you get everything else with it too....
I'm afraid you can't crawl away from the fact Sky has changed football and in many people's eyes, including my own, for the worse. I'm a big fan of F1 and was appalled at the recent decision to switch it to a share deal between the Beeb and Sky. They will ruin the sport and it's audience share in this country. No matter, my way around it is to purchase a standard satellite dish and receiver, point it at Europe and receive F1 free-to-air, as it should be. I refuse to pay for Sky, it's that simple.
So you are not young then? My apologies, but I still think that what I said stands. Older generations were not subjected to wall to wall Man Utd on TV and in the High Street, there may have been some sympathy for them post Munich, but people who supported their local club did not change as a result of it. Now as others have said, they would not even consider their local club when they claim to support a team from 200 miles away and somehow think that gives them some kudos with their equally spineless friends. I don't think people are saying they don't like watching Man Utd, but as proper football fans, we would like to see other teams play as well. If you don't like watching other teams, THEN you don't like football...
Lastly, as discussed before, the commercial/satellite channels have pumped up wage bills and made football quite expensive. But a £20 or £30 seat still compares favourably with theatre, opera, ballet, even cinema seats. What pushes up the price of live football viewing is the crazy prices asked for generally rubbish food and beverages and programmes, hats, kits etc. THAT to my mind is where the fans are really being ripped off.
Well that's what I said! If you don't like watching other teams, you don't like football. I just narrowed it down a bit. Man Utd have been an attractive side to watch in my whole lifetime, tha stretches just a little before Prem etc! They were even good to watch when they went down and they were certainly good to watch throughout the 80's, even though they never got a sniff of the league.
Man U are on TV the most because they are the biggest, best and most popular team in the UK and probably Europe and the world.
In my experience, and I'll try and put it better this time, people who regulary go to football to watch one team in particular are a bit one-eyed when it comes to the game as a whole. Loyal supporters can often not see the wood for the trees and are totally occupied with the play and off field issues of their own team. Also if you are 18-35 and usually go to home games that shows you do not actually play football and therefore don't really understand it and are probably only interested in your club from a tribal point of view rather than a football one.
Also if more people supported their local team, a concept ruined by Sky then there would be a lot less travelling involved.
i must have imagined all the liverpool and man utd supporting kids at my school during the late 70's - early 80's.
my dad grew up a man utd fan and used to take me to a lot of the london games and to old trafford when he could afford. i must have also been hallucinating the coach loads of 'devon branch', 'south wales branch' supporters clubs etc that came to those matches.