Premier League to Test Pay-TV's Value

Fry, Andy, Marketing

What will pay-per-view football offer UK advertisers and viewers?

On Sunday, August 19, the UK's four main digital pay-TV platforms -- SkyDigital, ITV Digital, NTL's Premium TV and Telewest -- will launch Premier League soccer pay-per-view (PPV).

Although each platform will make its own decisions about how to price, present and support the service, the core offering on each is the same.

Over the course of the 2000-2001 season there will be 40 live games, most of which will kick off on Sundays at 2pm. Coverage of every game, starting with Chelsea versus Newcastle, will be produced by Sky, which won the [pound]2.5m production contract in July.

The PPV rights, which were granted to the digital platforms by the Premier League in a [pound]180m three-year deal, come on top of two existing contracts. The first resides with Sky, which is paying [pound]1.2bn over three years for exclusive access to 66 live pay-TV games. The second is with ITV, which paid [pound]183m over three seasons for Premiership highlights.

The Premier League deal is the first real attempt to build a PPV sports market in the UK. Although …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Premier League to Test Pay-TV's Value. Contributors: Fry, Andy - Author. Magazine title: Marketing. Publication date: August 16, 2001. Page number: 32. © 2003 Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group.

This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.