Foreign EPL rights

IRISHSPORTSGUY

Asking something I've always been curious and the answer is probably obvious but anyway...

Why can some countries watch nearly every Premier League 3PM kick-off, but Irish people can't get the same privilege? The total TV money the Premier League racked in from all the countries around the world was £1.4 billion.

How much would it cost eg: Setanta Ireland to buy all the EPL rights? Is it simply too expensive? TV companies in poorer countries than Ireland seem to get access to a lot more Premier League matches though.

BKC

The FA will not allow any matches televised at 3PM on Saturdays in the UK and Ireland.

Edit: I'm wrong about Ireland.

Noo

This was mentioned on another thread recently, something about encouraging people to attend more games than sitting at home watching them, makes sense i guess. Ok so thats the case for UK but we've been grouped in with that too. Im in Australia so I get every 3pm K.O game at midnight on a saturday yay!! Its great. Its when they start showing them different times different days of the week it gets to be a bit of a pain, so its not all dandy!

BKC

Noo wrote: »

Ok so thats the case for UK but we've been grouped in with that too.

I'd imagine that is because we get pretty much all our BPL coverage from the UK - Sky, ESPN, etc.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

BKC wrote: »

The FA will not allow any matches televised at 3PM on Saturdays in the UK and Ireland.

That seems unfair, we're an independent country.

Xavi6

Never thought that when I moved to the other side of the world I'd have access to every single Premier League game live on my tv while the lads back home have to scramble for streams :pac:

BKC

IRISHSPORTSGUY wrote: »

That seems unfair, we're an independent country.

I think it's just for the UK but I don't think there would be anyone here willing to dish out enough money for the rights. Doubt it would be worth it.

LETS BE AVN IT

BKC wrote: »

The FA will not allow any matches televised at 3PM on Saturdays in the UK and Ireland.

I just watched one Saturday on setanta Ireland , its just UK you can't.

kryogen

Its just a UK thing for UK coverage, a lot of countries have similar arrangements I think, to do with making sure people still go to games etc

Oat23

The PL know that, even know the 3pm blackout is UK only, they can't allow a bunch of 3pms to be shown in Ireland. Even if Setanta somehow managed to get the money, the PL would price them out of buying the rights.

It would be too easy for people in the UK to get access to Setanta.

MisterAnarchy

BKC wrote: »

I think it's just for the UK but I don't think there would be anyone here willing to dish out enough money for the rights. Doubt it would be worth it.

The irony is Irish people pay the most of any nation in the world for EPL rights and we get very poor coverage.
Only one 3pm match ,1 midweek match on a Tuesday night or Wednesday and no Sunday matches moved from Saturday due to the Europa league.

The selection of televised matches is also dependant on each team being shown at least a minimum number of times per season something not applicable to most foreign providors.
Who outside of England really wants to watch Stoke vs Reading .

Foreign EPL coverage isnt as good as it was before the FA crackdown after the Karen Murphy court ruling but its still alot better than available here.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

The irony is Irish people pay the most of any nation in the world for EPL rights and we get very poor coverage.
Only one 3pm match ,1 midweek match on a Tuesday night or Wednesday and no Sunday matches moved from Saturday due to the Europa league.

The selection of televised matches is also dependant on each team being shown at least a minimum number of times per season something not applicable to most foreign providors.
Who outside of England really wants to watch Stoke vs Reading .

Foreign EPL coverage isnt as good as it was before the FA crackdown after the Karen Murphy court ruling but its still alot better than available here.

For what it's worth I would! Lots of Irish/ potential internationals in that match.

~Rebel~

It's a good question though, why don't the likes of RTE, TV3 or Setanta go for all the 3pm kick-offs. It was glorious when RTE sprung for them a few years back.

Surely they'd get absolutely massive viewership with no competition from the UK (as is the case with Champions League games for instance).

GT_TDI_150

I thought this was down the the MOTD coverage, no/few matches can be shown untill the highlight shows have run

Rascasse

Sky (and probably the EPL) would never allow them to be shown on terrestrial here. So that only leaves Setanta and lets be honest they are hardly flush with cash and the EPL would never trust them again anyway.

The economics are mad too. According to the Guardian BT bid £6.5m per game for the next set of rights (Sky bid even more). Suggest that the league would allow the 3pms to be sold at the same rate, pro-rata for the population. That works out at €550,000 per game or €21m for 38 games. How many subscribers would you need to make that work?

One thing to look forward to (if the story in that article is true) is the possibility of free matches on ITV if you have Sky. Will be blocked on UPC though.

helimachoptor

The Irish rights for the next few years are up for auction soon, I have a feeling something very interesting is going to happen...

Rascasse

Are the rights for UK and Ireland not bundled together? Or is the package BT won being re-auctioned here as they don't have a presence here?

_blank_

helimachoptor wrote: »

The Irish rights for the next few years are up for auction soon, I have a feeling something very interesting is going to happen...

...and why would you have such a feeling?

helimachoptor

No there are separate Irish rights, setanta have them but they are up for auction over the next couple of months for the2013/2014 season and onwards.

helimachoptor

Des wrote: »

...and why would you have such a feeling?

You know well why Des!