Premier League Considering Broadcasting Behind Closed Door Games On Free-to-air
The UK Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, has confirmed that he has held talks with the Premier League about ensuring some future fixtures, which are likely to be played behind closed doors, are available on free-to-air TV.
It is thought that, if some sporting events are to return in the near to medium future, they will need to take place without fans in the stadium to limit the number of people gathering at the same time.
“I’ve raised this challenge to the Premier League in the conversations I’ve had with them,” said Dowden.
“I have said to the Premier League it wouldn’t send the best signal if they were one of the first major sports to resume behind closed doors and the public at large couldn’t have access to it.”
The Culture Secretary, however, did not speculate about which free-to-air TV channels on which the Premier League might be broadcast.
“I’m certainly not going to jump a further step ahead and start speculating about the platform upon which they might broadcast. If they are being mindful of access points that doesn’t just have to be going onto traditional terrestrial matches, or even showing all of the matches. There’s all sorts of creative options within that but it is something they should be considering, and they have said they are.”
Previously, both BT Sport and Sky Sports – the pay TV broadcasters who screen live Premier League football in the UK – have made live sporting events available for free to the public at large.
BT Sport’s coverage of the 2019 Champions League and Europa League finals was broadcast live on YouTube as well as the broadcaster’s app and website. More than 11 million people in the UK watched the final of UEFA’s top-tier competition featuring Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, with 4.8 million tuning in via online channels.
Meanwhile, Sky Sports’ decision to broadcast the 2019 Cricket World Cup final on free-to-air TV – through a carriage deal with Channel 4 – saw the match between England and New Zealand draw a peak of 8.3 million viewers and, according to the ICC, become the most-watched game of cricket ever in the UK across both live and highlight coverage.
In 2019 Sky also broadcast the Vitality Netball World Cup on its YouTube channel.
