Things are changing in Europe at least under the new contract but it's always been an oddity that Britain is actually the one place where you can't watch all Premier League games live, and I think sooner or later that will surely change.
I don't think so, there may be a minority of fans who'd want it but it's of no value to the broadcasters or the clubs. It's certainly not going to make Sky any more money by showing every game and there can be virtually nobody who has put off subscribing to Sky because they can't see every match. It'd just split the audience and drive down advertising revenue. It's not in their interest. Hardly anybody watches Football First, they're all happy to see Match of the Day. It would also completely cannibalise Soccer Saturday, one of their leading brands.
Indeed there's an interview with Barney Francis of Sky Sports in Broadcast and he says that when they decide on rights, "What's the right blend within each sport - how much darts do people actually want to watch? Some people would want to watch it every night, but you want a crescendo - too much will kill the goose."
Actually I can talk from first hand of being able to watch 3pm kick-offs!!!!
The bar I used to go into when I lived in The Netherlands was able to show up to 5 EPL games on a Saturday afternoon - they also showed Soccer Saturday - and even 1 Championship match. The customers are there for whatever game they want to watch and to be fair most football fans have a 2nd and 3rd team which the follow through the scores - hence the interest with Soccer Saturday. The bar is jam packed full more or less every Saturday of football fans either wanting to watch their match or to follow their scores, via Soccer Saturday - it is the bar's busiest and most profitable day.
If anything I agree with a poster further up, in that I agree that sometime in the future, and to maximise financial income, I can see Premier League not being played at 3pm on a Saturday - in fact that has happened a couple of times over the last couple of years. The knock-on effect of that iss that lower-league and non-league games also gain a larger attendance. They literally could have 2 games on a Monday evening, 2 games on a Friday (both Monday and Friday KO's being 1830 and 2030 KO's) evening 1 on a Saturday lunchtime, 1 on a Saturday evening and 4 games on a Sunday (with 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm KO's). It works well with other Leagues that show ALL their games - such as Eredivisie, the Bundesliga and Serie A.
This could actually work well with the various pacakages such as:-
Package 1: Monday 630pm and Friday 830pm games
Package 2: Friday 630pm and Monday 830pm games
Package 3: Saturday Lunchtime and Sunday 5pm games
Package 4: Saturday Evening and Sunday 11am games
Package 5: Super Sunday - 1pm and 3pm games
This
could
actually bring other broadcasters into the fray of showing live games such as FTA channels like ITV or Channel 5.
