Actually it's not, for Sky or anyone else. Maybe it's a bit different in other parts of the world, but it's not true in my experience. While many events are billed as being notionally pay-per-view, most of the people who do watch them have just paid a flat subscription fee for the channel in question. Pay-per-view has not taken off nearly as much as broadcasters have hoped.Pappa wrote:That's not significantly different to Sky holding all the cards. Pay per View is the norm for sport. I'd be surprised if it became the norm for documentaries or general entertainment.klr wrote:There are many points. Some people have reacted along the lines of " ... well, I don't care, as I only want to watch ... etc.". But what if the programs that you watch were being distributed in this way, and could otherwise not be seen, not even in re-runs?
As for documentaries being pay-per-view: Very few documentaries at all make money, not even in the short term, and that's where the media industry likes to make it's money (like most other industries). You don't see a profit-driven company like Sky making too many documentaries ... not serious ones anyway.
Remember that for each and every away game that England (or anyone) plays, the prospective broadcasters here have to sit down and negotiate with whoever has bought the broadcasting rights from the 'home' FA. Inevitably, there will be people who try to push a very hard bargain, sometimes to the point of stupidity.Xamonas Chegwé wrote:The circumstances are a little unique here.
Firstly, the rights to the game were sold to Setanta and so would have got a TV airing.
Secondly, Setanta went bust and was sold off piecemeal, the rights to this match ending up in the hands of a company with no UK TV station that hoped to cash in on it by selling the rights to somebody that did have one.
Thirdly, England went and qualified far earlier than even the most optimistic fan would have dreamt, making the result of this game academic and reducing its appeal to the point where the price asked by the rights-owner was not met by anyone with the capability to broadcast it on TV. Hence the company is attempting to profit from its acquisition in the only way it can - by a PPV internet screening.
This is NOT likely to be a regular occurrence, except for any other ex-Setanta games that this company might have.
A number of years ago, the second leg of a play-off between Ireland and Turkey - in Turkey - was one such case in point. You can't get a much more important game in terms of qualifiers (can't remember if it was the World Cup or the Euros). The company that held the broadcasting rights for the game in Turkey looked for a king's ransom, and the Irish broadcasters wouldn't budge. The company even cut it's asking price dramatically at the last minute, but it was too late. Anyway, people had figured out how to reconfigure their satellite dishes, and showed the pictures along with the commentary from Irish radio. The company ended up losing a huge source of potential revenue through just being too greedy.
Around the same time, the FAI* sold it's soul to Sky in terms of rights to the home qualifiers. That went down like a lead balloon. Anyway, in Ireland the state funds a lot of soccer, especially at youth and developmental level. He who pays the piper calls the tune, and after that the Irish government listed all Irish qualifying matches, home and away, which it is entitled to do under EU legislation. That means the games have to be made available to a terrestrial broadcaster here. It didn't even matter if the other country is not in the EU.
*FAI = Republic of Ireland; IFA = Northern Ireland ...
