Premier League clubs vote to DITCH the controversial £14.95 pay-per-view scheme

Premier League will ABANDON their unpopular pay-per-view matches from after the international break until at least the end of 2020 – and now must thrash out a deal with broadcasters for how games will be shown

  • Premier League clubs met today to find a resolution to the PPV ‘PR disaster’
  • £14.95 charge for each game was seen as greedy by fans who have protested 
  • Clubs have yielded to the pressure and the PPV model will be ditched  
  • Fans boycotted matches and have raised more than £300,000 for local charities

The Premier League‘s controversial pay-per-view model will be ditched after this weekend’s matches, Sportsmail understands.

It is understood the league is most likely to revert to the model which was in place at the start of the current season, where all matches were screened by one of the competition’s broadcast partners.

Further discussions must still take place with broadcast partners before plans can be confirmed, and pay-per-view is therefore not completely off the table.

Selected Premier League matches have been available for £14.95 on a pay-per-view basis

The league’s 20 clubs, who held a virtual meeting today, have yielded to pressure from fan groups after a ferocious backlash to the scheme, which began on October 17.

It is understood any change would take effect from the round of matches on November 21, with a review of arrangements set to take place in mid-January. 

The PPV initiative was designed to give supporters, unable to attend staduiums because of the coronavirus pandemic, access to matches that had not been included in broadcast packages.

But the clubs, which orginally endorsed the scheme 19 votes to one, came to regard it as an embarrassment, with many fans having forked out for season tickets and TV subscriptions on top of the PPV charge.

Pressure has mounted on the Premier League to make matches affordable during lockdown

Pressure has mounted on the Premier League to make matches affordable during lockdown

One club source described the scheme as a ‘PR disaster’ before today’s meeting.

The £14.95 price was seen as greedy by fans, who have raised more than £300,000 pounds for local food banks by giving their money to charity, rather than pay for games via BT Sport or Sky Box Office.

The popular campaign has had high profile endorsement with former Manchester United and England right-back Gary Neville, now a Sky pundit, claming the system ‘just needs scrapping’.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Neville added: ‘It’s finished, no-one is paying for it, no-one is watching it, it’s done.’

Both BT Sport and Sky Sports have seen dwindling figures arriving to purchase the matches

Both BT Sport and Sky Sports have seen dwindling figures arriving to purchase the matches 

One option under consideration was to bring the cost of Premier League games in line with the EFL’s iFollow charge to watch games in the Championship, League One and League Two.

Among other options the Premier League was due to consider were prpoposals to slash the price to by half to £7.50, demand no extra charge for additional games to be provided free-to-air.

However, the model the Premier League clubs are understood to be edging towards would most closely resemble the arrangement which was in place when the 2020-21 season started in September.

All 28 matches in that month were shown live, with all broadcast partners – Sky Sports, BT Sport, the BBC and Amazon Prime – screening matches.

An average of 39,000 fans have watched each game, slightly above the scheme's target

An average of 39,000 fans have watched each game, slightly above the scheme’s target

Of the 11 games that had not been selected for regular broadcast, six were shown on Sky, three on BT and one each on the BBC and Amazon.

Nowhere were fans more outraged by the £14.95 charge than in Liverpool. Supporters raised more than £120,000 for North Liverpool food bank after their team’s 2-1 victory against Sheffield United

Leeds fans donated £57,000 instead of paying to watch their side win 3-0 at Aston Villa. The Leeds United Supporters’ Trust called the £14.95 charge ‘excessive’ with fans already having subscriptions to sport channels and many still paying for a season ticket.

Leave a Comment