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Premier League Are Under Pressure To Cancel Pay-Per-View Football During Second England Lockdown

Premier League Are Under Pressure To Cancel Pay-Per-View Football During Second England Lockdown

The Premier League's controversial pay-per-view scheme could be coming to an end.

Daniel Marland

Daniel Marland

The Premier League are under pressure to scrap the controversial pay-per-view scheme ahead of England's second lockdown.

Sky Sports and BT Sport started charging £14.95 for games not included in television packages earlier this month and it has proven to be controversial.

With England set to enter a second lockdown on Thursday, The Sun have claimed Premier League bosses are being urged to remove the extra paywall and a meeting will take place later this week.

Clubs will have to decide on keeping the £14.95 price point, lowering it or getting rid of it all together.

Image
PA

Upon the Premier League's return in June following the first lockdown, Project Restart allowed every game to be shown on TV - with some even being free-to-air on BBC.

Five more games are set to be on pay-per-view next weekend.

Last week saw reports of buy rates for the first nine pay-per-view games emerge and the numbers were underwhelming.

Sportsmail claim the average number of buys per game sat at around 39,000, not counting Brighton's 1-1 draw with West Brom in the last matchweek.

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PA

It means the numbers are a fraction better than the Premier League's goal of sales to match average stadium attendance.

The average attendance for a Premier League game in 2018/2019 was 38,168.

But no game managed to break the five-figure sum with the two highest games earning between 70,000 and 90,000 watchers.

Three games even had less than 10,000 viewers and it proves fans weren't lying when claiming they'd boycott pay-per-view.

Fans of all 20 teams have managed to get #BoycottPPV trending while their team has played, with some donating the £14.95 cost to food banks and charities.

Chelsea's clash with Burnley was chosen for pay-per-view last weekend. (Image
PA)

It's believed that Sky Sports and BT Sport are not happy about airing on pay-per-view and would be welcome to a change.

"Sky is not happy to be involved in showing the pay-per-view games," a Sky source told The Mirror.

"We never thought it was a good idea and nothing's changed since it started.

"It is damaging the reputation of Sky Sports to be linked to this scheme - and that feeling is shared at BT. Everyone here would prefer for it to stop."

Staggeringly, following on from the addition of 170 pay-per-view games, it's been revealed it'll cost £3399 to watch every game live this season.

Featured Image Credit: PA Images

Topics: Football News, Football, Premier League, Sky Sports, BT Sport