The Premier League are reportedly considering showing games for free when the season resumes.
BT Sport and Sky Sports currently pay big money for the majority of rights to show matches England's top tier but the Premier League may well have to adopt an alternative approach upon its return.
And according to culture secretary Oliver Dowden, the Premier League are exploring the possibility of broadcasting the rest of the fixtures on free-to-air television.
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Speaking at a meeting of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport committee on Monday, Dowden said: "It's a very good point and I've raised exactly this challenge to the Premier League in the conversations I had with them.
"I have said to the Premier League in particular... I think 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.
"I appreciate that sports are reliant on the revenue they derive [from subscriptions] so I don't want to issue some blanket mandate on trying to change things round.
"But they are mindful and there are different ways you can protect revenue from broadcasting but also look at ways of increasing access.
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"I have urged them to do that and that's what they are considering."
At present, fans need subscriptions to both BT Sports and Sky Sports to watch the action, while Amazon also screened 20 games on their Prime service in December.
Meanwhile, the BBC show highlights of all the games on Match of the Day and Match of the Day 2 on Sundays.
The whole Premier League experience won't be the same without raucous and passionate supporters in the stands but having a feast of football at no extra cost would go long a way towards softening the blow.
Along with several other leading leagues in Europe, the Premier League has been suspended indefinitely due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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Premier League clubs took part in a meeting on Friday, with many still determined to finish the campaign.
The clubs, who were represented on a video call, were shown a number of different plans for how the season could restart and how each teams remaining nine/ten games be played across June, July and August.
Sky Sports reports that the earliest date the English season could restart is at the start of June, the Premier League won't push ahead with the plans until the government 'declares it is safe to do so.'
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