The big Uefa sellout

The transfer of top live football from terrestrial to pay television continued with Uefa’s decision to hand Sky all-but one live game per matchday.

The BBC recently lost the rights to the FA Cup and England matches to a combined ITV and Setanta bid, meaning fewer matches on terrestrial television, and they have now lost out to Sky in the Champions League bidding process despite suggesting they would go all out to win the rights.

One of the BBC or ITV are expected to pick up the contract to the one remaining live game per matchday – first-choice of a live Wednesday encounter – meaning during the group stages, Sky Sports will broadcast 15 of 16 games per matchday and three of the four quarter-finals although the final will be simulcast on Sky and the winner of the remaining rights.

And that winner will be decided by a second round of bidding, such was “the competitive nature of the bidding,” say Uefa. Their statement continued, “After the first round of bidding, BSkyB emerged as the clear winner for a number of rights packages including exclusive coverage of all live matches and highlights on a Tuesday and all games on a Wednesday with the exception of the first-choice fixture.

“BSkyB’s package also includes simultaneous coverage of the UEFA Champions League final and UEFA Super Cup, comprehensive highlights, delayed match coverage and magazine programmes.”

The organisation has received considerably more for the 2009-2012 rights, with Sky offering the most money, ahead of the BBC while ITV were not thought to be keen to pay over the odds on the back of falling advertising revenues and after attaining rights to the FA Cup and England games last year.

However, they remain in the running for the final package although they would be forced to move their live game slot from Tuesday to Wednesday. The BBC are not permitted to host the Champions League sponsors’ advertisements and so would be forced to pay more for the rights and Uefa may not be keen on such a scenario. Setanta are outsiders after concentrating their efforts elsewhere latterly.

It is another huge blow for terrestrial viewers. Those with Freeview could previously chose between two matches, one on ITV1 and the other on ITV4, meaning a choice between English sides in action but from 2009 those not wanting to fork out for Sky will no longer enjoy an alternative option.

Furthermore, the best games in the latter stages of the competition have been played on a Tuesday evening, including both Liverpool versus Chelsea second leg semi-final encounters in 2005 and 2007 and the Villarreal versus Arsenal second leg in 2006. Those will now belong to Sky as the total amount of live football on free-to-view television continues to decrease.

It is more bad news for the majority of football fans and Uefa’s decision is likely to prove an extremely unpopular one.

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