Premier League football "suffered the biggest drop in viewing on Sky TV for at least seven years," raising questions over "the popularity of live sports as well as the sustainability of a lucrative source of funding for English clubs," according to Bond, Fildes & Ahmed of the FINANCIAL TIMES. Average viewing on Sky's live TV channels fell 14% over the past season "even after it paid two-thirds more to show the matches" under the latest three-year deal with the Premier League at about £10M ($12.7M) per game. Total viewing hours also fell 6% over the course of the season for Sky, which spent a total of £4.2B ($5.3B) to show 126 Premier League games every year, according to figures from Sky and BT based on the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. BT, which paid £960M ($1.2B) for its share of the rights to show 42 games per season, recorded a "more modest fall" of 2% in average viewing across a season in which Chelsea regained the Premier League title. Any "evidence of a sustained fall could deal a critical blow to TV networks and sport groups that have become reliant on live sport" to drive revenues for their businesses. Despite the fall in viewing, Sky said that it was "encouraged that the total number of people watching Premier League coverage last season was at its highest for three years" -- based on people watching Premier League coverage across all its platforms for a minimum of 15 minutes. Sky added that the "dip in the average numbers" -- the worst since the BARB established its current audience measurement methods in '10 -- was "partly explained by the new rights deal that gave it 10 additional matches featuring smaller, less popular teams" (FT, 6/11). THE DRUM's Tony Connelly reported several factors out of broadcasters' control "will have impacted on the viewing figures," including Leicester City’s "enthralling triumph" in '15-16, the Rio Olympics and an "absence of bigger teams like Newcastle and Aston Villa." Still, "the underwhelming figures point to signs of a wider trend in how audiences are consuming live sport," with younger audiences increasingly favoring highlights on Snapchat over viewing a full game on TV. Other research "has suggested that the decline in viewing figures for live sport goes beyond just a shift in viewing habits" and is the result of "cheaper online streaming services" like Netflix and Amazon Prime courting audiences' attention (THE DRUM, 6/12).
