EPL games in England not selected for broadcast in October "will be available to fans on a pay-per-view basis." The five or so fixtures per round "not already picked to be shown live, will be available on BT Sport Box Office or Sky Sports Box Office," priced at £14.95 ($19.43). EPL clubs have "agreed this 'interim solution' to allow fans to continue watching their team live." The EPL said it and its clubs "remain committed to the safe return of fans as soon as possible" (BBC, 10/9). Sky Sports' Gary Neville tweeted, "This is a really bad move by the Premier League to charge £14.95 for single matches that have been shown free for 6 months!" (TWITTER.com, 10/9).
The move "will end the giveaway of additional matches to Sky, BT, Amazon and the BBC," which had taken place since the EPL resumed in June following the coronavirus lockdown. The monetizing of games not already televised "would allow clubs to claw back some of the millions of pounds in match-day revenue lost every week during the pandemic." There had been talk of EPL clubs "streaming matches themselves via their websites," but that was "ruled unviable" by the league (London TELEGRAPH, 10/9). The EPL last aired some games on PPV domestically from '01 to '07. This season, 160 of the league's 380 matches are not contracted to be televised domestically (AP, 10/9).
