KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum could the premier league TV deal bubble burst ?

Go onto any council estate in the uk where most are on benefits and every house will have a sky dish these estates have food banks

But the demand will never be priced in the same way as this will depend on what the buyers can pay, that's also obvious. This is why there are fake shirts that have buyers in China, they cannot afford to buy the genuine ones even if they have a similar wish.

What if they didn't have food banks, I am sure they would have used the money to buy food before paying Sky. You should read Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Crack heads are the same Vish.

Did you understand his point? Seriously.

But that's demand vish. I want a royals Royce and a mansion but I can't afford one therefore there is no demand, If the poorer countries had more money who knows what they would spent it on. I suggest they would develop their own sports just like India is doing you can't have a national sport that is played in another nation which you watch on television that's crazy. The other thing that will happen is more and more sports will be televised which will reduce the demand for premiership football as it will have to compete with more sports whereas in the early days it had the field to itself

Virgin Media has called on the media regulator Ofcom to investigate the spiralling cost of Premier League football rights, warning of “significant consumer harm” if the escalation continues unchecked.

The cable TV group, owned by US media mogul John Malone’s Liberty Global, said fans were being asked to pay over the odds to watch live football and claimed changes to increase competition following a 10-year-old European Commission investigation had failed to work.

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It said a 60% increase was predicted on the £3bn deal struck with BSkyB and BT two years ago, with armchair football fans in the UK already having to pay three times more than for other top leagues in Europe.

Ofcom said it was considering the request for an investigation, with a response likely within the next two months before the next Premier League rights sale in 2015.

Virgin Media, which has found itself squeezed in the fierce competition between BSkyB and BT, has already said it would not bid in the next Premier League rights auction but could benefit from cheaper wholesale prices if the rising cost of rights was checked.

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A spokeswoman for Virgin Media said: “The rapidly rising cost of Premier League live broadcast rights means UK fans pay the highest prices in Europe to watch football on TV.

“Virgin Media has asked Ofcom to investigate how the rights are sold ahead of the next auction.”

The company said “targeted changes” in the way live rights were sold could bring an end to the escalating cost of live Premier League rights.

It pointed to leagues including Germany, Spain and Italy, where 100% of the top tier’s games were made available for live broadcast, many of them on a non-exclusive basis.

In the UK, under the last rights deal, only 41% of Premier League games were up for grabs, although the league has an agreement, supported by the government, that it does not broadcast games at the traditional (but now less common) Saturday afternoon kick-off time of 3pm to protect attendances.

Such a change would be little short of a revolution for the Premier League, which last sold its rights in seven different packages of either 12 or 26 matches with no single broadcaster permitted to own all seven.

In the last three-year deal running from the 2013-14 season, Sky bought 116 matches and BT 38, generating record income of £3bn, up 71% on the previous deal.

The next Premier League tender is expected to go out in the new year with the next set of three-year deals announced before the end of the season.

The Premier League has not yet put out an invitation for tender for the next set of rights, so it remains to be seen how many games will be made available and how they will be divided up. However, the likelihood is that it will mirror the current arrangements

The last deal in 2012 was the first to fall outside of the agreement drawn up following the Brussels intervention but retained one of the key points of the European ruling, with no single broadcaster allowed to buy all of the rights.

Virgin Media, which called on Ofcom to open up a formal investigation under the 1998 Competition Act, said a review was required with the next auction imminent and analysts predicting a further 60% hike.

European Union rules allow Premier League clubs’ collective negotiation of broadcasting rights on the grounds it encourages competition and increases the number of games available.

But Virgin Media told Ofcom that UK viewers were still unable to watch the majority of matches live on TV. It said the rivalry between BT and Sky had not forced down prices because they were not seen as alternatives, with the lion’s share of games still on Sky and not available elsewhere.

The lowest retail price to watch all the available matches on UK television was £51, according to Virgin Media, compared with £25 in Italy, £21 in Germany and £18 in Spain.

The company filed its complaint with Ofcom two weeks ago and a decision is expected in late October or early November

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “Ofcom can confirm that Virgin Media has submitted a competition complaint about the Premier League. We are considering the complaint, before deciding whether any further action is required.”

In a statement, a Premier League spokesman said: “Live Premier League audio-visual rights have always been sold in a transparent and open process.

“Regulators have examined our rights packaging and sales process in considerable detail in the past and found both of them to be compliant with UK and European competition law.

“If Ofcom chooses to investigate this complaint, we will of course be happy to demonstrate to Ofcom that this is the case.”

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”.

I don't know of that artical has been posted already and I'm sorry if it has, I only posted it because we're talking about the bubble bursting but Virgin expect the next TV deal to go up by another 60% in the next auction.

It seems the media believe that we're nowhere near the peak of TV revenues.

We'll there you go box monkeys post says it all. I think prices will fall in the uk very quick none of the big companies are making money as the take up as not as high ss they thought. When it does it will

Either increase overseas - unlikely

Or fall overseas as well - I think likely

When the television money falls sponsorship will too so much for not needing a stadium

I'll tell you only one thing and I will be done with you, judt as the LFC future plan. You live very far from what is happening and globalisation is just too fast for. You stay in your ignorance and believe in what you want, you have no idea of how the popularity of the EPL is growing. Just ask yourself one question, why the hell do all those top premiership teams have their pre-season so far from home every summer. I give up.