Football Preview: Sky making it a rich man's game
Like sir Alex Ferguson moaning at the ref and sports journalists bemoaning the scarcity of English talent, licensees' anger at Sky's prices come the start of the football season is inevitable.
Once again, as the pub trade gears up for the big kick-off, the issue approaches us like an ugly two-footed tackle.
Sky remains the only way for licensees to really exploit football, but the price it is able to charge is a constant source of controversy. Sky's response is an announcement earlier this month of a freeze in prices (see box, below). Is it too little, too late?
There are signs that licensees have had enough. Last month, The Publican uncovered a Punch survey that revealed the pubco's licensees have been abandoning Sky to the extent that two-thirds no longer have the service.
Sky says this does not reflect the pub market as a whole, but the onus is still on the company to prove that paying up is worth it. In its defence, the broadcaster points to a number of benefits for subscribers:
• Sky Pub Alert: A free text service available to Sky Business licensed commercial subscribers in the UK which helps you keep up to date with key sporting events and any schedule changes via text message.
• Preview: A free monthly magazine which includes full sport listings and useful trade features. Use it to plan ahead for the big events and get new ideas of how sport can best work for your bar.
• Free downloadable posters: "Sky delivers the best quality entertainment so your customers stay longer and spend more," says a Sky spokeswoman "but like every other offering, it needs marketing and promotion."
The last point, at least, will ring true with any licensee, and the following pages are packed full of ideas on how to market your football coverage. n
The close season Developments since the end of the last football season
June 12, 2008: The Publican uncovers survey of more than 4,000 Punch Taverns licensees, that reveals more and more of them have been have been abandoning Sky TV. Poll shows that between 2003 and 2007 the number of licensees with a Sky subscription halved from from 67 per cent to 34 per cent of the estate. A spokeswoman for Sky says figures bear "no relation" to what it is seeing across the marketplace.
June 26, 2008: The judges presiding over Portsmouth licensee Karen Murphy's landmark High Court foreign satellite appeal refer the case to Europe. The case concerns screening of foreign satellite football. The civil action is an attempt to stop UK pubs broadcasting live Premier League games using foreign satellite TV equipment once and for all.
July 10, 2008: Sky announces a price freeze on its sports packages. Letters were sent to publicans across the country detailing Sky's services for next season - Sky Base and Sky Ultimate. Pubs that take on the Base package - which includes Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3 - will pay the same price as last year.
