Does the pay-TV model make economic sense?

Sourced from The Football Supporters Federation Website

In the latest of a series of regular blogs from partners The Blizzard - The Football Quarterly, Tsjalle van der Burg asks whether the pay-TV model actually makes economic sense in Issue 18...

In the Netherlands, we have a pay-TV ban for nearly all important matches featuring Dutch football teams. For instance, all Champions League matches played by Dutch clubs must be free-to-view. The only exceptions are live games in our domestic league, which are on subscription TV. But government regulation ensures that the extended highlights of these games are broadcast for free at convenient times. For the popular Sunday matches, this means around seven o’clock in the evening. Yes, indeed, when all children can watch football, the youth departments of football clubs flourish and you get a better national team.

Most other countries give more room to pay TV. The UK and Spain are in the leading group, but the Italians may be on top. They never transmit more than four minutes of Serie A highlights per day on free-to-air TV, so that many fans feel compelled to pay heavily for watching extended highlights or live matches on pay TV. But why should people pay hundreds of euros a year to watch the people’s game? It seems a bit strange to me. I prefer my country, the Netherlands.

- See more at: http://www.fsf.org.uk/blog/view/blizzard-does-the-pay-tv-model-make-economic-sense#sthash.5FJrEBBm.dpuf

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