Get football back on free TV!

by John Fitzsimons on 22 June 2009  |  1 comment
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With Setanta on the brink of going bust, now is the time to get football back on terrestrial television.

Let's face it, Setanta is on life support.

The broadcaster took a massive gamble when it bid for a portion of the live Premier League rights a couple of years ago, and it's a gamble that has quite spectacularly backfired.

While the channel has built up a decent array of sports to cover, including the Indian Premier League in cricket and some top level boxing, top division football was supposed to be the money spinner, the deal that launched it into properly rivalling Sky Sports.

It didn't.

And so with Setanta disappearing down the plughole, the Premier League now stands at a crossroads.

The Irish broadcaster had been due to screen 46 Premier League games next year. Bids will now come in from a range of channels for the two packages of 23 games, but in my view, at least one MUST go to a terrestrial broadcaster.

For the national sport to not be available on terrestrial television is a disgrace.

It's one thing for the BBC to have Match of the Day, but that's only a highlights show. At least some of games should be available to everyone, in their entirety.

Sky TV has changed the face of football in this country. Some of it has been good, some of it bad. But the fact is you should not HAVE to have a Sky subscription in order to see a Premier League football match on the television.

There is a charter of protected sporting events which are required, by law, to be broadcast on free-to-air television. They include the Grand National, Wimbledon, the Olympic Games and the FA Cup Final.

In my opinion, a portion of Premier League games should be on that charter (as should Test cricket, but that's for another day). I don't care whether it ends up on the Beeb, ITV, Channel 4, or God-forbid, Channel 5.

Don't chase the money which will inevitably come from satellite channels - put some football on terrestrial telly!