The way we consume Premier League football is changing.
A new channel has emerged: TNT Sports replaced BT Sport and has taken over their existing broadcast agreements to show the Premier League and UEFA club competitions.
Sky Sports no longer film Soccer AM on Saturday mornings, while their Soccer Saturday show — which provides live action from around the grounds without actually showing any Premier League footage from 3pm kick-offs — has lost its host Jeff Stelling. He stepped down in May having spent 25 years in the role, and has been replaced by Simon Thomas.
In another scheduling switch, TNT Sports will stop production of the popular BT Sport Score show, which launched in 2016 and gave live updates of games on Saturday afternoons.
These changes come in the year that the rights to broadcast the Premier League in the United Kingdom will be put out to tender.
It will be the first time since a £5.1billion (now $4.1bn) deal was announced before the 2019-20 season that a bidding process will take place as the Covid-19 pandemic led to the previous agreement — signed ahead of the 2022-23 campaign — being rolled over until the end of the 2024-25 season.
Read more: How Premier League TV rights work and how they impact your costs and subscriptions
To enable this to happen without a tender period, the UK government needed to insert an Exclusion Order under the Competition Act 1998.
But competitive tension around the rights should return and the expectation is that the Premier League will increase the number of matches it permits to be broadcast live (currently 200), and potentially look at longer-term details than the three-year contracts on offer. The next moves of streaming services like Amazon Prime — which has 20 live matches a season at the moment, split over two match days — will be another area to watch as more and more fans consume football on phones, tablets and laptops as opposed to only watching on TV.
“Whichever way you look at it, you cannot ignore the fact that the Premier League is the crown jewel in the UK of sports broadcasting,” says Paolo Pescatore, a London-based media and technology analyst at PP Foresight.
“There is no coincidence that all the changes we are now seeing are happening in the last year of the current rights portfolio ahead of what could potentially be further changes once the new rights deal takes into effect.”
In September, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) paid more than £600million to BT Sport to set up the new joint venture.
TNT Sports recently announced its new talent line-up, which includes former talkSPORT breakfast radio host Laura Woods and ex-Rangers and Scotland striker Ally McCoist.
“Fans and the casual viewer will have to get used to new faces across the board and it does take time for those new faces to connect with the viewers,” says Pescatore.
“Everything is going to change for the consumer and sports fan. You are forcing them to cancel an app, download a new one and go through an authentication process. Change can lead to disruption.
“This will naturally be an opportunity for some subscribers to cancel their subscription and not come back.”
Although it has changed part of its line-up, with Jake Humphrey stepping down at 10 years as BT Sport’s lead football presenter, TNT Sports has retained the services of many of its pundits, including Rio Ferdinand.
The former Manchester United and England defender believes an ex-player’s voice carries particular weight.
“Our voices are louder and they penetrate more in the dressing room and in different areas of the media,” says Ferdinand. “We are not shouting louder, but our voices travel further.”
CBS’ Champions League show, hosted by Kate Abdo and featuring Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards, has proven popular on social media and clips of the pundits debating something often get shared widely.
“I just do what I do and be me,” Ferdinand adds. “I don’t conform to anything. A lot depends on what the channel’s requirements are. Do they want to go viral for something funny? Do they want to go viral for deeper analytics?
“I don’t think anyone goes into it thinking they need to have a viral moment. More often than not, the live game dictates what happens and it is our job to react to that. Viral stuff is nice, especially if it’s around a game, but sometimes something obscure happens and you wonder how it went viral.”
As part of TNT Sports’ Champions League offering, viewers will be able to watch a new highlights show via the Discovery Plus app.
“You cannot ignore the fact that everyone has been trying to jump on the bandwagon that Netflix has set in stone,” Pescatore adds when asked if this is a further sign of a push towards streaming.
“Though Discovery Plus has a broad portfolio of entertainment, sport was its Achilles heel and by having BT Sport wrapped into TNT Sports, there is a clear area differentiation for Discovery Plus compared to other streaming platforms in the UK.
“The direction of travel is very clear and apparent that we are going towards a streaming-led future.”
Despite the changes going into the new season, one issue remains.
It is not cheap for a supporter to have access to all of the live Premier League games broadcast in the UK.
As it stands, Sky Sports show 128 matches per season, TNT Sports will have 52 fixtures and Amazon Prime have the rights to 20. The BBC — partly funded by the licence fee, which costs £159 a year — has a deal that means they can broadcast highlights on Match of the Day.
Access to TNT Sports costs £29.99 a month and, at least in the short term, there are no plans to raise that price. Sky Sports currently offer a rolling one-month contract for £27, although you can sign up for 18 months and pay £20 each month, but this is on top of a standard £26 monthly fee for satellite TV, taking the overall cost to £46 per month.
Amazon Prime membership costs £8.99 a month.
It should be noted that all three of those services include more than just Premier League football.
A Sky Sports package gives consumers access to the English Football League, Formula One, golf and cricket, as well as some NFL and NBA fixtures.
TNT Sports has the Champions League and Europa League, as well as MotoGP, Premiership Rugby, boxing and WWE. Eurosport, which is part of the same company, has rights to the Olympics so they will be broadcasting the Paris Games next summer.
“This comes at a time when the cost of living crisis is still having a profound effect. People are considering their needs when it comes to media and subscription services, in particular to sport,” says Pescatore.
“Ultimately, there is huge concern when you look at sports and the fragmented nature of sports and the destinations fans have to go to sign up. It is driving a wedge even further between what people are willing to pay and how they are getting those services.
“Will this further force people to cancel their subscriptions and pursue alternative, illegal forms of viewing?”
The Premier League trusts its data that shows consumption of illicit streams in the UK is in steady decline owing to comprehensive anti-piracy programmes but cannot afford to become complacent.
The way we watch football is changing, after all.
(Top photos: Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images; Stu Forster/Getty Images; TNT Sports; design: Eamonn Dalton)
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