The Premier League has agreed to review the cost of viewing its pay-per-view matches after a disapointing take up.
The matches were introduced as a result of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, which has forced all professional sport to be played behind closed doors. However, whereas last season additional matches were offered to the EPL’s existing broadcasters to screen free-to-air, this season the games are being offered on a PPV basis by Sky and BT at £14.95 per match.
Yesterday, the 20 Premier League clubs decided to maintain the current price for the next two rounds with a review after the next international break on November 5.
The liklihood is that clubs will reduce the fee to £9.95, in line with the amount charged by the lower EFL clubs as part of their iFollow service.
The Times reported Wednesday that the first nine PPV matches has brought in an average 39,000 subscriptions totalling £5,247 million. No match has brought in more than 100,000 and some matches fewer than 10,000 subscriptions.
One of the issues is that the majority of matches feature clubs outside of the big six that would have already been picked by BT and Sky to feature as part of their contracted coverage.