This weekend, England play Ukraine, and for the the first time, the match will be shown exclusively live over the internet on a pay-per-view basis.
According to the BBC, the collapse of pay TV service Setanta means that digital firm Perform has agreed a deal with Kentaro to buy the rights and stream the match via the internet for a minimum free of £4.99.
International football agency Kentaro had sold the broadcast rights of the fixture to Setanta, and after the collapse failed to agree rights offers with any of the more traditional broadcasters such as BBC, ITV and Five.
Peter Silverstone, managing director of Kentaro, told the BBC that a maximum of one million subscribers would be taken for the match. This is the “safe number to stop at to ensure the optimal broadcast”, he said.
According to Paid Content, if you don’t fancy paying, anyone who signs up for a Bet365 account with £10 credit can watch for free.
The whole situation with sports coverage is an outrage.
We the fans are left clamoring and groping around, trying to figure who the hell has what game on which channel and then are held to ransom and expected to pay to see our national sides (be they cricket, football, rugby etc) on TV.
Why does the government not step in? Because they’re on the take.
Couldn’t agree more man.
Finally a service you don’t have to pay £30 per month, to watch less than 5% of the broadcasting.
And while £4.99 is probably still too expensive for regular viewing (football league teams play 8-10 games a month making it about £50 p/m) it is a big step in the right direction for pay-per-view TV services.
Definitely an interesting model.
All National matches should be free to all.
Everybody is on the take. What about the fans ?
so frustrating!! money money money SICK OF IT
wow! thats so lame.. never heard of such thing as paying to see your national side play.
So far in Portugal you can see it for free.
Lets see for how long..
UK First: England Football Match to Stream Online Only http://bit.ly/teQnI by @Zee
This comment was originally posted on Twitter