The Premier League is currently more lucrative than ever: the last television deal exceeded an absurd £5 billion. Despite its commercial success, some serious challenges lie ahead. In spite of their almighty outlay, Sky Sports' viewing figures for English football are declining this season. It became relatively big news earlier in the season, as the Daily Mail splashed the decline in figures across their newspaper: figures had dropped by 19% over the first two months of the season.
Sky responded with relative calm, citing the "illegal streaming of matches, a hot summer, and the rival attraction of the Olympics" as reasons behind the decline, confident that the passing of the latter two would lead to an increase in ratings.
Second Captains' Ken Early, however, has pointed to a longer-term trend that is not too great for Sky:
first graph: UK TV ratings for premier league top 6 falling since 2012. second graph: 2012 was the year UK smartphone penetration passed 50% pic.twitter.com/5PvCic1eZ6
— Ken Early (@kenearlys) January 17, 2017
The proliferation of clips across the internet, along with the development of illegal streams mean that fewer and fewer people are tuning into the satellite broadcasters. The Premier League are definitely concerned by this, and today, they took steps to begin the shutting down of illegal streams, via a High Court order.
The @premierleague gains High Court order to be able to block servers that stream unauthorised broadcasts of games
— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) March 8, 2017
The Premier League says for the first time it can "disrupt and prevent the illegal streaming of our matches via IPTV, so-called Kodi, boxes"
— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) March 8, 2017
Some stream to avoid paying Sky/BT subscriptions.
Others to watch 3pm Sat games, which aren't live on UK TV to protect stadium attendances— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) March 8, 2017
A deeper exploration of the decline in viewing figures, and what they will ultimately lead to, can be read here.
