©Luis Grañena
It’s legitimate to worry about stadium-goers being priced out. But it’s just as legitimate to worry about hundreds of millions of TV fans being priced out. That is now happening, as televised football shifts from a mass-market to an upmarket product. Even before the new TV deal, a third of British TV subscribers surveyed by Oxera Consulting for Virgin Media said they struggled to pay their subscription. Now Sky is raising prices: its “sports” bundle for British viewers costs £47 a month. Next, subscription prices will rise in other countries. Many poorer people will have to stop watching.
