"In difficult times people deserve access to sport; sport brings people together and has a cohesive effect on community." John Petter, Head of BT's Consumer division1

I was born in 1991. I was born into a country where sport, and particularly football, was recovering from its lowest ebb. The events of the previous two decades had left the sport with a tarnished reputation and for those who followed the game, it would never be the same again.

World Cup '90, and Gazza's tears followed, and with the actions of twenty football chairmen, the sport was changed forever.

 The sport has since permeated itself back into social consciousness, and in no small part due to the impact of broadcast sports rights. The emergence of the Premier League, alongside its partnership with BSkyB, gave viewers access to live sport on a regular basis, created a bed of wealth for top-flight clubs, and made the Premier League (arguably) the most exciting league in the world. For exclusive rights from 1992-1997, BSkyB paid £305m, manifesting itself in a turnaround from £47m losses in 1992, to a £62m profit the following year2. In 1994-1995 Sky screened 60 live games, yet this season Sky Sports and BT will bring 154 live games to viewers, as part of a three-year rights deal, from 2013 to 20163.

With stadia full up-and-down the country, access to more live sport has provided the perfect complement for sports fans. 764,000 tuned in to the season's opener, live on BT4, while Transfer Deadline Day saw an astonishing 6.9m unique users across Sky Sports products5.

However, with the sports viewing industry in another rate of flux, consumers are once again left wondering what the next innovations, and repercussions of the latest broadcasting rights packages will be.

With both BT and Sky taking hold of the Pay-TV football viewing market, they have increasingly competed on price, driving up revenues for the sports industry, and, for the moment at least, reducing prices for consumers. As the broadcasters tussle for consumer subscriptions, consumers have benefitted from cheaper access to content, in a bid to drive viewing figures and establish loyalty.

Meanwhile, the quality, and rate of innovation in the industry has been ground-breaking. Who remembers Player Cam? Or the introduction of the 'red button'? Now we have more ex-pro's as presenters, with flash gadgets, interactive recreations of live action, replays from hundreds of different angles, and through different devices, as we are treated to the best in sports broadcast entertainment.

However, consumers also face the worrying prospect that as broadcasters outbid each other for future deals, as BT did for the forthcoming UEFA Champions League and Europa League package from 2015/2016, we could witness a splitting of the market and rising prices.

While many question whether this bubble will burst, the Deloitte TMT Predictions argue that with average growth of 5% between 2009 and 2013, there will be no let-up. The Premier League enjoyed a 71% increase in the value of its domestic live rights from 2013/14, and with competition set to intensify, it poses the question, who will protect the prices to the consumer?

In 1992, Richard Keys, the then-Sky Sports Presenter, proclaimed that weekends would "never be the same again". My, oh my, how right he was. But what next?

Footnotes

1 Allen & Garside, 2013, BT defends big bet on Champions League as customers face price rises, The Guardian
2  Conn, 2012, How football has kept the Murdoch empire afloat, The Guardian
3  ITV, 2012, Premier League unveils television rights
4 Fletcher, 2013, BT Sport and Sky Sports ratings battle: Who was the winner? Digital Spy
5 IPTV News, UK sport events push Sky digital viewing to record levels
To read more about broadcast sports rights, check out the Deloitte TMT Predictions, here.

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