Bidding for the next English Premier League rights for 2016-2019 will soon commence.  The Premiership is the biggest football brand in the world, watched by a global audience. Whenever I am in Nigeria, I am guaranteed to watch a feast of football.  The early game is shown live and so is the early evening kick off.  At least three or four of the 3pm GMT games are also shown simultaneously on Super Sports who hold the EPL rights in Africa.

In America it is even better.  ALL games are shown live on free to air channels by NBC.  In the United Kingdom the maximum amount of games you can watch on a Saturday are two.  The 3pm games cannot be shown on Saturday in the UK due to some archaic legislation, which needs a review.

What is baffling is why sports viewers in the UK pay so much by way of subscription to Sky Sports for so little.  Did someone not say that charity begins at home?  The new TV deal could possibly include live games on Friday night in the UK for the first time. However my gut feeling tells me that viewers may have to stump up more money when the subscription fee is increased yet again.  Including the Friday night live games on TV in the UK will still not increase the number of games seen in the UK compared to all 380 games shown live in America.

Why has no one spoken up about this?  Why have the Members of Parliament not looked into this?  The Premier League continues to get richer but fans in the UK are poorer as they have to pay more for less.  Maybe if the games were shown live on a free to air channel it would not be a concern. No matter how many illegal websites are shut down by cable and satellite provider (Sky) there will always be one where fans can watch games for nothing in the UK. So why not just make these games available for all as part of their subscription?

It might not be a bad idea to make some games available to a free to air channel as well.

Did I not hear somewhere that the customer is always right? Clearly not where live football is concerned. Money talks and we know what walks.