EPL scraps pay per view

With the UK in lockdown until at least the beginning of December, the English Premier League has scrapped its controversial pay per view model until at least the new year.

The announcement confirms a previous report which claimed that the league would remove the £14.95 fee to watch matches that had not been selected for broadcast in November and December.

The EPL has now reverted back to the model which was first introduced upon the league’s restart in June, with most games being shown on Sky Sports and BT Sport, and additional matches given to Amazon and the BBC.

This will kick in from the coming weekend, with the BBC being handed the broadcast rights to Fulham’s clash with Everton at midday on Sunday, November 22. Amazon meanwhile will play host to Newcastle’s visit to Crystal Palace at 8pm on Friday, November 27.

In a statement, the league said: “There is a full schedule of Premier League matches over the festive period and clubs are committed to an accessible solution for fans. These plans have been made with the cooperation of our broadcast partners, working with us to deliver these additional matches while stadiums are missing the supporters who are such an integral part of the game.”

This may not be the end of the EPL’s flirtation with PPV though, with the statement adding that there will be a review in the new year. The league also noted that it is committed to the return of fans to matches “as soon as possible.”

The move towards PPV was widely criticised, and a number of reports suggested that the buying figures failed to meet expectations.

To learn more about the English Premier League’s PPV experiment and other recent developments surrounding the competition’s broadcasting rights, listen to the latest episode of DTVE’s podcast TV Watch.