In 1992 two companies formed a mutually beneficial partnership that has continued to thrive through bust times as well as boom. Sky TV and the FA Premier League have both grown from fiercely ambitious but largely untested organisations to become world leaders in their respective sectors, in a little under two decades.
Before the two joined forces to present live Premiership football, UK viewers only had access to weekly Football League highlight shows such as Match of the Day. Indeed, the FA Cup Final at Wembley was the only annually televised live game. How times have changed! Now, live Premiership football is shown almost daily throughout the football season as well as live league games and highlights from Italy, Spain and many other countries throughout the world.
The FA Premier League is the richest in the world in terms of generating revenues. The majority of which comes from TV deals. In the domestic TV market alone the amount paid to broadcast live football on Sky TV has risen from £633,000 per game between 1992 and 1997 to a staggering £4.2million for each match during the 2009/10 season. In addition to Sky's UK TV deal a global package to broadcast games to 208 countries has contributed another £625m over the last three years to the collective Premier League income pot, making the league the richest in the world.
Sky currently has more than 9.5 million customers that collectively pay in the region of £2.5billion annually in subscription fees. Of those, more than five million are sports subscribers getting access to many more sports than just the Premier League, such as rugby, golf and Ashes cricket. It is undoubtedly Europe's finest domestic football league that is the flagship vehicle for Sky, and has provided the impetus for its success.
Featuring the world's best paid and most talented players, the Premier League is now in the throes of its 18th successful season following a breakaway from the Football League in 1992, and it is undoubtedly the world leader when it comes to domestic football leagues. It is the synergy created between broadcaster and league that has contributed to their joint success.
Using a football TV presentation format that has since been widely copied, the satellite company was the first in the UK to offer high definition sports viewing. Now the league and Sky are about to commence testing on 3D football viewing, surely the ultimate in sports viewing and yet another innovation that could further strengthen the relationship between league and broadcaster.
by Adam Slingeton
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