MANCHESTER: According to WherestheMatch.com, the Live Football on TV companion that shows which team are playing, when and on which TV channel or live stream, Liverpool FC appeared on UK TV screens 29 times across Sky Sports and BT Sport during the domestic league season, which amounted to £33.5 million in TV income – this was 3 more games than eventual champions Manchester City who were only the third most-televised team with 26 and £30.1 million.
There is no argument that The Reds played some of the most free-flowing, attacking football last year and it seems that broadcasters were keen to show this off with 76% of their Premier League matches being shown live on TV.
Despite Manchester United’s lacklustre 6th place finish with no realistic chance of securing a Champions League spot early on in the season, they were the 2nd most-televised team with 27 of their matches broadcast live, ahead of Spurs (26), Chelsea and Arsenal who were both shown 25 times.
Outside of the top 6 teams, Newcastle were the most televised, despite only finishing 13th last season with 19 (half of their matches) being broadcast live. However, fans who follow Wolves, Watford and Bournemouth may feel aggrieved as their teams only managed to get in front of the cameras 15, 10 and 8 times respectively despite their actual league position being much higher, subsequently taking less TV income.
Despite being relegated, Fulham managed to get on the TV 13 times, which was more nearly half the teams in the Premier League last season. It seems the writing was on the wall for Huddersfield Town who were never given fair coverage on TV, with just 8 matches being shown throughout the year and the minimum share of £12.3 million in TV income.
With a record 200 Premier League games being broadcast live on TV in the UK for the 2019/20 season, and the introduction of Amazon Prime who will live stream 20 matches in December splitting up the duopoly between Sky and BT, it will no doubt result in more exposure for the teams at the top of the ladder.
“With Sky Sports and BT Sport investing so much money into live Football TV rights, each match costing them around £9.3m to broadcast over the next 3 years, they can’t be blamed for wanting to show the biggest teams that give them the opportunity of getting a return on their investment. The teams at the bottom will continue to play for scraps in terms of income, although the stats do suggest that being near the wrong end of the table will get them on TV at the end of the season,” Wes Lewis, director of Wheresthematch.com, noted.
