Tom Bloomfield

To what extent has Murdoch's Sky control of the Premier League ruined football for the common man? - With reference to Sky Sports
When Sky Sports was launched on 25th of March 1990, it revolutionised the way that sport was viewed in this country forever. The way that the channel has managed to secure a stranglehold on many major sporting events, especially footballs Premier League, has meant that it has become the prize jewel in British Sky Broadcastings crown. Exclusive coverage of these events have led to massive profits for the corporation, with 1 billion pre-tax profits being reported from June 2010 to June 2011, the biggest in the company's history. 1 The complete monopolization shown by the company's global institution, owned by Australian Rupert Murdoch, means that they have access to live coverage of games across the season and charge a considerable amount for the privilege, not just here but now it is becoming increasingly globally, with Sky now being in countries such as Italy, Germany and New Zealand.2 Therefore in the 20 years of the Premier League being active in this country, there has been a drastic change in the way it has been run in terms of access to the common man, and over the years there has been a major decline in the amount of power the common man has. A factor of the increasing rise in cost is increasing profits, with a 27% increase shown in 2011 compared to 2010.3 But whilst profits are rising, the cost of a subscription to Skys channels are rising with it, with just the Sky Sports channels in high definition costing the consumer a staggering 30.25 a month. 4 This goes to show that even watching Sports nowadays is becoming a preserve that only the rich can afford. This goes to show that in these days of a global recession, Sky are one of the few companies to buck the trend of trying to reduce costs; this is because people are staying at home more, and they are willing to spend more on their home comforts to enjoy their time at home more. When the first season of the Premier League began on 15th August 1992, after months of adverts and build up, it was seen as a gamble for Sky, as either it would be a major success and propel Sky into being a major force in UK television, or it would be a failure, and the days of Sky would be numbered. The advertising campaign featured a player from every single football club who was participating in the premier league, for example Paul Ince from Manchester United, and a montage of their accomplishments was set to a track by the hit band Simple Minds. The advert also showed a softer, more friendly side to these players, which was aimed to get the target audience to like them. The advert was aimed at what the target audience is now: Male adults from 18-40, with more of an emphasis on the older middle aged man as they were more likely to be able to afford Sky TV, as this demographic had more disposable income and are more likely to spend more money on their hobbies than other people. Socio-economic groups are relevant too, as over the years the group that Sky have targeted their products at has
1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/29/bskyb-reports-1bn-pre-tax-profits http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_tv http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853893-bskyb-profits-hit-520m-despite-richard-keys-scandal http://www.sky.com/shop/tv/sports/

Tom Bloomfield changed drastically. In the first few years Sky targeted group C2 and D, for example the lower class man and the self-employed. However nowadays Sky now look at groups B and C1, for examples the professionals and the supervisors. 5 In the 1980s, the time before satellite television, only 1 game a week was shown, on Match of the Day, and the FA cup was shown every May. Executives at the BBC raised concern on whether or not there was a demand for constant live football. How wrong they turned out to be. However in 1982, Satellite Television Limited first became active, and provided a major alternative to terrestrial television.6 Rupert Murdoch was the man behind this, as he wanted to expand his increasingly global empire, and therefore looked at the up and coming satellite technology to establish himself on the platform of television in the United Kingdom. From a Foucauldian perspective, power is knowledge, so if Murdoch was to get himself into a position of power, then he could change the way that football was viewed in this country. This was Sky's ideology all along. All the power seems to have gone from the masses (the supporters of the clubs) to the few (the executives at Sky Sports), and this is the crux of the problem. Football has now expanded onto many media platforms, and can be viewed almost twenty four hours a day, people are less inclined to go to matches as they can watch it either live, or as soon as the game is finished. If the power was still in the hands of the masses, and the supporters, then action could be taken to try and rectify this problem. However from the Foucault perspective; that the power is in the hands of the advantaged few, then their elitist ideas are the ones that are brought forward. This Marxist view is common to the way of thinking by many people that go to Football regularly but have very little power on the content that is put in front of them. This 'common man' way of thinking is a dangerous idea for the people in power, as they can certainly make their opinions known by not spending their money, and this loss of revenue could force those in a higher power to take action. An example of this is the ticket prices that are set by the clubs that are in the Premier League. A study devised for the 2008 season shows that the average ticket price for a premier league game was between 40 and 50.7 For a person earning the national average wage of 24,407 (after tax)8, paying to watch two or three games a month can get extremely expensive, and it is too much money for some people, who feel like they are missing out simply because they cannot afford to watch their football team. Football still remained exclusive to the BBC in the 1980's, as they maintained rights to show major events such as the FA cup final and England Internationals. This was vital as the BBC is a public service channel, funded by the public, who still wanted to be able to watch quality sporting content due to the TV license that they pay. Then in 1991, BSkyB launched Sky Sports, the second dedicated sports channel on satellite television (Euro Sport was the first).9 At first, Sky Sports, whilst having a diverse range of sports to show on their channel, did not have any sports that would attract a
5

http://www.businessballs.com/demographicsclassifications.htm Satellite Television Limited, became Sky Television, and finally British Sky Broadcasting http://eplleague.blogspot.com/2007/09/0708-ticket-prices-for-premier-league.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_in_the_United_Kingdom/Taxable_income http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Sports

Tom Bloomfield nationwide audience to their channel, therefore initial viewing figures and subscribers to Sky were poor. Figures show that from the 6th to the 12th of January 1992, Sky Sports 1, which was the only channel of the network at the time, only had a 2.4% share of the total television audience, with the average viewing time for the week only being a paltry forty-two minutes. To give a comparison, if you compare these figures to the same week in 2009, where Sky Sports in total (all four channels) had a daily reach of 4.5 million viewers, and a 2.1% share of all television audiences.10 11 Then in 1992, Sky gained exclusive rights to the Premier League, and it has gone from strength to strength. As of the last deal, TV rights to the Premier League for the next three years will cost 1.782 billion, and this is shared between Sky and the other broadcasters showing games, such as ESPN.12 However money is where the power is, and Sky is offering much more than their rivals. Compare this to the 191 million originally offered in 199213 and you can see how much the Premier League has grown. Uses and Gratifications can be applied here - football is seen as the domineering male programme to watch and play, and the way that all forms of media that broadcast anything to do with football will target the male audience. There are numerous connotations of masculinity within football these days, and Sky's coverage of the Premier League highlights this, such as the types of sponsors that the show attracts, with the car company Ford being an example. Ford's adverts that are shown on Sky Sports show a number of connotations with football, and the typical sights and sounds that you see if you are travelling to a football match by car. There is an establishing shot of the car at the start of the advert and numerous shots of the car throughout, and the non-diagetic music is the theme song of Super Sunday, Written in the Stars by Tinie Tempah. This was chosen due to popularity of the song, and the fact that it is used to amplify the excitement of the game, and shows that Sky are gearing towards the younger teenage demographic as well their traditional demographic, to get the most people interested in their programme as they can. There are numerous people wearing football team colours, and a number of families are shown making their way to the stadium. This shows that the commercial is somewhat aimed at the male of the family, with the main selling point being that they could purchase the car to take their family to the football. A number of Ford cars are also featured, with some smaller cars being shown, which are aimed at the younger male, possibly without a family. Sky has decided to show these adverts as these are the two main demographics that are known to watch Sky's programming. In Sky's flagship show, Super Sunday the emphasis is on fast talking fairly detailed analysis, in which presuppositions are often used, meaning that you need to have a decent knowledge about the game to understand the dialogue and terminology being
10

http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weekly-viewing-summary?period_year%5B %5D=2009&period_month%5B%5D=6&period_week%5B %5D=28&button_submit=View+Figures&period%5B%5D=200906060128

11

This may seem like less, but with the explosion of digital where there are hundreds of channels to choose from nowadays, this figure is actually a very large portion of the audience.
12

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/163178bn-record-premierleague-tv-deal-defies-economic-slump-1569576.html
13

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7875478.stm

Tom Bloomfield used. The idea behind this is to adapt the show, which is mainly watched by the male demographic anyway, into a 'boy's' institution. Because of all the negative press about feminism and Sky Sports over recent times 14, there has been more of an emphasis upon the type of content that Sky is using. An example of this is the 'virtual reality' computers that are being used to analyse matches to a much more scrutinising extent. As a result of these changes, they are starting to make football programming a safe haven for the male demographic. Although this is slightly elitist, it shows that they want to protect the fan base that they have, rather than risking for a different demographic. Nowadays, Sky Sports has converged onto multi platforms within media, both traditional institutions and digital and new media. Newspapers such as The Sun often highlight the new ways you can watch Sky Sports programming outside of the traditional Television listings, with examples including watching on a computer, your laptop and even your Mobile phone, as long as you have an internet connection. This does link somewhat to the attendances and the overall viewing of football in this country, particularly in the Premiership, but upon further investigation, this is the tip of the iceberg. However one statement we can make is absolutely true: The cost of going to football these days has increased, and it is somewhat in part due to Murdoch's running of Sky Sports. There is also the issue of the amount of money that pubs spend on purchasing subscriptions for Sky Sports. The price is difficult to obtain due to Sky only giving a quote if you contact them directly, but an average price for a small pub is around 594 a month15, compared to 63.25 a month for home-owners. 16 This shows that Sky's priorities rely on the people that buy Sky Sports in their own home, rather than the common man who doesn't have Sky in their homes and instead will go the pub to watch the football. There are a number of reasons why the balance of power in football has seemed to sway in the favour of the rich. The globalisation of football has sky-rocketed in the last twenty five years, mainly due to Sky providing a media outlet for people to view matches from across the world. In the 1990's the internet was in its infancy, therefore television was the primary way of viewing new content. Therefore the best players were playing in the Premier League, it became one of the most popular, if not the most popular football league in the world. Football has actually become an export from this country, and a way of getting revenue into the UK. With the world's media giving huge coverage to the Premier League, and the satellite technology giving people the opportunity to watch live matches in many countries around the world, many people forgo supporting a football team in their own country, and instead support a team from the Premier League due to their success. Clubs have actually become brands in their own right, with some clubs putting themselves on the stock market, allowing them to control directly the vast amounts of revenue they are receiving from all means of products with their badge on them. Players are also becoming household names, with the main example being David Beckham. His status alone can bring millions of pounds of revenue back to a football
14

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8980568/video/72806001-feminists-join-sexism-rowafter-andy-gray-is-sacked-from-sky-sports
15

http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/26/02/2010/332416/Sky-freezes-pub-subscription-ratespending-price-review.htm
16

http://www.sky.com/quickbuy/build;jsessionid=BBA7C94861CDB240C0D0845E180DFD91

Tom Bloomfield club as thousands of replica shirts with his name on it will sell for a vast amount, meaning that although it can cost millions to bring him to a football club, the media exposure and sales revenue he can bring can almost pay back the amount it cost to bring him there in the first place. Because all the power of marketing is going to the executives across many companies, including ones that do not have a direct to football other than sponsorship is another example of the rich developing a stronger stranglehold on football. Players can also open new markets all on their own. An example of this is Beckham and his appeal to the Far East, where he has become known more for his appearances and products off the field than for his sporting exploits on it. He is seen as an extension of American pop culture, where his fame is something for companies to latch onto to increase revenue in their products. Beckham has a partnership with Castrol GTX oil, an unusual choice of product which has no direct link with football. However Castrol is a leading brand in Asia, which shows the appeal of having Beckham, who is seen to be as famous as any film or music star, promote products in foreign countries. Examples of foreign companies being involved in English Football clubs are occurring are in Asia, where there is a massive following for Manchester United and Liverpool. Indeed, their current shirt sponsors are AON and Standard Chartered, and both companies have reported strong growth in their Asian sectors due to the publicity their company has got.17 For example, Standered Chartered reported that in the past financial year, up to 75% of profits have come from Asia, and this links in with Liverpool being the most well-supported English team in China and its surrounding countries. 18 However this is a double-edged sword, as any negative press can turn into a global epidemic very easily. An example of this is the Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra racism row, where the companies that have links with Liverpool Football Club tried to distance themselves from the club due to the actions of Luis Suarez and his alleged racist comments. A dominant ideology in the UK is that every real man loves football or football has a hegemonic status in the UK. Everybody in this country is expected to know of the importance of football, and the fact that it is our national sport. This is evidenced by the amount of coverage that football is given in the print platform of media, and the more coverage there has been since Murdoch took over Sky Sports.19 For the Chairmen and managers in charge of football clubs and the revenue, they will introduce new products and differing ideas every year, in order to capitalise on the global institutions that some football clubs are turned into. New football shirts for teams are released every year, which parents feel inclined to buy due to the 'pester power' by children, and this is even more costly due to the current recession we are finding ourselves in. Merchandising has also become vastly more important, with a teams logo being put onto anything they can think of and marked up in price, purely because they know people will buy it. In the first years of professionalism, clubs relied on gate receipts to get revenue for their profits. However, now that has changed; with merchandising and television being the main source of income for teams now, and has lent itself to the introduction of differing kinds of people running professional football
17

http://asia.eurosport.com/football/premier-league/2011-2012/no-action-overrow_sto3151767/story.shtml
18

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17203737

19

In copies of The Sun on 23rd of March 2012, there were 16 pages in their sport section: 8 pages of coverage dedicated to football, whereas 8 pages were dedicated to every other sport

Tom Bloomfield clubs. Instead of having local businessmen who have the interest of the club at heart, and are aware of how the club is perceived from the fan's perspective, there are overseas tycoons who are detached from Britain and the traditions of the football club, and see it as just another way of making money, or avoiding tax. This is relevant to the Levi-Strauss binary opposites theory where the audience is so heavily inclined to favour one type of person that the other stands little chance of achieving a unity with the audience. The audience will feel that they can relate more to the British owner, in the fact that he comes from the area, and may support the club. This is in parallel to the foreign owner, where they seem a lot more detached from the running of the club, although they will spend a lot more money on the club. An example of this is Manchester City, who have been bankrolled by a family of Sheikh Billionaires, who have earned their money in oil. 20 A lot more merchandise being brought in to increase revenue, with gate receipts also going up by increasing ticket prices. Therefore there is a consensus that Sky is not just the sole organisation that has changed football; however they have been a major contributor towards the change. Another consideration is the way football is being viewed from a hyper-reality. Baudrillard noted that the way we are viewing the media world and real life is changing. The audience are now starting to see the gap blurring and the media world is appearing a lot more real. This is also coupled with the effect of hyper-reality, in that the fictional world starts to seem more real, and the audience starts to become dissatisfied with the real world. This is why video games seem appealing, especially to male teenagers and young men, the demographic Sky Sports aims Super Sunday and its other programming at. In terms of Football, the FIFA football franchise on video game consoles is a booming business, and millions of copies are sold every year. As of the end of 2011, the two best selling games for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 (the two major home game consoles) were FIFA 12, the latest game in the franchise.21 To play as your favourite football team is a very popular one, and some teenagers, especially male teenagers, are now taking their gaming more seriously than the actual result of their teams. As for Sky Sports, the way their coverage is being brought forward with ever-evolving technology and their virtual reality computer, goes to show that the desert of the real perception is the pinnacle of what Sky Sports and their coverage want to achieve. As of now, the audience are viewing Sky Sports as the way Bulmer and Katz noted: as a diversion, taking you away from the stresses of reality to watch two teams play football. However there could be a gradual transformation, as Sky will slowly ease into the perception of desert of the real as soon as the technology becomes available. With the current technological advancement, this may not take very long. Another main reason that Football is transitioning is that of elitism. This is especially apparent at the top of the game. The very core of Football has changed from its working class roots of yesteryear, with the main core audience previously being a lower class, older fan, around 40 years or older, to the main monetary driven goals that executives strive for now; and these new found goals and the concept of elitism go hand in hand.
20

Jenkins, R (2010). Manchester City: A Club Sheikh'en Up. 2nd ed. UK: Book Guild. 1-85.

21

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/jan/11/best-selling-games-of-2011

Tom Bloomfield The market-liberalism perspective can be used in an almost adverse way, because the audience is being dictated by Sky. Sky Sports dictate what time football games will be played and on what day, for example the most common time for televised football games is Sunday at 4:00pm, which is a good time for their target audience to watch the programme, as there is not a lot of sporting content on at this time, and Sky have made their coverage expansive on this day and made it a television event; they call it Super Sunday. 22 Sunday is still an unusual day to work in this country, and having a Sunday lunch with the family provides a positive end to the week. Therefore Sky have tried to couple this tradition with another tradition: the family watching football in the afternoon. This has proven to be very effective. However just as the media can give many positive factors to the popularity of Football in this country, they can also create negativity through stereotyping. There is a general consensus among supporters that there is a group emerging known as the 'prawn sandwich brigade', which was a term used by Roy Keane, who alleged that this group of people go to games despite not knowing anything about Football, and that they will sit in the most expensive seats due to their wealth, and see it as showing off. This is once again a Marxist perspective, in that there is a division between the people that go to football currently, and the means in which they go as well. Whereas the lower class will group together and meet at various places around the stadium, making the whole day a social event (pubs are an example), the higher class generally are more reserved, and tend to be solitary and only meet people at the stadium, with the whole game merely being seen as a social event. This view links in with the theory of an active audience by Stuart Hall. This view, that different people interpret a product in a certain way is evident in the comments by Keane, as he is implying that the people in power, and those of a higher class, see Football as nothing more than a social event, and that they do not 'care' as much as the common man. Yet those of a lower class take their football a lot more seriously, and are more passionate about their team, yet these people are the ones who are not in power. As a result, fans feel more and more distant form the people in charge of the sport they love, and this just adds to the negative feeling there is. Perkins theory of stereotypes is relevant here, as many 'common' fans feel aggrieved to the fact that they are seeing valuable tickets go into the hands of people who are not interested in the event, and they will label anybody who has one of these tickets as somebody who does not care about Football. Perkins' theory of scapegoats is also true, as the fans now have somebody to place all their anger upon, and the anger shown is that they believe football is becoming the preserve of the rich. Another issue that comes into the equation is that of the fragility of the people shown as the face of Football amongst new media. Two Sky Sports commentators, Richard Keys and Andy Gray, were both sacked due to them being recorded by Sky making sexist comments about a fellow female presenter.23 The major issue became not the fact that it was these two men involved that made the comments; rather the fact that they became a caricature of the typical football bloke a scapegoat of the typical way of thinking between males watching football. The fact that most men feel that the two did not do a lot wrong and were treated harshly makes the whole situation a minefield however they are being protected by the changes Sky are making to Super Sunday in making the
22

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Super_Sunday

23

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2Farticle-1350222%2FRichardKeys-Andy-Gray-sexism-row-Sky-duo-face-sack.html

Tom Bloomfield show a male save haven for these type of people. Plus, the fact that the two men got made into a moral panic shows that the feminists view on football is one of extreme prejudice. They believe that they are being made to look inferior, and being ridiculed behind their backs. Therefore when these comments were shown on television, the consensus was that they two men should be made accountable for what they have done, and an example being set for anybody else who thinks about doing the same thing. However, feminists are still not happy about state of thinking, and their case study is the fact there is only one female official who is currently licensed to officiate in the Premier League. 24 25 These comments were recorded and then shown internally on Sky Sports sister channel, Sky News. Perkins theory of stereotypes is apparent, as the media ironically made a stereotype of the two presenters, who in turn was making a negative stereotype about a woman. Opinion leaders such as Keys and Gray should not be seen as to be making such stereotypical views, as these views could be spread as the norm after influential people have made it clear that this is what they believe in. This hypocrisy should not be a rare occurrence, especially among the 'red top' newspapers such as The Sun, as the truth is often stretched in the pursuit of a good story. The main point to come from this is that the media should be respected, as they can easily make or break a career of anybody. However there is also a positive to be taken from the story. Although this scandal was very much trivial to matters on the field of play, it does show that the average supporter still has power to change various things amongst the company that controls most of the football in this country due to the time that matches are played and the company that highlight football in the media more than most; Sky Sports. As many people made an outcry about these presenters and their actions, the executives made the decision to wipe their hands of them. However there may be more to the story than what meets the eye, as Sky were the company that first made the evidence come to light. This could be a more feminist stance being made by Sky in the days of the 21st century equality view being more of a mainstream idea, however it may have just been a ploy for Sky to part company with the two men and recruit new, younger presenters, as they had been at Sky at that point for almost twenty years. This could be the start, as Sky Sports may open themselves up to be controlled by the people; however it may also just be a very rare occurrence. There has not been enough time to give a definitive answer as of yet, but it will certainly be interesting to find out whether the balance of power is shifting. If the audience did obtain power, it would be from a Foucault perspective, and the power would be in the hands of the masses once again. Whilst most people will happily moan about the problems there are running through the very core of the game, there will be very few people that will actually attempt to shift the power back into the hands of the masses. As football has seemed to have turned into a rich persons plaything, where owners can come and go as they please, the common view of power to the masses seems to have been forgotten. A good example to highlight is Rangers, where Craig Whyte, who took over the control of Rangers for one pound when they were in previous financial difficulties, 26 did not highlight the extremity of trouble that the club were in, and have since gone into
24

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/9137955/Andy-Gray-congratulates-Sian-Massey-forcorrect-offside-decision-as-Manchester-City-lose-top-spot-to-rivals-United.html
25

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/blackpool/8320680/Sian-Massey-makes-low-keyreturn-to-Premier-League-football-after-Andy-Gray-and-Richard-Keys-sexism-scandal.html
26

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17364257

Tom Bloomfield administration. This affects the team on the field as well as on it, as a ten point penalty has been administered, meaning that their hopes of challenging for the league title are all but over. 27 Although this is very distressing for them, it is just the way that money works in any sport nowadays, especially Football, and the fact that New media, like Sky Sports, has completely changed Football beyond all recognition into this money grabbing beast, and that something extremely drastic will have to happen, otherwise the Media will continue to have a tighter stranglehold on the game, and the gap between those in charge and the feelings of the masses will continue to grow. They will dictate just how, why and where we will watch the sport that is loved in this country, and continue to ensure that Football, in this country at least, will become the preserve of the rich. Word Count 5076

27

Beasley, R. (2012). GERonimo. The Sun. 1 (1), 58-59