The Inflating Price Of Watching Streaming Sport



Yesterday Amazon Prime streamed its first English Premiership soccer games.

This is significant since it represents the first foray of the new broadcasters into mainstream rights (OK, Amazon has done a lot of tennis, but you get what I mean..).

This is very bad news for consumers. If you are a die hard fan and want to watch sport in the UK. Here are some of the economics (based on streaming only services, without the cost of broadband):

Premiership Football

Sky £34
BT Sport £10
Amazon Prime £6.58

So, a minimum of £50.58.

(You can add in various other services such as BBC for FA Cup games and Premier Sport for overseas football games).

Top European Rugby

BT Sport £10
Premier Sport £6 (there is a £12 option)

You then need to add Sky Sport at £34 and £12.87 for the BBC licence fee for a fully comprehensive service, so that woul be a total of £62.87.

At least it's possible to watch the Prime and Now TV feeds on pretty much any device. With BT SPort and Premier TV you're stuck with a smartphone, tablet or PC and then the challenge of somehow trying to get these pictures onto your big screen.