richdeniro
05-11-2007, 02:43 PM
Interesting article here by Des Kelly. Standard apology for the liberals for the source of the article.
Mentions that they don't like Champions League kick-off times over there because of the time difference - Could we see Champions League games moved to weekends so they can have early kick-offs to cater for the Far-East market. Apparently Premier League kick-offs will be moved back even further to 12 o'clock in order to cater for the millions of 'fans' over there - could they be put back even further to 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning as the Japanese market wants.
Of course it is only the 'big 4' who they are interested in over here so it will probably only see games involving those clubs switched to midday. I'm sure we will also eventually see a competitive Premier League match play abroad at some point in the next few years. Money wise I'm sure it will bring in an extra few million for those clubs giving them even more of an advantage over the rest keeping their monopoly of the domestic trophies intact.
Love the quote from Sir Steve at the end.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/columnists.html?in_article_id=491700&in_page_id=1951
Premier League is turning on TV audiences all round the world
21:57pm 4th November 2007
The world was said to be watching and the numbers being bandied around the Arsenal- Manchester United clash were simply mind boggling.
A billion, they said, which not only turned out to be the supposed audience for the match, but also the number of times Sky Sports told us about this supposed audience.
Naturally, a juicy round figure is beloved by television companies with a product to hype and headline writers with a paper to sell. But it still didn't add up.
With Sky averaging somewhere around 1.1 million viewers per live match in the UK, and even allowing for a doubling of the live audience, extraordinarily generous pub viewing figures and a bumper BBC Match of the Day return, it still left nearly 990 million viewers unaccounted for.
Past examination of these claims for Olympic and NFL Super Bowl global audiences reveal the true figure usually comes in at around 60 to 75 per cent lower. Even so, that means 300 million tuned in to watch an inconclusive, earlyseason League encounter. So where is this huge audience of devotees to be found?
In the Far East, we are told, and this is where the exaggeration and reality finally edge within touching distance. In fact, it is more common to underestimate the potential for football's growth in Asia than to over-hype it.
During the next half dozen years, sport will explode as a global phenomenon and Asia is where the Big Bang will be heard loudest. In a piece for BBC1's Inside Sport on the first regular-season NFL game played outside the Americas, between Miami and the New York Giants, I argued the Wembley event would provide a marker for Premier League bosses to take their game out of England to New York and beyond. It is only a matter of time before someone tries it. But Britain was only a stepping stone for the NFL and, for all the fuss about David Beckham's emigration, America has never been the real commercial prize for football, either. That lies in the opposite direction.
America realises this, too. One of the original plans was for the NFL game to take place in the Chinese capital Beijing, with London being preferred only because of its relatively bearable flying time from the USA.
Every sport regards Asia as the unconquered market. Everyone is looking east. Why else do you think Arsenal and United were kicking off at Saturday lunchtime? It was to suit TV audiences in China, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia. Forget the idea that the clubs' midweek Champions League commitments had much to do with it.
Neither Arsene Wenger's nor Sir Alex Ferguson's sides play until Wednesday night while Chelsea and Liverpool, who play 24 hours earlier on Tuesday night, kicked off on Saturday at 3pm and 5.15pm respectively.
But this is how football scheduling will be increasingly skewed and it is not such an extraordinary leap to assume that the 12.45pm kick-off time will soon be one of the later starts as the Premier League chase global returns.
For fans of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in this country, the customary start will be noon, however inconvenient that may be (as Sunderland followers asked to reach the Emirates Stadium in north London last month can testify).
But, although fans in England might hate the inconvenience of the early whistle, they are no longer the priority. The audience football is hunting lies elsewhere.
For a snapshot of their interest, Sportsmail sent correspondents to some other key cities in the Far East to assess whether the fanaticism is as real as the game hopes.
There were no complaints about the Emirates Stadium kick-off time in Bangkok, where a seething mass gathered outside Thailand's World Trade Centre for their 7.45pm start.
Two thousand watched the match on a giant screen. 'It beats the Champions League, because those games are on too late for us to watch,' said 35-year-old hotel worker and Manchester United fan Suntorn Wandeerak.
In Hong Kong it is 8.45pm and Arsenal devotees pack into the Icy Bar. Tommy Lo, chairman of the city's Gunners' supporters club, says his members are lapping up the early starts: 'If they continue to start early we are going to have to find a bigger place to watch.'
The whistle sounds at 9.45pm in Tokyo and with a transport system that shuts down around midnight, revellers crammed into the standing room-only space of sports bar Footnik would prefer UK matches to start even earlier.
But China is the real battleground. Even conservative estimates predict football earnings here could increase by 300 per cent in the next half dozen years.
The Premier League recently struck a three-year deal for overseas rights worth £625million, with more than half of that coming from Asia. Yet that overall figure underwhelmed some of the clubs' foreign owners.
They are agitating to strike their own individual broadband deals because most Chinese fans watch games streamed via computer and the country is set to be the biggest online market by 2009.
Those rights would provide an unprecedented jackpot. United, Chelsea and Arsenal already have club websites translated into Mandarin and are gearing up to collect.
Pre-season tours arouse interest, but they are nothing compared to the impact of a real game, hosted live in one of the key markets. The effect here would be revolutionary.
As club football grows as a global entity and boundaries and time zones are criss-crossed, international football can only become less relevant. The already huge gap between the Premier League's top four and the rest will grow exponentially as their popularity feeds itself — and we'll all be forced to endure more early starts when a premium match is not only beamed out to the east, but back to the UK from places like Shanghai.
Will this 'progress' be good for the game? Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan once said that arguing against globalisation was like arguing against gravity.
But Reading boss Steve Coppell had another view, observing somewhat acidly this weekend: 'a billion people watching — and not one of them give a s*** about my club'.
Mentions that they don't like Champions League kick-off times over there because of the time difference - Could we see Champions League games moved to weekends so they can have early kick-offs to cater for the Far-East market. Apparently Premier League kick-offs will be moved back even further to 12 o'clock in order to cater for the millions of 'fans' over there - could they be put back even further to 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning as the Japanese market wants.
Of course it is only the 'big 4' who they are interested in over here so it will probably only see games involving those clubs switched to midday. I'm sure we will also eventually see a competitive Premier League match play abroad at some point in the next few years. Money wise I'm sure it will bring in an extra few million for those clubs giving them even more of an advantage over the rest keeping their monopoly of the domestic trophies intact.
Love the quote from Sir Steve at the end.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/columnists.html?in_article_id=491700&in_page_id=1951
Premier League is turning on TV audiences all round the world
21:57pm 4th November 2007
The world was said to be watching and the numbers being bandied around the Arsenal- Manchester United clash were simply mind boggling.
A billion, they said, which not only turned out to be the supposed audience for the match, but also the number of times Sky Sports told us about this supposed audience.
Naturally, a juicy round figure is beloved by television companies with a product to hype and headline writers with a paper to sell. But it still didn't add up.
With Sky averaging somewhere around 1.1 million viewers per live match in the UK, and even allowing for a doubling of the live audience, extraordinarily generous pub viewing figures and a bumper BBC Match of the Day return, it still left nearly 990 million viewers unaccounted for.
Past examination of these claims for Olympic and NFL Super Bowl global audiences reveal the true figure usually comes in at around 60 to 75 per cent lower. Even so, that means 300 million tuned in to watch an inconclusive, earlyseason League encounter. So where is this huge audience of devotees to be found?
In the Far East, we are told, and this is where the exaggeration and reality finally edge within touching distance. In fact, it is more common to underestimate the potential for football's growth in Asia than to over-hype it.
During the next half dozen years, sport will explode as a global phenomenon and Asia is where the Big Bang will be heard loudest. In a piece for BBC1's Inside Sport on the first regular-season NFL game played outside the Americas, between Miami and the New York Giants, I argued the Wembley event would provide a marker for Premier League bosses to take their game out of England to New York and beyond. It is only a matter of time before someone tries it. But Britain was only a stepping stone for the NFL and, for all the fuss about David Beckham's emigration, America has never been the real commercial prize for football, either. That lies in the opposite direction.
America realises this, too. One of the original plans was for the NFL game to take place in the Chinese capital Beijing, with London being preferred only because of its relatively bearable flying time from the USA.
Every sport regards Asia as the unconquered market. Everyone is looking east. Why else do you think Arsenal and United were kicking off at Saturday lunchtime? It was to suit TV audiences in China, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia. Forget the idea that the clubs' midweek Champions League commitments had much to do with it.
Neither Arsene Wenger's nor Sir Alex Ferguson's sides play until Wednesday night while Chelsea and Liverpool, who play 24 hours earlier on Tuesday night, kicked off on Saturday at 3pm and 5.15pm respectively.
But this is how football scheduling will be increasingly skewed and it is not such an extraordinary leap to assume that the 12.45pm kick-off time will soon be one of the later starts as the Premier League chase global returns.
For fans of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in this country, the customary start will be noon, however inconvenient that may be (as Sunderland followers asked to reach the Emirates Stadium in north London last month can testify).
But, although fans in England might hate the inconvenience of the early whistle, they are no longer the priority. The audience football is hunting lies elsewhere.
For a snapshot of their interest, Sportsmail sent correspondents to some other key cities in the Far East to assess whether the fanaticism is as real as the game hopes.
There were no complaints about the Emirates Stadium kick-off time in Bangkok, where a seething mass gathered outside Thailand's World Trade Centre for their 7.45pm start.
Two thousand watched the match on a giant screen. 'It beats the Champions League, because those games are on too late for us to watch,' said 35-year-old hotel worker and Manchester United fan Suntorn Wandeerak.
In Hong Kong it is 8.45pm and Arsenal devotees pack into the Icy Bar. Tommy Lo, chairman of the city's Gunners' supporters club, says his members are lapping up the early starts: 'If they continue to start early we are going to have to find a bigger place to watch.'
The whistle sounds at 9.45pm in Tokyo and with a transport system that shuts down around midnight, revellers crammed into the standing room-only space of sports bar Footnik would prefer UK matches to start even earlier.
But China is the real battleground. Even conservative estimates predict football earnings here could increase by 300 per cent in the next half dozen years.
The Premier League recently struck a three-year deal for overseas rights worth £625million, with more than half of that coming from Asia. Yet that overall figure underwhelmed some of the clubs' foreign owners.
They are agitating to strike their own individual broadband deals because most Chinese fans watch games streamed via computer and the country is set to be the biggest online market by 2009.
Those rights would provide an unprecedented jackpot. United, Chelsea and Arsenal already have club websites translated into Mandarin and are gearing up to collect.
Pre-season tours arouse interest, but they are nothing compared to the impact of a real game, hosted live in one of the key markets. The effect here would be revolutionary.
As club football grows as a global entity and boundaries and time zones are criss-crossed, international football can only become less relevant. The already huge gap between the Premier League's top four and the rest will grow exponentially as their popularity feeds itself — and we'll all be forced to endure more early starts when a premium match is not only beamed out to the east, but back to the UK from places like Shanghai.
Will this 'progress' be good for the game? Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan once said that arguing against globalisation was like arguing against gravity.
But Reading boss Steve Coppell had another view, observing somewhat acidly this weekend: 'a billion people watching — and not one of them give a s*** about my club'.