According to a report in the Daily Mail in their Monday edition, the Premier League are gagging BT Sport and Sky Sports.
Sky Sports paid £1.19bn for the rights to show Premier League games this season while BT Sport paid £325m.
Still, despite there being no football, the Premier League is limiting access to managers to a once-a-month commitment, which clearly leaves those two companies with a lot less content than the would normally have.
The Mail report says that clubs “have been told all access to managers and players will be revoked if the Premier League’s guidelines are not followed, despite there being no matches to show during the shutdown.
“All clubs have agreed to provide their manager for interview every four weeks and a player every two weeks as the broadcasters are desperate for content with the sporting schedule frozen.
“However, the access comes with considerable caveats and all questions relating to the impact of the shutdown have been banned.
“In an email sent to Sky Sports staff and seen by Sportsmail, the company’s management emphasise the pressure they are under from the Premier League to stick to rules they agreed to during negotiations last week. ‘It’s clear the Premier League will revoke access if we do not stick to the guidelines,’ the email reportedly states. ‘The interviews have been agreed on the grounds that they are part of the football contract; access is intended to be fun and relaxed.’”
There is also a list of topics they are not allowed to talk about that include:
- Voiding the season
- Playing games behind closed doors
- Furloughs and salary cuts
- The implications for Liverpool’s attempt to win their first title in 30 years.
The email continues, ‘Clubs are extremely nervous about putting anyone up (for interview) at the moment so we must stick to the following processes,’ the email states. ‘We should avoid “news” interviews as much as possible.’
Wouldn’t want the fact that around 1,000 people are dying a day in the UK because of government negligence to worry the poor little people at home.
In addition, a lot of advertising companies are blacklisting articles that contain the words’covid-1′ or ‘coronavirus’ meaning those sites that are trying to keep people well informed are being even harder hit than others.
Information is power. Remember that when they are trying to keep it from you.