LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 08: Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa holds off Willian of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Aston Villa at Emirates Stadium on November 08, 2020 in London, England. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

PL chief confirms PPV is gone – but what’s replacing it?

Nov 10, 2020

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters says they plan to move away from pay-per-view matches, without confirming their new approach.

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 08: Mikel Arteta, Manager of Arsenal looks dejected during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Aston Villa at Emirates Stadium on November 08, 2020 in London, England. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Andy Rain - Pool/Getty Images) — LONDON, ENGLAND: Mikel Arteta, Manager of Arsenal looks dejected during the Premier League match on November 08, 2020, shown on Sky Sports’ PPV service. (Photo by Andy Rain – Pool/Getty Images)

After a few weeks of paying £14.95 for any individual game you want to watch – outside the regularly scheduled Sky and BT games – the Premier League are scrapping their pay-per-view system.

Chief executive Richard Masters confirms they’re planning to move away from PPV, though he wouldn’t confirm what they’ll replace it with.

“We took a decision to move to pay-per-view and now we are reviewing that decision,” Masters began.

“We have listened to feedback, we will be changing direction and moving away from it and taking another step that will see us through lockdown, the Christmas period, and into January. I can’t announce what it is.”

There are obviously various options going forward. The Premier League could return to showing the extra matches for free, as they did at the end of last season.

They could charge some kind of additional monthly fee for the extra games, rather than doing it on an individual basis. They could refuse to show the games altogether – though I doubt that would go down very well.

The Independent claim the Premier League are most likely to revert to the model in place at the start of the season and show the extra games for free. But there was no final decision at the time of that report.

Whatever they decide, the new system will be reviewed again in mid-January.