The Blackout: An outdated financial burden

In the 1960s, a football Chairman made a decision that he likely wouldn't have guessed, is a major point of footballing contention, more than sixty years on.

When Bob Lord introduced ‘The Blackout’ to England’s topflight league, he aimed to maintain matchday attendance on the eve of a new technological era. In 2024, times have now changed in football; money talks, screens rule, and the people pay. Since the formation of the Premier League in 1992, television subscription for games has been a key part of football. People couldn’t always attend in person, so watching at pubs or at home became increasingly commonplace.

According to Raconteur, there are 380 matches played each season and only 200 are broadcast legally on television. Of those 200 games, Sky Sports televise 128, BT has 52, and Amazon Prime has 20. A person who pays for all streaming services could be paying up to £1700 a year. However, a Manchester United fan and a Fulham fan will pay the same subscription fee but have a very different experience, one is paying more and getting less. Fans of different teams pay the same but don’t have the same access. This study will be exploring the origins of the blackout rule and the birth of sky and paid subscriptions to streaming services.

Money has been feeding football for many years. The years prior to 1990-92 weren’t about money, it was about football. Sky announced their plan to show football exclusively on their platform in the early 1990s and the money has only been getting bigger since. Sky TV was launched in 1993, and costs £6.99 a month or £84 a year. The deal between BSkyB and BBC cost a phenomenal £304 million pound in 1992. The historic deal brought live football to the screens of millions of English people. The disparity between could clearly be seen throughout coverage of the 23/24 Premier League season. The 23/24 Premier League season saw 200/380 games legally televised across British television. Some teams were affected by the blackout at a significantly higher rate than others. West London side Fulham recorded the highest amount of blackout games. 18 out of a possible 38 matches fell into the blackout, preventing millions of fans from watching their club play. Interestingly, Fulham’s first six games where blackout matches, meaning fans couldn’t watch their side anywhere until early October. Several other consistent Premier League sides had similar treatment from Sky and TNT. Bournemouth, Brentford and Crystal Palace all had 17 blackout matches; Nottingham Forrest were a close third with 15 games being inaccessible due to the blackout. Fulham have been safely in the Premier League since the 22/23 season, after suffering relegation the season before. In the 23/24 season, Fulham averaged 24,301 fans every Premier League match. Craven Cottage, their home ground, has a capacity of 25,700, which results in slightly over 1,000 going empty every game. Despite the club’s popularity and historical status, they were almost completely ignored by Sky and TNT last season, largely due to the blackout rule. The only side affected worse than Fulham was Burnley, who were instantly promoted and then consequently relegated, likely adding to their lack of coverage.

Blackout games are more than just Saturday games, they affect the whole season for certain clubs. The 23/24 season saw Burnley have only seven televised matches out of a possible 38. Fulham, who were the most affected side by the blackout, had a mere nine games on television.

Arsenal was the team that Sky and TNT displayed the most on their services last year. The North London side managed to get 28 of their matches televised for their fans; a massive contrast to Fulham. For fans to have access to all possible games, they must be subscribed and paying for Sky Sports, TNT and Amazon Prime. All three have a cost in excess of £60 a month, or £743.76 a year (not including any possible package deals). The financial disparity between Arsenal fans and Fulham fans is massively alarming. With Arsenal having 28 of their matches televised, fans that pay for all services would be paying the equivalent of £26.56 per match. In stark comparison, Fulham fans who pay the exact same price yearly would be paying the equivalent of £82.64 per match. Burnley fans were even worse off, paying the equivalent of £92.97 per match to watch their club. The financial disparity only grows when taking the average income of the area into account. Assuming fans live in a close vicinity of the club they support, average income plays a massive role in establishing financial disparity. For Burnley, the average annual income of the town is £26,000, a massive comparison to Arsenal fans who reside in the local postcode area. N7 residents have an average annual income of £58,000.

This financial pressure on fans to pay for games has led to an increase in illegal streaming services. Despite this, 83% of Premier League viewers prefer to watch games on a television, rather than streaming platforms. Although people have a club they follow, general fans enjoy watching all teams and following their progress and downfalls. Executives can’t expect the working class, average person to pay thousands a year to watch their team play football.

Therefore, the blackout disproportionally affects certain clubs, and therefore fans of the club financially. Whether it’s 8 or 28 games fan get a season: the blackout rule is outdated and unfair. Will the ‘blackout’ be questioned soon? Will the Premier League finally show 3pm Saturday games or will fans continue to miss out on games and get their pockets drained? Fans are spending and fans are suffering. End the Blackout.