Is the Premier League’s Mega TV Bubble at Risk of Collapse?

Up and up and up and up they’ve gone, numbers spiralling beyond comprehension. Seemingly detached from the realities of other industries for so long, Premier League football has become the boom component of the entertainment sector. Its cash has piled up relentlessly year after year. For those involved, it’s as though there’s been no ceiling: Wages, transfer fees, agent cuts, bonuses and the rest; up and up and up and up.  

Throughout, though, the quietly lingering questions have centred on whether all of this is sustainable: Could this upward surge be susceptible to anything? Would the mass inflation always be supported by an unbreakable foundation? Would there be any sort of fallout from the gorging on pound sterling? Could football, or the Premier League more specifically, continue its morphing into a standalone economy unabated? 

The answers to these questions and more have all been tied into one overriding question: Would you, the viewer, continue to consume it regardless of everything?

For a long time now, you’ve said “yes, I will.” The financial monster that is the Premier League has grown on the back of your football addiction. You’ve consumed and consumed and consumed. Subscription packages through Sky and more recently BT have multiplied in number. The incessant demand has resulted in inevitable price increases, and the Premier League has done everything in its power to extract money from those wanting to show it by making itself a broadcasters’ dream.

Television cash, then, has flooded into the game. Last year, the rights for this season and the next two to come sold for more than £5 billion in the UK and more than £8 billion worldwide. To put that into perspective, it was only back in 1992 that Sky won the rights to the Premier League for five seasons for £304 million. That rate of inflation is off the charts, but you, the viewer, have ensured its viability. Until now, perhaps. 

Shocker for Sky as football fans turn off with 19 per cent drop in viewing figures for live Premier League games https://t.co/w5Wdk0oOYf pic.twitter.com/bhOg3aunHy

— MailOnline Sport (@MailSport) October 15, 2016

This might have been billed as the biggest Premier League season in history but so far the audience is saying otherwise. In mid-October, Sky’s viewing figures for the campaign to that point were down by 19 percent, according to the Daily Mail. BT had also been affected, with the Guardian reporting the company’s Champions League viewership was down 40 percent on one particular Tuesday. 

A Sky spokesperson told the Daily Mail that there was no concern on Sky’s behalf and that it was a “premature comparison.” Part of the explanation was that blockbuster games such as Liverpool vs. Manchester United hadn’t taken place yet, and when that fixture did arrive, there was some justification in that stance.

Despite the disappointing contest, “Red Monday” brought Sky its highest single-game viewing figures for three years. 

But the Premier League isn’t an isolated case here. In the U.S., NFL ratings—the colossal bedrock on which cable TV has thrived until now—have plummeted by more than 10 percent as well, and Sports Illustrated outlined that several prime-time slots had seen drops between 18 and 24 percent.  

On each side of …

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