Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has urged the Premier League to follow through with radical plans to ditch Sky and BT Sport and show games themselves.
As revealed exclusively by The Mirror, officials within the league are discussing creating their own platform to show matches themselves. There is expected to be one more rights deal available for broadcasters to bid for.
But Jordan has urged Premier League owners to ramp up their plans and create a streaming platform soon. The former Palace chief believes that such a platform would be a license to print money for current owners.
"The cynical view is that this is simply a stalking horse ahead of negotiations for the next broadcast deals, but it b***** well shouldn’t be. Premier League executives need to set out their stall for what is a huge opportunity," he told the Daily Mail.
"They need to back themselves, have confidence in their product and wake up to the fact that they don’t really need traditional broadcasters such as Sky or BT Sport any more. Streaming via their own platform means the Premier League could be the Netflix of football.
"I have long advocated for the Premier League to start rowing their own boat and if I still owned a football club I would be pushing for it in no uncertain terms. Every owner of a Premier League club who was not already a billionaire would quickly become one several times over.
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"There is this huge Tutankhamun-like crypt of gold ready to plunder but if the Premier League decide not to, it cannot be because they aren’t ambitious or confident enough. If the Premier League launched their own platform, they could have 100m subscribers, easily."
It has been suggested by some cynics, including Gary Neville, that the plans are simply a ploy to increase the Premier League's bargaining position ahead of a fresh round of negotiations for TV rights. If the Premier League does follow through on the plans, it would be devastating for Sky and BT, with their spending on the TV rights having helped to turn the division into a financial colossus.
While it would bring in even more money for Premier League owners, it would also be a huge boost for supporters. Currently people wanting to watch every game available to be screen in England have to pay for Sky, BT and Amazon Prime.
Other streamers, including DAZN and Disney+ are set to enter the bidding for the next three-year period. A move for the Premier League to become its own streamer has been back by the Football Supporters Association.
"There’s no question that supporters are increasingly feeling the financial strain. We’re not untouched by the general cost of living crisis but the more platforms there are, the more subscriptions we have to find," Kevin Miles, chief executive of the organisation said.
“For those fans who want to watch everyone of the club’s televised games the costs are really starting to mount.”
