Results of AST membership survey on broadcast issues

The next few months will see the Premier League issue an invitation to tender (ITT) for the domestic (UK) broadcast rights for the period 2025-26 to 2028-29.

The arrangements for broadcasting Premier League matches in the UK creates many issues for match-going supporters. These include the variety of kick-off times, the amount of notice given of fixture changes, and then late changes such as with Arsenal’s home game against Chelsea in May 2023 and the recent change of the kick off time for the match at Everton on 17 September with just two weeks notice (purely to suit the interests of the broadcaster).

Supporters in the UK are also affected by not every game being shown live, and the multiple platforms needed to watch those that are.

So we thought it important to ask AST members (who live in the UK) what they thought and conducted a survey in July and August 2023. The results are set out below. We will be sharing these results with the Premier League, Arsenal and the Football Supporters Association (FSA).

There are some striking results here including more than 98% of supporters believing that the interests of matchgoing supporters aren’t given enough consideration when tv picks are made and that more of Arsenal’s games should be available to watch live.

Therefore our specific call to the football authorities will be for the next broadcast ITT to increase the number of games that fans are able to watch live and for there to be more consideration given to the needs of match-going fans when broadcast arrangements are made.

AST broadcast survey results (conducted August 2023)

Q1. Do you feel that the current broadcast arrangements (spread across Sky, BT and Amazon) for domestic league matches on TV provide good value for money for Arsenal fans?

Yes: 5%,  No: 84%,  Maybe: 11%

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Q2 Do you subscribe to and watch:

Sky: Yes – 76%,

BT Sport (TNT): Yes- 74%;

Amazon: Yes – 84%

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Q3. Do you think that enough consideration is given to the impact on match-going fans when games are moved for broadcast?

Yes: 1%,  No: 98%,  Don’t know; 1%

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Q4. Last season 26 of Arsenal’s 38 Premier League games were shown live in the UK. Do you think more Arsenal games should be shown live in the UK?

Yes: 68%,  No: 23%,  Don’t know: 9%

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Q5. Do you support the continued implementation of UEFA’s Article 48 which states that no Premier League, Football League or domestic cup matches can be broadcast in the UK on a Saturday afternoon between 2.45pm and 5.15pm?

Yes: 20%,  No: 76%,  Don’t know: 4%

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Q6. In order of preference how do you rate the following slots when an Arsenal game is broadcast on TV:

1^st: Saturday 5.30pm (29% rated first choice)

2^nd: Saturday 12.30pm (27% rated first choice)

3^rd: Sunday 2pm (15% rated first choice, 27% rated second choice)

4^th Sunday 4.30pm (15% rated first choice, 16% rated second choice)

5^th: Friday 8pm (11% rated first choice)

6^th: Monday 8pm (3% rated first choice)

We also asked members to submit further thoughts. These can read at this document: broadcasting survey July 2023 written responses.docx