Priced Out

At the recent Olympics in Italy, those of us without TNT Sports were given the opportunity to watch events that have been hidden behind a paywall. I used to have access to Eurosport in the UK as part of my TV package. The range of events they covered was a real treat. I became a die hard fan of Alpine Skiing and got to know a lot about the competitors and the sports themselves. My wife became a massive fan of the Professional Cycling especially the Tour de France and the Veulta. All that came to an end last year when Discovery Channel took over and priced us out of the market as it became a straight choice between that and Sky Sports. Of course, this happened in the past, pretty much when Sky started to outbid the BBC and ITV for everything they could. My children are completely disinterested in cricket because they had never seen it on the TV in their childhood. As the subscription model dominated every sport, the few sports that terrestrial TV has kept now take place in a vacuum. Occasionally you see live football, live cricket, live snooker and other sports, but you never get the narrative that you must have to truly enjoy the sport.

We have accepted this situation in countries across the world. It has been forced upon us by the greed of sports bodies and TV companies and it has been bought into in both senses of the word. As a result, the skiiers, the curlers and the tobogganers will disappear behind a paywall for the next four years. Whatever you enjoyed in the Olympics it’s time to accept that it’s another four years before you see it again and, unless you have a long memory, you will have to relearn it in 2030. This is our modern world, where pretty much every element is monetised and if you don’t have enough money you are locked out.