Prices for TV sports packages putting fans off

12% of the UK population can't watch live matches because fees too high

15 September 2008 12:16 GMT / By Katie Scott

TV sports packages are prohibitedly expensive, claims a new report by the Liberal Democrats.

According to the reports, the results of which were revealed at a Virgin Media-backed CentreForum event at the Liberal Democrats' conference, sports fans are losing out because they can't afford the premiums for watching some matches.

The report claims that six million UK football fans, for one, are unable to watch live matches because of the costs - finding that 86% of non-subscribing football supporters do not subscribe to premium TV because of the price.

And the report adds that 73% of fans (amounting to 12% of the UK population) said they felt excluded from the game because of a lack of live access.

77% said that they wanted to watch more live sport but couldn't because of a lack of access.

And going to the match instead of just watching in TV is also too expensive for many people - the survey added.

75% of respondents said it was too expensive to watch games at a sports ground.

The research was conducted by Drummond Maddell, which questioned 1009 adults in the UK.

Full tags

Home Cinema, Biz, Football, Sports Fitness, Setanta, Virgin Media