The squeeze & sports TV

• THE squeeze surely means fewer of those under 50 years of age will be able to afford sports TV subscriptions, higher mortgage payments and rent likely to trump subscription telly.

Some oldies will still be able to afford sports telly but sport seems not to have woken up to our new world.

For example, 31 per cent of the UK population is over 55 and larger print, larger fonts, are welcomed on screen by many oldies; Sky Sports has gone for smaller font size on the top left of the screen this season.

Two hundred Premier League football matches will be screened on subscription TV this season. Sky Sports will show 128, BT Sport 52 and Amazon Prime 20 matches.

It is as if the FA, the Premier League, the clubs and sports TV companies are not aware of the big spending squeeze that will hit even harder later this year.

As an Arsenal supporter, I choose to afford subscriptions to Sky Sports and BT Sport but Amazon Prime is a subscription too far.

Top fixtures only on Amazon Prime this season include Arsenal v Manchester City and Manchester United v Spurs in October and, on Boxing Day, Arsenal v West Ham.

The whole football world seems hell bent on screwing supporters, showing no interest in trying to help reduce ordinary punters’ costs; and I wager that it will find that many will give these organisations a red card.

North Londoners would be pleased were Arsenal and Spurs to take the lead by binning the relationship with Amazon Prime and by helping supporters in other ways.

LESTER MAY
Reachview Close, NW1