EXCLUSIVE: The man behind the Great British Pub Crawl said he feared approaching a point where only the very biggest companies with massive contracts with Sky would be able to afford to show games anymore
Sky Sports prices risk killing off the age old tradition of watching the footy down the pub, it has been claimed.
Dale Harvey, best known for his work on The Great British Pub Crawl, says landlords are having to sell close to an extra 2,000 pints a month just to pay for their Sky Sports access.
He produced images of a bill reportedly received by The Eight Farmers in Crewe, which saw the boozer charged £1,839.20 for a Sky Business subscription for the month of March this year.
“That’s 2,000 extra pints on top of them just keeping their lights on and their doors open, that 2,000 extra pints every month just to be able to show live football,” he said.
Some landlords are now reportedly cancelling their Sky subscriptions because they can’t afford it, meaning they miss out on sales from people coming to watch the game, and people who rely on those boozers to see their teams needing to find alternative arrangements.
“I speak to landlords near enough every day of my life now and I know some who have cancelled their Sky now, can’t do it,” Dale added.
“Their renewal price has come through and they’ve gone ‘look we can’t physically afford to do it.’ People who were using their pub to watch the sport in, they’re not going to be able to do it in that pub any more, so they’re costing them their customers.”
He said he feared we were approaching a point where only the very biggest companies would be able to afford to show games anymore.
“Any independent pub is getting priced out of the market by Sky’s prices by the fact that it’s not feasible to sell 2,000 extra pints in a month,” he said, pointing to the fact that many pubs make less than a pound in profit per pint poured.
Sky, however, told the Daily Star that their costs were reflective of investments made in its products, noting that a record number of matches are due to be televised in 2025.
Dale, however, also railed at the fact that the games that are being charged so much for often don’t have a huge amount of pull for the neutral fan.
“I remember one a few weeks back, it was a Saturday afternoon, the 5:30pm game, it was Bournemouth and Brentford,” Dale explained.
“No offence to either of those teams particularly, but for people who don’t support those teams, who is going ‘we need to go to the pub today’.
“It’s not getting anyone in the door. Man City-Arsenal, Liverpool-Man United, they’re games that even if you’re a neutral you’re going to go ‘right I want to watch that game so let’s go to the pub to watch it.
“But yeah, no offence, Bournemouth-Brentford, no one is going to pub to watch those games. So, Sky really need to rethink this pub pricing thing, they really do.”
In a statement made to the Daily Star, Sky Sports said: “We aim to keep prices as low as possible while still delivering the content and support that adds value to our customers’ business.”