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Culture Secretary demands Premier League show remaining games on free-to-air TV

Culture Secretary demands Premier League show remaining games on free-to-air TV
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Oliver Dowden appeared before the DCMS committee and concerns were raised over whether people would break social-distancing rules to watch matches.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden admitted it "wouldn't send the best signal" if Premier League games were only available via subscription should the competition be able to resume behind closed doors.

Sky Sports and BT hold the UK television rights for live Premier League matches in what remains of the 2019-20 Premier League season, which is currently suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Dowden appeared before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee on Wednesday, and its chair Julian Knight raised concerns that if matches were only on subscription services rather than free-to-air, there may be the temptation for people to go to each other's houses to watch it.

Dowden said: "I've raised this challenge to the Premier League in the conversations I've had with them.

Oliver Dowden
Oliver Dowden appeared before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee on Wednesday (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

"I have said to the Premier League it wouldn't send the best signal if they were one of the first major sports to resume behind closed doors and the public at large couldn't have access to it."

When further pushed by Knight on whether that meant we could expect to see matches on BBC or ITV, Dowden said: "I'm certainly not going to jump a further step ahead and start speculating about the platform upon which they might broadcast.

"To your point, if they are being mindful of access points that doesn't just have to be going onto traditional terrestrial matches, or even showing all of the matches.

"There's all sorts of creative options within that but it is something they should be considering, and they have said they are."

Dowden said there had been "productive conversations" with sporting bodies about how they might go about resuming activity in the event of restrictions being relaxed, but insisted these were on a "without prejudice" basis and that nothing would happen unless scientific advice changed.

"We have had productive conversations. We must be content that it sends the correct signal. But within that we have been involved in some constructive discussions. We have already engaged with the police, Public Health England, the Local Government Association and others. We're progressing this.

"We want to get to a point where we've bottomed out with this work, dealt with all the practicalities of it, then if the wider circumstances permit we would seek through Cobra and others to do it. That is not what we're talking about right now, but we want to make sure we do all the preparatory work."

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TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
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2Manchester CityMan City28183768313757
3Leicester CityLeicester29165858283053
4Chelsea29146951391248
5Manchester UnitedMan Utd29129844301445
6Wolverhampton WanderersWolves29101364134743
7Sheffield UnitedSheff Utd28111073025543
8Tottenham HotspurSpurs29118104740741
9Arsenal2891364036440
10Burnley29116123440-639
11Crystal Palace29109102632-639
12Everton29107123746-937
13Newcastle UnitedNewcastle2998122541-1635
14Southampton29104153552-1734
15Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton29611123240-829
16West Ham UnitedWest Ham2976163550-1527
17Watford2969142744-1727
18Bournemouth2976162947-1827
19Aston Villa2874173456-2225
20Norwich CityNorwich2956182552-2721

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