Sky Sports and TNT Sports with new changes – Sums up everything that’s wrong with where game is heading | OneFootball

Sky Sports, TNT Sports and the Premier League.

When you hear of any change they have decided to make, you know it is not going to be a good thing.

They would argue we have never had it so good.

The 2024/25 season saw 200 Premier League matches shown live out of 380.

Now for the 2025/26 season, at least 267 Premier League games will be shown live by Sky Sports or TNT Sports when the new deal kicks in. Amazon Prime having withdrawn from covering Premier League football.

Sky Sports and TNT Sports between them, will show every single match live, that is not a 3pm Saturday kick-off. That number of ‘at least’ 267 live matches out of 380 next season, means that at the very most there will be only 113 Premier League games kicking off at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon.

The Premier League have also warned that things are going to get even worse when it comes to how much notice is given for when matches get moved, especially as the 2025/26 season progresses.

Talking of ‘progress’, this has now been made public…

The Athletic report – 27 June 2025:

‘Premier League broadcasts will feature interviews with substituted players, as well as more on-pitch and dressing room camera access from next season.

Broadcasters will also be allowed to enter the pitch in order to capture close-up footage of goal celebrations.’

This sums up to me everything that is wrong with where football, especially the Premier League, is heading.

Who has decided these are great ideas?

Who amongst the paying Sky Sports and TNT Sports customers is wanting this?

I think this is where the Premier League and broadcasters get it so wrong, the brilliant thing about football is its simplicity. It is a simple game to understand and all the TV viewers want is to see 90+ minutes of football with as few interruptions as possible.

When rubbish changes are suggested, you just know that it is American influence. All of the rubbish native sports in America (that hardly anybody else in the world plays, or has interest in), such as American Football and Baseball, all go on forever and are constantly stop start, which allows for countless adverts and nonsense like interviewing key individuals who are part of the spectacle.

The patter of most of the commentators and c0-commentators is annoying enough on the Sky Sports and TNT Sports coverage anyway. Plus, there has been an ever increasing habit of whilst the game is going on, they don’t even show it. For example, if the commentators are talking about one of the managers, or one of the subs, the cameras will switch to them, rather than the match action that is going on. I find this incredibly frustrating, if they want to talk about Pep Guardiola or Eddie Howe whilst a match is playing, then fine. However, they don’t have to actually put a camera on the person they are talking about, we all know what Eddie and Pep look like!

It isn’t like that with the camera on them, they are suddenly going to do something noteworthy, such as you know, hit a brilliant long pass, which can of course happen and does which you then miss seeing live, because they are instead showing you Eddie Howe instead, as a Fabian Schar special 60 yard pass picks out Alexander Isak.

As to these new brilliant changes that The Athletic have reported on.

Does any TV viewer actually have any interest at all in listening to players who have been subbed off, whilst the match is continuing? The only thing we would find of interest is the very thing Sky Sports, TNT Sports and the Premier League wouldn’t want, which is an emotional player unhappy at being subbed off and tempers running high, then has a microphone pushed in his face and he then swears his head off. Only to then be cut off and the commentator with the old ‘We apologise for any bad language you might have possibly heard…’

As for; ‘Broadcasters will also be allowed to enter the pitch in order to capture close-up footage of goal celebrations.’

Again, please no, no, no.

Stay off the bloody pitch!

That will all end in tears anyway for sure.

TNT Sports and Sky Sports camera operators running onto the pitch when a goal has been scored to get close ups of player celebrations, only a matter of time before a player gets clobbered by a camera, or the camera carrier collides with one or more players.

Obviously, been at the actual match is the best, by a million miles.

However, for those who can’t be there in person and rely on watching on TV, keep it simple, stop the nonsense, show the game.