At the start of this year’s Premier League season, it was announced by Sky Sports, the premier sports television network in England, that all games played behind closed doors due to the Coronavirus lockdown would be sold to fans as pay per view. Due to the state of COVID-19 at the time and still today, all games are played behind closed doors. Therefore, the English fans who live and breathe football had to pay 15 pounds to watch one game. This was the alternative that replaced Sky Sports’ usual coverage of the premier league that would be a much lower price per month to access all games. Understandably the fans were not pleased to raise more funds for the clubs that are suffering financially as they ask for entertainment during uncertain times.

The backlash from the fans was something that Sky did not expect. Along with the many fans boycotting the games and not giving Sky any money, pundits like Gary Neville pointed out their mistake, calling it “a really bad move.” Fans decided to put their 15 pounds towards charity instead of the matches to prove that they wanted the system to be reverted. In the end, 300,000 pounds were raised for charity, and Sky knew that they could no longer ignore the bad publicity they were getting. 

As of November 14th, Sky Sports has announced that they will discontinue their pay per view model in the Premier League. They claim that they want fans to enjoy the full schedule of games during the holiday season with a more accessible solution. They plan to revisit this topic next year to decide on how their broadcast will work next season. For now, fans can rejoice and be happy that their boycotts did. This is a beautiful example of how everybody’s voice matters, and if we all make our voices heard, things more prominent than we ever knew we could affect could be changed. This is an essential lesson because our current world has lots of disagreement, and the future is unknown. Together, we all can secure our futures through boycotts and speaking up just how those in England did.