Sky-HD: why no Liverpool, Arsenal and ManUnited in HD?

[Bengbeng]

This weekend is not the first time Sky selects the smaller clubs for the HD channels. Liverpool in HD is becoming rare these days.
Is this the choice of the English people or has this other reasons?

[Goooner]

They showed Villa v Chlesea yesterday, didn't they? Setanta had Man Utd, so Sky couldn't show that one.

It's CL this coming week, Arsenal and Man Utd both play Tues, so they had to play Saturday this weekend anyway.

Isn't there a quota where all teams have to be on a minimum amount of times? So if they show two "little" teams playing each other, that kills two birds with one stone.

[penna]

I would hope that you are joking, but alas I fear not.

The "big four" are on Sky Sports alllll of the time. I cannot believe someone would be complaining that they are not on enough!

(My team have been on Sky once in the league this season!)

[Starburst]

SKY has a contractual obligation to show 3(?) homes games from every PL club, beyond that they are free to choose within the bounds of the 4 PL packages they bought, Setanta having the other two.

Obviously SKY will want to be able to freely pick the teams directly involved in the championship chase in the final few weeks thus the "big" 4 will sometimes not be picked thus saving them for a more critical fixture later on.

The reality of the situation as SKY, Setanta, BBC and ITV know full well is that the TV audiences are larger for the "big" 4, there is no getting around that simply thanks to the general audience with little or no allegiance to a club want to see the big names.
If the TV audience was as fractured as the real football fan base there would be far less money to be made in showing games.

[Coffin]

Originally Posted by Bengbeng

This weekend is not the first time Sky selects the smaller clubs for the HD channels. Liverpool in HD is becoming rare these days.
Is this the choice of the English people or has this other reasons?

I think, being based in Rotterdam, you are watching different 'Sky' broadcasts than to us here in the UK.

You have highlighted Liverpool, Sunday's 3 o'clock kick off, that was not even shown in the UK on television, live, yesterday.

I can think of very few domestic games regardless of the competition that have not been shown in high def, which Sky covered