Why the same competition streams some fixtures and not others

A competition that streams half its fixtures looks arbitrary from the outside. It is decided by two things a reader never sees: the shape of the package the rights were sold in, and whether the audience for a given fixture carries the delivery.

Desk spec

listed: 300
streamed: 96
reasons: 4
same competition, uneven: yes

the pictureA live picture is a licensed broadcast shown beside a market, not a window onto the event. It has an owner, a territory and a cost, and only 96 of 300 events in the month carry one.

the two clocksThe event happens at 0.0 s, the price refreshes at 0.2 s and the picture arrives at 12.0 s, so the number beside the picture is 11.8 seconds newer than the picture it sits beside.

the one sourceThree things describe an event - the picture, the data feed and the official result - and only the official result settles a bet. The picture looked decisive in 96 of 100 disputes and settled none of them.

Direct answer

A competition streams unevenly for four reasons: the rights package bundles only some fixtures, the audience for the rest is too small to carry delivery, the territory for the fixture is blacked, or the fixture is outside the package period. On the samples 96 of 300 events carry a picture, and every one of them is in the top two tiers.

The four reasons an event has no picture

From the outside these look like one thing, and a reader trying to understand why a picture is missing needs to tell them apart, because only one of them is a fault.

Sample A and D - the four reasons, and their signatures
Reason	Signature	Events	Is it a fault
outside the package	the competition streams on other days but not this fixture	~90	no
audience too small	the tier never streams, on any fixture, ever	~90	no
blacked in this territory	the same fixture streams on another page	16	no
a genuine fault	the event is in the package and would normally stream	~8	yes
four reasons	three are the licence, one is a fault	204	1 of 4

sample A - the unevenness, worked from the tiers listed 300, streamed 96 -> 96 / 300 = 32.0% top division 60 / 60 = 100.0% every fixture streams second division 24 / 80 = 30.0% 3 fixtures in 10 cup + intl 12 / 40 = 30.0% 3 fixtures in 10 lower + reserve 0 / 120 = 0.0% no fixture ever streams so a reader watching one division sees 100.0% of fixtures and a reader watching another sees 0.0%, from the same site on the same day.

Why a package bundles what it bundles

Rights are sold in packages because the seller wants to move the fixtures nobody would buy. A buyer who wants the top fixtures must take some of the rest, so a package can carry events whose audience would never have justified the purchase on its own - and it still does not carry all of them, which is why the coverage of a middle tier sits at three fixtures in ten rather than at all or nothing.

sample F and A - the meter decides the middle tier a fixture whose audience is 2,000 viewers at 3.0 Mbps for 2 hours: delivery = 2,000 x 0.0540 = 108.00 the same fixture at 200,000 viewers = 200,000 x 0.0540 = 10,800.00 so the two fixtures cost 100 times as much to show as each other while the rights for both are inside one package payment: the package price is fixed and the delivery is variable, and it is the variable one that decides whether a fixture on the edge of the package is actually switched on.

Check an event before you decide the missing picture is a fault

Do other fixtures in the same competition stream, which points at the package?
Does any fixture in this tier stream, which points at the audience?
Does the same fixture stream elsewhere, which points at the territory?
Is today inside the period the rights were bought for?
Is the absence reported by the operator, or only by the empty frame?

Why the same competition streams some fixtures and not others

The four reasons an event has no picture

Why a package bundles what it bundles

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