A new media revolution is brewing, racing needs to get on board

Regular live television football coverage did not begin in Britain until the 1960s, long after the advent of remote broadcasting. It had been resisted up to that point by club owners who feared showing the games on TV would harm attendances and it was only when ITV cut the Football League a healthy £150,000 cheque that the bosses relented. Finally, on September 10, 1960, Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers had the distinction of kicking off both their match and the revolution which would transform the national sport.

Today, television networks have become the Premier League's cash machine. The present deal with Sky and BT Sport is worth a little over £5.1 billion over three years, while international broadcasters shell out more than £1 billion every year. To put it in a racing context, each and every match televised costs its broadcaster more than the £7.5 million ITV pay to show an entire year's worth of racing.

Television money has yet to peak but football's audience, at least domestically and on legal transmission, may have done. Once again, a revolution in how people follow the sport appears to be underway, one that may in time come to rival even the dawn of live TV. And it applies not just to football but live television of every stripe and hue.