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Poll: Would you pay to watch England online?

England’s penultimate World Cup qualifier in Ukraine is without a UK broadcasting deal, following the collapse earlier in the summer of satellite channel Setanta.

Now the game has been rendered a “dead rubber” after the 5-1 drubbing of Croatia on Wednesday to guarantee Fabio Capello’s team a place in next year’s finals in South Africa, reports suggest that the media agency hawking the game to ITV, BBC, Sky Sports and Five are fearful that the rights will not realise the £4.5 million price tag, and a radical scheme has been hatched to offer the match by streaming it over the internet to paying viewers.

Would you watch an England match through subscription online?

Post your views – even a simple “Yes” or “No” – in our entirely unscientific poll in the Comment box below.

Given that the latest reports suggest that some larger newspaper publishers are considering buying the internet rights to flog via their own websites, such a feature could also be seen as a piece of rudimentary market research (provided you overlook the notion that Guardian readers are not usually regarded as typical England footbal fans). Cast a vote on the Guardian‘s website to form a view as to whether GNM will be buying the rights.


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