ofcom is to canvas the views of thousands of football fans as it probes a complaint by virgin media about the way £17 billion a year premier league football rights are sold to broadcasters armchair supporters and regular match goers are to be asked for their views as part of the regulator's inquiry ofcom also said it would be looking at changes in the prices charged by broadcasters for sports channels bt sport share the rights with sky to broadcast premier league football throughout the season  the regulator is in the midst of an investigation after virgin argued that the english top flight screened fewer live matches than other top european leagues, contributing to higher prices for pay tv packages in an update published on monday, it said that its probe continued to progress with no decisions reached at this stage and that it was reviewing consumer research it had recently received from virgin media it added: 'ofcom will also carry out new consumer research, which will canvas views of fans who attend matches and those who watch them on tv thierry henry (left) and jamie carragher are part of the star studded team sky sports employ as pundits  'it will look at the value viewers place on watching the premier league we will also be monitoring changes in retail prices of sports channels as the investigation progresses' the fans' research will build on views already sought from football bodies, clubs, fans' groups, broadcasters and policing organisations virgin had argued that the latest premier league rights auction should be suspended as ofcom probed the process, but the regulator declined and allowed the sale to go ahead last month virgin media are unhappy with the way the premier league sell their rights for such a huge price  it resulted in sky and bt paying a combined £514 billion to screen top flight games for the 2016 2019 seasons, a 70 per cent increase on the current deal ofcom said prior to the auction that there was no 'urgent need' to delay it and that it was carrying out its probe 'expeditiously' given that the auctioned matches will start to be broadcast from august 2016 it said it had the power necessary to alter broadcasting arrangements before this time, should its probe find there had been an infringement of competition rules
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