Sky deal will see 1,000 games televised from the English Football League

Think this is a positive for match going fans:

The EFL and Sky have pledged that broadcast selections up to the end of September will be confirmed within seven days of 2024-25 fixtures being announced this summer, and that supporters will know before the start of the season about any changes to kick-off times prior to FA Cup third round weekend in January. By November 1 they will know about selections through to the first weekend in March.

The notice period for selections will then be four weeks in advance during the run-in.

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Typical weekend:

On a regular weekend 10 matches will be shown live, including seven at 12.30pm on a Saturday, with a three-two-two split between the Championship, League One and League Two.
 
The corpse of ITV Digital is spinning in its grave right about now. Faint echoes of the word "moonkay" can be heard.
 
And they pay us peanuts
Having restricted access to what games can be seen will ensure that we never a decent broadcast deal and the clubs (Rangers and Celtic) are to blame for that along with other issues

Meanwhile other leagues embrace and try to get decent income without have really any restrictions in place

The EFL went out to tender for this deal and were allowing every game to shown and even look at Saturday 3pm games but they went against that in the end but doubled it's existing deal financially

The EFL looked after it members interests sure the match going will be inconvenienced as a result but you can plan for that
 
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The SPFL will struggle to compete with national league wages at this rate. When this money filters down League 2 teams will be paying more than most up here.

The 3pm blackout is a joke as well. Everyone can access the EPL USA, Canadian, Aussie and Asian feeds every Saturday. There is no reason for the SPFL to be hamstrung by this anymore.

With both stadiums sold out on season tickets, all Rangers and Celtic home games should be live on Sky to get this deal sorted once and for all.
 
be interesting to see if this affects crowd attendances

It will:

Sky said there would be four live matches on Friday, August 9, all kicking off at 8pm, featuring two from the Championship and one game each from League One and League Two.

On Saturday August 10 a further eight Championship games will go out live, 11 from League One and 11 from League Two. Which division occupies which slot is still to be decided, but the slots are expected to be 12.30pm, 3pm and 5.30pm. The final two Championship openers will be played on Sunday, August 11.


Might see some Clubs going cheap on their opening fixture, if they are allowed to.
 
The SPFL will struggle to compete with national league wages at this rate. When this money filters down League 2 teams will be paying more than most up here.

The 3pm blackout is a joke as well. Everyone can access the EPL USA, Canadian, Aussie and Asian feeds every Saturday. There is no reason for the SPFL to be hamstrung by this anymore.

With both stadiums sold out on season tickets, all Rangers and Celtic home games should be live on Sky to get this deal sorted once and for all.
I agree that the 3pm black out should be scrapped as most people now have access to the game via other means (VPN), however your point about Rangers and Celtic home games being sold out is the reason why they put it in place. If someone doesn’t have a ticket to Rangers at home then that person might go to a lower league game instead. If the Rangers game was on tv they wouldn’t go to the lower league and watch it on tv.
 
Sky already have a vast subscriber base though. No new kick off times needed either on top of what's currently in place.
True, more thinking about the money they've spent on it. There's not a big audience for non-Epl matches and virtually no interest outside of the supporters of the teams involved in the matches. It's SPL levels of audience and 900+m to buy the rights seems extravagant.
 
I agree that the 3pm black out should be scrapped as most people now have access to the game via other means (VPN), however your point about Rangers and Celtic home games being sold out is the reason why they put it in place. If someone doesn’t have a ticket to Rangers at home then that person might go to a lower league game instead. If the Rangers game was on tv they wouldn’t go to the lower league and watch it on tv.
Does that actually happen though? How many OF are going to watch other games when their teams are playing even if they can't get a ticket? With VPNs and various other ways of accessing broadcasts, I'd have thought that they'd be sitting at home watching on TV anyway.
 
Does that actually happen though? How many OF are going to watch other games when their teams are playing even if they can't get a ticket? With VPNs and various other ways of accessing broadcasts, I'd have thought that they'd be sitting at home watching on TV anyway.
I agree, don’t think many people would and yeah most will access games via VPN’s. But this was the reason why it was brought in, in the first place. But times have changed and think that we should be looking to get as many games on tv as we can, too increase our income or we’re going to get even further behind the other leagues in Europe.
 
True, more thinking about the money they've spent on it. There's not a big audience for non-Epl matches and virtually no interest outside of the supporters of the teams involved in the matches. It's SPL levels of audience and 900+m to buy the rights seems extravagant.
They'll probably have subtle price rises over the term of the deal to fund it I'd imagine.
 
In the 80's/90's I would watch any football that was shown live. This meant random FA cup games, Junior cup finals etc. And I watched the highlight programmes every Sat night and Sunday afternoon.

Now I have access to every single top game in Scotland and England - the only thing I ever watch is Rangers games.

Something was definitely lost with the wall to wall coverage.

I dare say the total viewing audience is exponentially higher so the sponsorship is up and the money is massive, but to old sods it's not the same attraction as 4th round FA cup on a Friday night.
Weird.
 
I agree that the 3pm black out should be scrapped as most people now have access to the game via other means (VPN), however your point about Rangers and Celtic home games being sold out is the reason why they put it in place. If someone doesn’t have a ticket to Rangers at home then that person might go to a lower league game instead. If the Rangers game was on tv they wouldn’t go to the lower league and watch it on tv.

I have never understood this assumption that fans that are nable to watch Rangers in the flesh would go and watch a game elsewhere. Perhaps it is me that is out of step but I have absolutely no interest in paying to watch any team other than Rangers.

PS the first live game I ever attended was a LC game at Firhill in Aug 1968 between Thistle and Morton. I was 6 years old and my Thistle supporting cousin took me. This remains the only club game not featuring Rangers that I have ever attended.
 
I have never understood this assumption that fans that are nable to watch Rangers in the flesh would go and watch a game elsewhere. Perhaps it is me that is out of step but I have absolutely no interest in paying to watch any team other than Rangers.

PS the first live game I ever attended was a LC game at Firhill in Aug 1968 between Thistle and Morton. I was 6 years old and my Thistle supporting cousin took me. This remains the only club game not featuring Rangers that I have ever attended.

The sad thing I am seeing in England is people who live very close to their Club not bothering going and watching on firesticks, some because of cost and some because the atmosphere is crap really I think.
 
The sad thing I am seeing in England is people who live very close to their Club not bothering going and watching on firesticks, some because of cost and some because the atmosphere is crap really I think.

EPL football is getting more and more expensive and getting tickets can be almost impossible so fans will use whatever means to see their team.

I can still recall having Ibrox almost all to myself as crowds plummeted to below 10000 at times during the dreadful 80's. I would never imagined then that Ibrox would have 40000 plus ST's with a waiting list of 10000.
 
EPL football is getting more and more expensive and getting tickets can be almost impossible so fans will use whatever means to see their team.

I can still recall having Ibrox almost all to myself as crowds plummeted to below 10000 at times during the dreadful 80's. I would never imagined then that Ibrox would have 40000 plus ST's with a waiting list of 10000.

I am on about league 1 and 2 level mate, tickets are no issue to get.
 
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