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BREAKING: Sky Sports will show EVERY match on the opening weekend of the 24/25 EFL season, as part of a deal to broadcast more than 1,000 games during the campaign.
The traditional 3pm blackout rules will not apply for the first match-day.
Each full weekend of EFL fixtures will see 10 live matches shown - including three Championship, two League One and two League Two matches all broadcast live at 12:30pm on Saturdays.
All opening weekend, final day, and midweek fixtures in the EFL will be shown live, as will all games played on Bank Holidays including Easter, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.
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Opening day of the season on 13:17 - May 8 with 8610 views
Opening day of the season on 13:09 - May 8 by Spen
Which games will be live on Sky?
Each full weekend of EFL fixtures will see 10 live matches shown - including three Championship, two League One and two League Two matches all broadcast live at 12:30pm on Saturdays.
All opening weekend, final day, and midweek fixtures in the EFL will be shown live, as will all games played on Bank Holidays including Easter, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.
Hmmmmm. The club is gonna have to be very careful with its season ticket prices.
In fact, I'm quite surprised next seasons prices haven't been released yet. Hopefully keep the feel good factor going
Sky are claiming they will choose all fixtures for broadcast until FA Cup 3rd round before the season starts, and after that, the rest of the fixtures by end of november. I guess when they're showing so many every week, it makes it easier to decide.
Interesting. Until the end of the season, I'd rarely watch a football league game that wasn't a QPR game. Are they effectively assuming that most games will have a viewing number of the amount of fans of the away side who normally only go to hime games, plus a few others?
Bare bones.
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Opening day of the season on 14:38 - May 8 with 8248 views
So that's any number from three to six championship games moved for Sky each weekend. And perhaps another broadcaster or two gets a game as well or have Sky eliminated the competition? I hope we're away first game in that case.
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Opening day of the season on 15:01 - May 8 with 8156 views
Opening day of the season on 14:38 - May 8 by saxbend
So that's any number from three to six championship games moved for Sky each weekend. And perhaps another broadcaster or two gets a game as well or have Sky eliminated the competition? I hope we're away first game in that case.
Sky get to milk the EFL, because other broadcasters are muscling in on the Prem
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Opening day of the season on 15:16 - May 8 with 8098 views
"Your team will be live on Sky Sports at least 20 times next season!"
That exciting/depressing news will probably be received very differently depending on whether you're a match-going fan or someone who can't get to games for whatever reason. Can't see me taking my son to any long distance away games with an early kick-off on a Saturday, Sunday will clash with his football, and Friday/Monday nights will be a no-go unless it's in the school holidays.
Gates are substantially on the up across the league and away supports seem to have been growing for loads of clubs over the past few seasons, so it would be a shame if this puts a bit of a break on that trend, and makes people less likely to travel. Having some proper notice and having more chance of getting cheaper train tickets will help, but they could have been made to do that anyway. Still, at least there's no VAR in the football league.
If I've understood their announcement correctly, ten televised EFL weekend matches will be at 12.30 on Saturday, so does that mean that there won't be any other Saturday games moved to Friday, Sunday, Monday or Saturday evening?
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Opening day of the season on 15:29 - May 8 with 8020 views
Opening day of the season on 15:27 - May 8 by francisbowles
If I've understood their announcement correctly, ten televised EFL weekend matches will be at 12.30 on Saturday, so does that mean that there won't be any other Saturday games moved to Friday, Sunday, Monday or Saturday evening?
I think it's three Championship and one lower league game each weekend at 1230 on a Saturday. Then several more scattered around those other kick off times.
It's an absolute shtshow for the matchgoing fan.
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Opening day of the season on 15:31 - May 8 with 7995 views
Opening day of the season on 15:29 - May 8 by Northernr
I think it's three Championship and one lower league game each weekend at 1230 on a Saturday. Then several more scattered around those other kick off times.
It's an absolute shtshow for the matchgoing fan.
Absolute dangers, moving 3 fixtures into the worst slot, that has to compete with BT/Discovery/TNT for the Prem game. This is going to be bloody awful.
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Opening day of the season on 15:36 - May 8 with 7982 views
Opening day of the season on 15:34 - May 8 by RBlock
Absolute dangers, moving 3 fixtures into the worst slot, that has to compete with BT/Discovery/TNT for the Prem game. This is going to be bloody awful.
I don't really get what they get out of dividing what is a pretty finite audience for EFL football (unless you get a Leeds, Newcastle, Villa, Everton type in the Champ) four ways in the same time slot.
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Opening day of the season on 15:53 - May 8 with 7860 views
Opening day of the season on 15:36 - May 8 by Northernr
I don't really get what they get out of dividing what is a pretty finite audience for EFL football (unless you get a Leeds, Newcastle, Villa, Everton type in the Champ) four ways in the same time slot.
It's going to be a top and bottom 6 wánkfest with teams in those slots being on 30+ times a season. Welcome to Sky Sports Burnley.
Opening day of the season on 15:36 - May 8 by Northernr
I don't really get what they get out of dividing what is a pretty finite audience for EFL football (unless you get a Leeds, Newcastle, Villa, Everton type in the Champ) four ways in the same time slot.
A few years back I tried to work out how many subs you'd need to cover the £3bn outgoing rights deal and actually make any money out of the thing.
It's a mystery! More people watch Antiques Roadshow at the weekend, and you don't see a bidding war for that.
I'm not sure how many iTV Digital, Setanta, ESPN, BT Sport type deals we need to see before its realised that its not a viable proposition.
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Opening day of the season on 16:35 - May 8 with 7659 views
Few months ago I binned Sky Sports from my virgin package and renegotiated, and I'm paying almost 50 quid less per month for the next 18 months than the 18 before, which is more than welcome. I've got an IPTV box for Pay-per-view boxing anyway, and a 200mb line, so I just watch anything I want on Sky Sports via that, usually in 8k/UHD.
This is possibly the best chance we'll get to end Sky Sports. I'm sure they'd be replaced by a facsimile company that would eventually try the same shit, after a bit of "Ooooh arent the fans important" PR - but it would be a great victory, wouldn't it? Just think. Think of "Footballs hardest away days" on Sky1. Think of Peter Odemwingie being interviewed on South Africa Road. Think of Kia Joorabchan. Jim White. SkyBet. 2 hours of Karen Carney on MNF. Pay Per View. Whatever Sky Sports News is these days.
We really need to do everything in our power to ensure this deal does not, cannot, and never will work. Otherwise you've got the future of televised EFL football being played out in front of 100 people mainly for the benefit of Far Eastern betting markets.
ps. I don't know how to get these boxes so please don't send me any DM's - but they're available everywhere for about 100 quid (Then 50 quid a year after your first year). Not perfect but better than nothing and far, far better than handing your hard earned over to those cnts every month. Ask your local High St Boss Man.
[Post edited 8 May 16:37]
"Someone despises me. That's their problem." Marcus Aurelius
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Opening day of the season on 16:37 - May 8 with 7641 views
Think we stand to receive an extra £3m or so from this deal so at our average ticket price, we’d probably have to lose 5000 supporters from each and every home game to make this unviable.
Unlikely to happen in a 17500 capacity stadium so financially a good deal for us.
More likely to affect away support than anything so we just need to evaluate how the school end gets divided up after the first season.
Will miss the volume of 3pm Saturday games we’ve had this season but to be fair, we only got them because we spent most of the season being as poor as everyone expected.
[Post edited 8 May 16:38]
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Opening day of the season on 16:42 - May 8 with 7608 views
A few years back I tried to work out how many subs you'd need to cover the £3bn outgoing rights deal and actually make any money out of the thing.
It's a mystery! More people watch Antiques Roadshow at the weekend, and you don't see a bidding war for that.
I'm not sure how many iTV Digital, Setanta, ESPN, BT Sport type deals we need to see before its realised that its not a viable proposition.
Live sport absolutely is viable though and Sky will have done the maths based on years of FL coverage. The reason it's viable is that live sport is one of the few things people still watch 'live' - therefore it's one of the few places advertisers still want to advertise.
Bare bones.
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Opening day of the season on 16:57 - May 8 with 7507 views
A few years back I tried to work out how many subs you'd need to cover the £3bn outgoing rights deal and actually make any money out of the thing.
It's a mystery! More people watch Antiques Roadshow at the weekend, and you don't see a bidding war for that.
I'm not sure how many iTV Digital, Setanta, ESPN, BT Sport type deals we need to see before its realised that its not a viable proposition.
on top of the very expensive subscription fee do you notice how many ads they put out during games, far more than free to air, half time is basically 15 minutes of ads now which is where they also make a fair chunk of their money back
The whole point of it is to get people to subscribe and take eyes away from TNT games in the same slot
Also don't forget Skybet which makes them an absolute fortune based mostly on the football they show
[Post edited 8 May 17:41]
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Opening day of the season on 17:48 - May 8 with 7298 views
Opening day of the season on 16:57 - May 8 by BAWHoops
3 games at 12:30 every Saturday seems ridiculous. Plus they have the Friday night, Sunday 12:00 slot they can dick us into as well
It's 7 live games in that time slot, does seem mad
Each full weekend of EFL fixtures will see 10 live matches shown - including three Championship, two League One and two League Two matches all broadcast live at 12:30pm on Saturdays.
All opening weekend, final day, and midweek fixtures in the EFL will be shown live, as will all games played on Bank Holidays including Easter, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.
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Opening day of the season on 18:15 - May 8 with 7187 views
A few years back I tried to work out how many subs you'd need to cover the £3bn outgoing rights deal and actually make any money out of the thing.
It's a mystery! More people watch Antiques Roadshow at the weekend, and you don't see a bidding war for that.
I'm not sure how many iTV Digital, Setanta, ESPN, BT Sport type deals we need to see before its realised that its not a viable proposition.
The subscription fees aren't how they make their money. Ads and sponsorship cover most of it. I'm sure the subscription fees are largely a psychological thing to make people think that they must be getting something special because they're paying good money for it. They have to pale into insignificance even multiplied by tens of millions (and the extra scalar for the pub subscriptions) compared with how much McDonald's (or whoever pay) to put their ads in the breaks at half time.
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Opening day of the season on 18:46 - May 8 with 7095 views
Opening day of the season on 18:15 - May 8 by saxbend
The subscription fees aren't how they make their money. Ads and sponsorship cover most of it. I'm sure the subscription fees are largely a psychological thing to make people think that they must be getting something special because they're paying good money for it. They have to pale into insignificance even multiplied by tens of millions (and the extra scalar for the pub subscriptions) compared with how much McDonald's (or whoever pay) to put their ads in the breaks at half time.
I read each Championship team will appear 24 times. That leaves 22. I'm struggling, as an overseas supporter, to justify a subscription to QPR+
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain)
Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky
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Opening day of the season on 18:53 - May 8 with 7072 views
Opening day of the season on 18:15 - May 8 by saxbend
The subscription fees aren't how they make their money. Ads and sponsorship cover most of it. I'm sure the subscription fees are largely a psychological thing to make people think that they must be getting something special because they're paying good money for it. They have to pale into insignificance even multiplied by tens of millions (and the extra scalar for the pub subscriptions) compared with how much McDonald's (or whoever pay) to put their ads in the breaks at half time.
I'm not sure that's true. I'm not sure how accurate this is but the best figure I can find online is that Sky earned £8,935m in subscriptions + licensing for 2022 with £1,269m from advertising. I thought it was more like a 4:1 ratio but I'd have to go digging through Comcast accounts to be sure. Basically they use the ads as a nice extra to "keep the subscription price lower" (haha, yeh right).
In general linear television, Channel 4 a particularly stark example, that relies on advertising is in the absolute sht at the moment because the ad revenue has bled dramatically to digital. C4 announced today it was putting another couple of its bigger shows (Cats Does Countdown including ) on the shelf because it's struggling to afford to make them.
Mate of mine's production company went to the wall last month because he had three series worth £4m to the business, but the broadcasters couldn't afford to greenlight them and he's just been left running his company for months with no money coming in. Production companies going bust all over the place atm because the linear channels they rely on can't greenlight anything.
Used to be the model was you'd have a good idea, take it to C4, they'd like it, give you 100% of the budget, you start shooting the next day. Then that model became they'd give you 50% of the budget and you'd have to go find the other half through pre-sales, distribution advance, coproduction with similar channels in other countries. Now they tell you they like it, but they can only stump up 10% (or 0% in one case I was hearing about lately) and you've got to go find 90% of the budget elsewhere.
Whole TV business is on the bones of its ars atm, it's all we're writing about and covering in my day job.
Long story short, if you're reliant on advertising and you're a linear TV broadcaster you're proper fcked atm. You need a subscription or licence fee model to even exist.
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Opening day of the season on 19:16 - May 8 with 7002 views
Opening day of the season on 18:53 - May 8 by Northernr
I'm not sure that's true. I'm not sure how accurate this is but the best figure I can find online is that Sky earned £8,935m in subscriptions + licensing for 2022 with £1,269m from advertising. I thought it was more like a 4:1 ratio but I'd have to go digging through Comcast accounts to be sure. Basically they use the ads as a nice extra to "keep the subscription price lower" (haha, yeh right).
In general linear television, Channel 4 a particularly stark example, that relies on advertising is in the absolute sht at the moment because the ad revenue has bled dramatically to digital. C4 announced today it was putting another couple of its bigger shows (Cats Does Countdown including ) on the shelf because it's struggling to afford to make them.
Mate of mine's production company went to the wall last month because he had three series worth £4m to the business, but the broadcasters couldn't afford to greenlight them and he's just been left running his company for months with no money coming in. Production companies going bust all over the place atm because the linear channels they rely on can't greenlight anything.
Used to be the model was you'd have a good idea, take it to C4, they'd like it, give you 100% of the budget, you start shooting the next day. Then that model became they'd give you 50% of the budget and you'd have to go find the other half through pre-sales, distribution advance, coproduction with similar channels in other countries. Now they tell you they like it, but they can only stump up 10% (or 0% in one case I was hearing about lately) and you've got to go find 90% of the budget elsewhere.
Whole TV business is on the bones of its ars atm, it's all we're writing about and covering in my day job.
Long story short, if you're reliant on advertising and you're a linear TV broadcaster you're proper fcked atm. You need a subscription or licence fee model to even exist.
Thanks for the explanation, Clive. What that says to me is that there's a combination of gross overcharging of subscribers and gold dust of advertising space being given away for next to nothing.