Sky Games Next Season

[Dan]

It's been touched on in other threads, but a bit more info seems to have come out today about the new Sky TV deal for next season affecting EFL games.

- EVERY EFL team will be shown live on Sky Sports at least 20 times in 2024/25

- ALL 36 opening weekend matches will be broadcast live

- No new time slots created. Approx. 6 matches at Sat lunchtime, one or two on Fri PM/Sun lunch

- TV selections through to January 2025 will be announced before the season

- All games will get commentary and multi-camera

It's not great news that there will be a lot of lunchtime kicks offs, but I'm pleased the games aren't going to be staggered all across the weekend with ridiculous kick off times, and it's a huge positive that we will be told the kick off changes months in advance, as that isn't the case at the moment.

[Terry Jacko]

Will midweek league one games be shown on sky ? Red button style
At this point I think they might as well scrap the sat 3pm blackout.

[Dan]

May 8, 2024 17:07:30 GMT 1 Terry Jacko said:

Will midweek league one games be shown on sky ? Red button style
At this point I think they might as well scrap the sat 3pm blackout.

Yep, all midweek games will be shown live. But not red button. It's all on a new channel called Sky Sports+ which sounds like it's going to be a bit more user friendly than the old red button.

Normal weekends will have 10 EFL games - 5 from the Championship, 5 from Leagues 1/2 combined. 6 of these games will be Sat 12.30, 2 on Friday night and 2 on Sunday lunch.

[Yorkie]

If all opening fixtures are on TV does that mean the season won’t kick off at 3pm on a Saturday then?

[Dan]

May 8, 2024 17:21:54 GMT 1 Yorkie said:

If all opening fixtures are on TV does that mean the season won’t kick off at 3pm on a Saturday then?

All opening games will be Saturday 3pm. Blackout doesn't apply as PL aren't playing that weekend.

[garyroberts'leftfoot]

So likely to be 3 league 1 games televised each weekend? That’s a 1 in 4 chance it will be us although as we are one of the larger clubs we may be shown more often.

Doesn’t sound good but it will be worse for championship clubs. A small advantage of being in league 1.

[k1man999]

Depending on how well we are doing could be on quite a bit

[kennyk2]

Anyone know if the club will hold rights for full match replays, which is the case now?

[Dan]

May 8, 2024 17:32:13 GMT 1 garyroberts'leftfoot said:

So likely to be 3 league 1 games televised each weekend? That’s a 1 in 4 chance it will be us although as we are one of the larger clubs we may be shown more often.

Doesn’t sound good but it will be worse for championship clubs. A small advantage of being in league 1.

Think the 5 League 1/2 games each weekend will probably alternate each week between which league has 3 and which has 2, as Sky have committed to showing an equal number of both:

328 Sky Bet Championship matches
248 Sky Bet League One matches
248 Sky Bet League Two matches
All 15 Play-Off matches
All 93 Carabao Cup matches
All 127 EFL Trophy matches

The league will be played over 36 weekends, 6 midweeks and 4 bank holidays, and Sky are showing all midweek and BH games as well as all the opening weekend and the final weekend in full. That's 144 of the 248 games. And that's each team covered 12 times.

Leaves 104 games to be split between the 36 weekends. And they've committed to covering each team a further 8 times. So I don't think there'll be TOO much of a weighting towards the bigger clubs in each league.

[Jack]

May 8, 2024 17:32:13 GMT 1 garyroberts'leftfoot said:

So likely to be 3 league 1 games televised each weekend? That’s a 1 in 4 chance it will be us although as we are one of the larger clubs we may be shown more often.

Doesn’t sound good but it will be worse for championship clubs. A small advantage of being in league 1.

Also, I think Sky will like coming to us often as we have a lot of the infrastructure in place (cabling etc..) which other league 1 clubs won't have.

[incognito]

We're really seeing the blurring of boundaries between "televised" and "streamed".

The majority of these 1000 EFL games that Sky broadcast next season will be via the latter.

On a Saturday at 12h30 there will be seven games broadcast simultaneously (3x Championship, 2x League One, 2x League Two). By the sounds of it, they are adding a new, linear 'Sky Sports+' channel, so one of the seven will likely be on that, another on 'Sky Sports Football', and the remaining five will be available to stream via this new 'Sky Sports+' platform.

The new ability to pause, rewind, access highlights etc on all streams will be a big improvement seeing as you don't even get replays on the current Red Button / app. Hopefully they are able to do something to reduce the lag so we aren't still getting mobile goal alerts 60 seconds before we see it on the live footage.

[Dan]

May 8, 2024 17:59:33 GMT 1 kennyk2 said:

Anyone know if the club will hold rights for full match replays, which is the case now?

Doesn't say anything here about full match replays, but the EFL saying this service effectively replaces ifollow, I'd be doubtful...

CHANGES TO CURRENT WAYS OF WATCHING
Will matches still be available to watch via iFollow, or Clubs’ alternative streaming services?

From the 2024/25 season onward, this new deal with Sky Sports will effectively replace the EFL’s domestic video streaming option provided via iFollow and club streaming services
Audio services will remain alongside existing audio-visual arrangements for international audiences.

www.efl.com/news/2023/may/efl-and-sky-sports-broadcast-rights-agreement/

[softboy]

Strangely as more and more top games are on TV crowds from the Championship downwards seem to be booming. National League attendances of 6000 plus are now common. Why? Perhaps kids who watch PL on TV actually want to go see a game and enjoy it. I was watching Ross County the other day on TV and the bulk of the 200 or so “ultras” behind the goal looked about 12.

[westislandterrier]

May 8, 2024 16:49:47 GMT 1 Dan said:

It's been touched on in other threads, but a bit more info seems to have come out today about the new Sky TV deal for next season affecting EFL games.

- EVERY EFL team will be shown live on Sky Sports at least 20 times in 2024/25

- ALL 36 opening weekend matches will be broadcast live

- No new time slots created. Approx. 6 matches at Sat lunchtime, one or two on Fri PM/Sun lunch

- TV selections through to January 2025 will be announced before the season

- All games will get commentary and multi-camera

It's not great news that there will be a lot of lunchtime kicks offs, but I'm pleased the games aren't going to be staggered all across the weekend with ridiculous kick off times, and it's a huge positive that we will be told the kick off changes months in advance, as that isn't the case at the moment.

That’s definitely a positive for longer distance travellers like maself and Lossiemouthtownfan for sure for booking etc... 

Now I just need the upgraded TV and the fire stick and we’re good to go ! 📺

[bigtruck]

In a totally unrelated post, are fire sticks now defunct? Asking for a friend.

[htfcterry]

May 9, 2024 6:05:13 GMT 1 bigtruck said:

In a totally unrelated post, are fire sticks now defunct? Asking for a friend.

No 🙂

[townarentbest]

May 8, 2024 18:00:33 GMT 1 Dan said:

May 8, 2024 17:32:13 GMT 1 garyroberts'leftfoot said:

So likely to be 3 league 1 games televised each weekend? That’s a 1 in 4 chance it will be us although as we are one of the larger clubs we may be shown more often.

Doesn’t sound good but it will be worse for championship clubs. A small advantage of being in league 1.

Think the 5 League 1/2 games each weekend will probably alternate each week between which league has 3 and which has 2, as Sky have committed to showing an equal number of both:

328 Sky Bet Championship matches
248 Sky Bet League One matches
248 Sky Bet League Two matches
All 15 Play-Off matches
All 93 Carabao Cup matches
All 127 EFL Trophy matches

The league will be played over 36 weekends, 6 midweeks and 4 bank holidays, and Sky are showing all midweek and BH games as well as all the opening weekend and the final weekend in full. That's 144 of the 248 games. And that's each team covered 12 times.

Leaves 104 games to be split between the 36 weekends. And they've committed to covering each team a further 8 times. So I don't think there'll be TOO much of a weighting towards the bigger clubs in each league.

Don't forget also there are at least 3 or 4 international breaks, during which ALL League 1 and 2 games are televised (which also helps with avoiding that "weighting towards the bigger clubs").

[townarentbest]

May 8, 2024 19:01:05 GMT 1 softboy said:

Strangely as more and more top games are on TV crowds from the Championship downwards seem to be booming. National League attendances of 6000 plus are now common. Why? Perhaps kids who watch PL on TV actually want to go see a game and enjoy it. I was watching Ross County the other day on TV and the bulk of the 200 or so “ultras” behind the goal looked about 12.

Agree with the premise*, I do wonder if its a benefit of the reset in 2020/2021 combined with increased fuel prices and cost of living impacting on Sky Sports subscriptions - and folk deciding to go and watch a local team rather than travel to support the club they've perhaps naturally supported.



*although National League attendances of 6000+ *aren't* common - only 3 clubs had regular attendances above 6000 (plus York 4x), one of those 3 was promoted, another would have been barring a points deduction - and they're being replaced by two League 2 clubs who are unlikely to attract more than 4000 on average.

Whats also telling is almost a half of League 2 average lower gates than 5000, and 2/3rds of League 1 attract sub 10,000 attenandances, with 5 League 1 clubs averaging crowds that would fit entirely in our South Stand.

All this info is easily accessible here - 
www.footballwebpages.co.uk/national-league/attendances

Change the league in the PL/Steps...etc menu's at the top.