2024/2025 ——> 2028/2029 EFL TV deal

[potters11]

I haven’t seen much of a mention of this so I think it deserves its own thread as Sky are advertising it now with half an eye on next season:

www.skysports.com/football/news/21564/12873679/sky-sports-agrees-new-five-year-efl-deal-over-1000-matches-per-season

The main negative for me is less and less 3pm Saturday kick-off’s - if we stay in the division (on a full weekend of football 5/12 of the Championship fixtures won’t be at 3pm.) Simply put that is football time for me and when a match is played at any other time it doesn’t feel quite the same.

The article also says that iFollow will be replaced by this agreement which for me is disappointing as for their faults I far more enjoy watching a match with the local radio commentators than some no mark fresh from University with no affinity to either club or football in general!

On the plus points more Stoke matches will be shown for those with Sky who then don’t have to rely on finding an internet stream. It’s near on impossible to find streams for early round league cup matches (and God forbid EFL Trophy matches) so that won’t be an issue now 👍🏻

Also if I read the article correctly all TV picks until the first weekend in January will be announced prior to the start of the season which is nice to know.

So it’s not as bad as I expected but there are some red flags.

On a side note as a match attending fan I understand the 3pm blackout but for me I’d slightly change the rules on that so that certain licensed premises can show 3pm matches.
For example Ricardo’s could apply for a licence and I think that would work well for away matches.
Also a potential boost to an ailing economy in these tough times.

[headsgoup]

Could be solved by broadcasting all games via streaming only, with an IP block for 50 miles around the ground in question.

Or Bournemouth, for Man Utd matches.

[nonameface]

What's so wrong if people don't want to watch a game in the stadium at 3pm?

Its weird not giving fans a choice.