Believe it when I see it.
The 3pm U.K. Blackout
- Thread starter esmufc07
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Can you paste the content? Don't want to give the DM clicks.
Can we at least end it for foreign games? There's no reason why people should miss the first 15 minutes of serie A games broadcast at 5pm UK time.
EXCLUSIVE: EFL consider ending the 3pm Saturday blackout and making EVERY match available for live broadcast in 2024-25... with Facebook, Netflix, Google, Apple and Amazon set to be offered TV rights
The EFL are ready to make every match available for live broadcast and end the 3pm Saturday blackout in their next TV rights deal from the 2024-25 season.
Sportsmail has learned that an invitation to bid for live rights will be sent out to interested parties in the next 24 hours, with the EFL targeting Facebook, Netflix, Google, Apple and Amazon in addition to the main domestic rights holders, Sky Sports and BT Sport.
The EFL’s tender document is understood to be a request for proposals rather than a fixed offering, with the board seeking innovative solutions to the changing broadcast market. The board are convinced that by selling more matches they can get a better deal than the current £119million-a-year contract with Sky, with a target of £200m-a-year.
As a result there no set number of matches or contract length in the document to be sent to broadcasters, with the EFL making clear they are willing to televise every game and ditch the blackout, which has been in place since the 1960s. Maintaining the current model of selling exclusive rights for a finite number of matches to one broadcaster will also be considered.
The current Sky deal includes 138 games-per-year, with just two Championship matches shown each weekend.
Many of the bigger clubs opposed that deal so will welcome plans to sell more games
Dropping the 3pm blackout would come from the EFL lobbying the FA, who in turn would have to apply to UEFA for an exemption.
The blackout only applies to when 50 per cent of Premier League and Championship matches are due to kick off at 3pm on a Saturday however, so shifting half the programme would also enable all games to be televised.
The Premier League will be watching the EFL’s sales process with interest.
The bigger clubs feel that the top flight’s TV rights are undervalued — with those under American ownership in particular pushing for the right to sell more matches to streaming companies.
With the value of sports rights falling after the pandemic the Premier League opted to renew their existing domestic deal with Sky Sports and BT Sport for the 2022-25 cycle last year rather than gamble with a more innovative approach.
While the Premier League still support the blackout they have largely moved on from that model.
On Saturday, there are just two top-flight kick-offs scheduled for 3pm — Fulham v Bournemouth and Wolves v Nottingham Forest.
About time
PL will surely follow if that happens. Finally.
I have no issue with the blackout. Enough football on TV in general.
That said, I'm not fussed and seems inevitable at some point it will all be on TV/messed about with.
That said, I'm not fussed and seems inevitable at some point it will all be on TV/messed about with.
'The board are convinced that by selling more matches they can get a better deal than the current £119million-a-year contract with Sky'
geniuses, truly
geniuses, truly
Ah great, that means we no longer need IPTV and can go back to paying Sky, BT and the rest…..nah I’m ok thanks, I’ll stick to the same. Flouting with scrapping the blackout is about 20 years too late.
IPTV won't last forever and they aren't always reliable.
This and scrapping the TV license are the two things that always seem 'inevitable' in British broadcasting but also never arrive. I do hope we're finally there.
There's never enough football on tv
There’s no realistic way of stopping IPTV. When set up right you should never have any issues.
Virtually every person I know who has any interest in football is using iptv. It’s very hard to clamp down on when used with VPN.
I've always said the blackout is pointless and stupid. If your club is playing at home, would you not go and watch two other clubs live on TV that you have no real interest in? no. been saying this for at least 25 years, possibly twice that. Used to laugh at the fact that Radio 2(before 5Live) couldn't even announce which game they would be commentate on until just before kick off. Utter nonsense - if he was old enough, I'd suspect Kwasi Kwarteng of coming up with the idea
Whether or not the intentions behind the blackout are a good thing, illegal streaming makes it completely unenforceable. I haven't been unable to watch a United Saturday 3pm kick off for about 15 years, since they are broadcast in nearly every country except the UK. The leagues might as well claw some of that revenue back, rather than it all going to the pirates via their pop up ads.
I think this will happen long before the scrapping of a TV license.
The whole football tv system needs modernising for sure.
It's bonkers how they push people to stream illegally because they offer no legal way to watch something they want to see.
Makes it even more annoying when foreign countries can watch the same product for 1:10th of the price, and never miss any games.
That's the 3pm kick offs, and then the other games on at the same time that they choose not to show. It's silly.
It's bonkers how they push people to stream illegally because they offer no legal way to watch something they want to see.
Makes it even more annoying when foreign countries can watch the same product for 1:10th of the price, and never miss any games.
That's the 3pm kick offs, and then the other games on at the same time that they choose not to show. It's silly.
Those pop up ads on streams are infuriating beyond belief. It takes me a good 5 minutes of clicking x's on the screen to even get to the point of pressing play, and then I'm fecking ages behind, and the it drops out and you have to do it all again. I'd rather pay for IPTV than suffer that shite again.
If the PL released TV Season tickets, whereby you pay a set amount for all our clubs games, I'd probably pay £20 a month for that no problem.
Something needs changed. Back 25/30 years ago we used to have 9/10 games kick off at 3pm with only 1 Sunday game on ITV back in the old Division 1 days. However now we are lucky to get 5 3PM Saturday Kick-offs on any given weekend with how much television rights have changed since the formation of the Premier League
That won’t improve if they’re allowed to broadcast every game. They’ll not want Liverpool matches clashing with United matches etc.
It's less about that, and more often about walk in traffic from casual fans. When you get a season you ticket you've already paid, so missing a game here or there doesn't really matter, but lower league clubs might get someone turning up and spending for a matchday ticket because of the blackout. For example years ago I'd sometimes watch Newport play when Swansea were away, or even my old team in the Cymru Premier, because I couldn't watch my team. Lots of clubs get a big boon from this type of casual attendance.
Having said that, I'm not quite sure what impact it really has anymore. I've heard differing arguments on the subject and it'd be interesting to see if anyone has put together something tangible in terms of numbers. Anyways as others have noted the rise of illegal streaming has made the rule fairly nonsensical anyway, and as it stands now the system is basically pushing the individual towards piracy and missing out on revenue entirely. If it is a case that lower league clubs will be impacted by scrapping the rule, it should still be scrapped and some of the added revenue put towards aiding all clubs.
Had to check this wasn't the current events forum when I saw the title.
Agree with the bolded. What you have described re: casual attendance is definitely a thing. I know from experience there were quite a few people who would watch Millwall play at home and if Millwall were away they would go and watch Dartford instead.
As long as the money is funnelled to where it should go I don't see any issue at all. That is the big problem though as I don't trust the FA to get that correct at all.
Finally
So when the PL sense an opportunity to do the same the glazers and other yank investors will have their hands out. Great. Stuck with the glazers
yeah, apparently it won't be looked at for another 3 seasons at the earliest but they're definitely going to push for it, I think it's possibly the yank owners who are the ones pushing the hardest as they apparently believe the deal is only worth a fraction of what it should be compared to US sports rights.
When i read the title i thought this was about winter blackouts because of the fuel crisis.
Money talking, as usual. Lots of it to be made, which trumps the initial noble thought of protecting smaller clubs' gate takings. I'm assuming any deal, if it happens, will involve some of the money getting to said smaller clubs.
And the rest going to shareholders. It won’t translate into stadium repairs, new facilities or transfers so we should bin it off
About time, hopefully the Premier Leagues follows too
This will happen eventually and we'll all be subscribed to the FA football streaming platform at, at least, £30 a month for every game.
People who think the blackout being ended for EFL means the PL will follow suit simply don't get it. Not surprising on a forum for one of the big sides. I don't mean that as an insult, I'm here after all, but if you support United or another big club, and don't also follow a smaller club, you dont seem to get it. The EFL being able to show all games at 3pm on Saturday would be great for EFL clubs. The PL being able to show all games on Saturday at 3pm would be awful for EFL clubs.
If you are a casual follower of a league one or two team, or even a Championship team you aren't going to stay home to watch another League Two or Championship game on TV/stream. Obviously. If you're a casual follower of a lower league team, you may stay home and watch the PL instead of its being streamed or shown on TV at the same time. Obviously. If you're a fan of a lower league side, it's not because you just bloody love League One, it's because the team you happen to live locally to, whether you're an avid fan or casual fan, happens to play in League One. I have moved around over the years and have a few former 'local' sides that I follow, and I'd watch them on TV, but I'm not watching any random League Two or League One game that doesn't involve one of those sides! People here tend to overlook the purpose of the blackout, which is to ensure attendances at lower league games are not hampered by PL matches being shown on TV at the same time. And EFL games being shown at 3pm on a Saturday would have a minimal impact on attendances, but the clubs themselves would get the funds for the TV rights. Its vastly different to losing attendances to the PL, if the PL teams are getting the TV money instead.
You can not get rid of the Saturday 3pm blackout for the PL. If anything, this move would make it more unlikely that the PL follows suit, as viewings of EFL streams would decrease (and the financial package as a result).
The only logical, long term solution is for ALL games to be streamed/available on TV, but at different times. For example, EFL games predominantly at 3pm on Saturday, PL games predominantly in a different time slot either earlier or later on Saturday or on Sunday, and then a few 'big' games each weekend in varying other timeslots. That's the only possibility that suits everyone. It just needs the EFL and the PL to work together and agree on the who gets what timeslot. Or even fecking alternate the time slots each week.
If you are a casual follower of a league one or two team, or even a Championship team you aren't going to stay home to watch another League Two or Championship game on TV/stream. Obviously. If you're a casual follower of a lower league team, you may stay home and watch the PL instead of its being streamed or shown on TV at the same time. Obviously. If you're a fan of a lower league side, it's not because you just bloody love League One, it's because the team you happen to live locally to, whether you're an avid fan or casual fan, happens to play in League One. I have moved around over the years and have a few former 'local' sides that I follow, and I'd watch them on TV, but I'm not watching any random League Two or League One game that doesn't involve one of those sides! People here tend to overlook the purpose of the blackout, which is to ensure attendances at lower league games are not hampered by PL matches being shown on TV at the same time. And EFL games being shown at 3pm on a Saturday would have a minimal impact on attendances, but the clubs themselves would get the funds for the TV rights. Its vastly different to losing attendances to the PL, if the PL teams are getting the TV money instead.
You can not get rid of the Saturday 3pm blackout for the PL. If anything, this move would make it more unlikely that the PL follows suit, as viewings of EFL streams would decrease (and the financial package as a result).
The only logical, long term solution is for ALL games to be streamed/available on TV, but at different times. For example, EFL games predominantly at 3pm on Saturday, PL games predominantly in a different time slot either earlier or later on Saturday or on Sunday, and then a few 'big' games each weekend in varying other timeslots. That's the only possibility that suits everyone. It just needs the EFL and the PL to work together and agree on the who gets what timeslot. Or even fecking alternate the time slots each week.
I would imagine the majority that would choose to watch United over going to a live EFL game would have access to do that online already and make that choice regularly one way or the other.
I regularly watch a non league team when United aren’t playing Saturday 3pm. Can’t say that I’ve ever wanted to watch a Premier League game instead of attending that, there’s never decent matches at 3pm anyway.
However, for a group of mates who want to have a few drinks and enjoy their Saturday, there’s definitely going to be the draw of staying in the pub and not bothering to go to that non league game at 3pm if they can watch three back to back Premier League games. I can see non league games being hit hard.
I can and often do stay home and stream the United game rather than going for a day out to watch a local side (or not so local). The temptation would be even greater if it were a legit stream/televised game rather than a dodgy stream with poor quality, lag, pop ups, malware and which disconnects every few minutes. I'm not saying you or other United fans would stay home to watch a non United PL game, but others will - virtually all those supporters of the non league side will have a PL team they follow to some extent, some United, City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, whoever... So every week there's a proportion of the fan base whose PL side is playing at the same time as the non league side. Televising those matches would be devastating for lower league sides. A 10% drop in attendances may be the difference between survival or bust. Some will already be streaming those games, but many aren't interested in streaming illegally or the shitty quality that comes with it. Like you say, an all day, 12pm-3pm-5pm Saturday schedule, with all the bells and whistles in between, would be much more appealing than watching some blurry, jumpy stream with pop ups for horny milfs who want to talk.
There's also cost and travel, its cheaper to watch on TV than go to the games, especially for people like me who have relocated, going to a "home" game is a three or four hour journey each way. The longer I'm away the harder it is to keep up and follow their progress, so I ended up becoming more emotionally invested in United. Sometimes I can get to a live game and watch the United game as well if its midday or 5:30pm, but with travel it's not always possible, and it generally plays a big part in my decision making. I may just opt to stay home even if the United game is midday or 5pm because the travel makes it difficult to watch, or watching it somewhere unenjoyable.
Being able to stream my lower league teams games would be great for me to keep invested in those teams, my subscription would help those teams and my viewership would help their ad revenue or however they structure the deal. Clubs who only get 4k fans a home match, I reckon they would probably have several thousand more who would watch a legit stream or live broadcast if they could. But if PL games are available at the same time on a similiar service, EFL teams won't be able to compete. I'll always choose United first, others would choose Spurs or Liverpool or whoever. I probably wouldn't choose a random PL game over one of my sides if I had an equal choice, but casual followers might. Kids, people getting into football or back into football later in life, people who have relocated, people more interested in their fantasy football team than the result of the team they support. Even then though, if it's towards the end if the season and we're challenging say, Chelsea for a top 4 place, and they're away at some mid-table PL side, I would be tempted to tune in to see if they drop points. I just don't want that choice, and I think the 3pm PL blackout is crucial for that. There's only usually few Saturday 3pm kick offs anyway, just move them all to midday, evening or Sunday, and have 3pm Saturday for the EFL.
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I’ve had mine since last November and it’s never failed me, £70 for the year.
if I would’ve stuck with virgin it would’ve cost me £1210. It’s literally saved me £1140 which is brilliant.
A brilliant day of football which I couldn't watch on TV. This is such a stone age policy.
If your best way of getting people to go to lower league games is to ban their alternative, maybe the problem is that lower league games aren't very appealing