Jump to content

TV Deal from 2020


Recommended Posts

The SPFL's current (domestic) TV deal finally runs out at the end of 2019-2020, bringing to an end what was in effect a ridiculous 8-year deal (5 + 3-year option) with Sky and ESPN/then BT.  I'd imagine a new deal will be announced at the end of this year or early next. What do people want?

I'd like to see BT get the main games, with the SPFL launching their own online subscription service with 2nd pick Prem/Championship/L1/L2 games.  I'd also like there to be more transparency about the process and the deal(s). I hope they won't sign anything longer than a 4-year deal, with no options for extension.

We ought to be able to make much more money out of the TV deals here, as Scotland is a decent sized market for pay-TV/broadband, so the very least we can hope for is that the SPFL will play things a bit smarter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 60
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I think the proposal in the link is, actually, a step too far at the moment for the SPFL, as the figures used are wildly optimistic, particularly in the short to medium term. It takes ages to build up subscriber numbers for any service, so if everything moved to an in-house streaming service, there would be no money available to distribute to clubs at the start of the 2020 season. 

I think it would be more sensible to get a service up and running with secondary games, as-live and archive material that could co-exist with a mainstream channel having the main package of 40 or so games. If a service was offering 20 Prem games plus 30 Championship/L1/L2, plus lots of other material, it could gradually pick up a decent global subscriber base. The SPFL would then be in a much better position for future negotiations on the main package.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, bendan said:

I think the proposal in the link is, actually, a step too far at the moment for the SPFL, as the figures used are wildly optimistic, particularly in the short to medium term. It takes ages to build up subscriber numbers for any service, so if everything moved to an in-house streaming service, there would be no money available to distribute to clubs at the start of the 2020 season. 

I think it would be more sensible to get a service up and running with secondary games, as-live and archive material that could co-exist with a mainstream channel having the main package of 40 or so games. If a service was offering 20 Prem games plus 30 Championship/L1/L2, plus lots of other material, it could gradually pick up a decent global subscriber base. The SPFL would then be in a much better position for future negotiations on the main package.

 

 

This.

It would cost a fortune to go full-tilt from day one (either in expenditure for equipment/premises or in rentals for the same) with no guarantee of success. The reason Netflix & Amazon works is because they have a huge library of programmes they have built up over years; an SPFL  streaming service would have very little.

Whether folk would pay a monthly fee for the B-list above is something of an imponderable...

The SPFL could do worse than approach Amazon and piggy-back on their existing service, charge maybe a reasonable PPV for each game broadcast, back it up with "free" delayed coverage and magazine programmes.  (There's no point in imagining they could sell a whole new raft of subscribers to Amazon (or Netflix) because they couldn't - the chances are that most of the folks who would 'subscribe' to an SPFL stream already subscribe to Amazon or Netflix or both).

Or not

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, EdTheDuck said:

 

Whether folk would pay a monthly fee for the B-list above is something of an imponderable...

The SPFL could do worse than approach Amazon and piggy-back on their existing service, charge maybe a reasonable PPV for each game broadcast, back it up with "free" delayed coverage and magazine programmes.  (There's no point in imagining they could sell a whole new raft of subscribers to Amazon (or Netflix) because they couldn't - the chances are that most of the folks who would 'subscribe' to an SPFL stream already subscribe to Amazon or Netflix or both).

Or not

 

The B list wouldn't be much different from what BT (who have 30 second-picks) and Alba have right now, but with added as-live and archive material. As it would be a service rather than just a channel, you'd have better access to recorded stuff. I agree it wouldn't get huge subscriber numbers, but I think there's potential to gradually build an audience, especially if the price is set fairly low initially (like 7 or 8 quid a month). It can also be sold to pubs at commercial rates, and wholesale deals could be done with broadband/TV providers so they could include it in packages. Overseas subscribers could be offered the bigger games as part of the package, as overseas TV deals are not worth much and don't need to exclude an IP-based subscription service.

As I said, this should only be done after they'd secured a decent deal with a broadcaster on a main package of 40 or so games, so there shouldn't be a massive financial risk involved. The benefits are not just directly related to potential future income, though I think in time it would be a good money earner given time. They would get more control over kick-off times (which affect hospitality income at clubs) and they would also be creating a decent business in Scotland, supporting jobs and training here. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Some news reports claiming the SPFL have spoken to Amazon, Facebook, Eleven Sports and Premier Sports in addition to BT and Sky.

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/competitions/premiership/amazon-and-facebook-consider-bids-for-spfl-tv-rights-1-4757048

Sky and BT only pay about 19m quid at the moment, not the 21m mentioned (that must be including the BBC money, or overseas money). It would be interesting to see someone like Amazon buy the worldwide rights and sell this direct to Scots overseas as well as in the UK. At the very least it might be an interesting experiment for them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Putting it on an online-only service without any TV channel would be an absolute disaster.  They have to remember what a lot of their customer base looks like, and on the whole they're not the sort who are going to find it easy to have Netflix or Amazon or whatever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I suppose that's true, though you've got to consider that any deal would be for 2020 onwards.

Just going with a traditional deal with BT or Sky would be disappointing unless there's a big increase in what they pay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The rumour is we're looking to receive more than we did even back in the lofty Setanta days. Although adjudging for inflation I don't know if this is the case. I'd like to see BT get it but they're under extreme pressure just now and are being slated in the media for 'overspending' on football even punting their CEO. I reckon we should be one of the first to be part of Facebook/Amazon which might not net us as much money, but can get our game out their to a wider audience depending on the way they decide to frame it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/23/2018 at 09:46, craigkillie said:

Putting it on an online-only service without any TV channel would be an absolute disaster.  They have to remember what a lot of their customer base looks like, and on the whole they're not the sort who are going to find it easy to have Netflix or Amazon or whatever.

I'd disagree with that.

You need a paid subscription at an exorbitant price to have Sky Sports. BT is alright if you have it included in your Virgin package (Usually again, one of the top packages) or on BT, but can also be extremely expensive.

The BBC has even recently admitted that more people watch Netflix than their content, particularly amongst the younger generation (See link: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/bbc-netflix-young-people-watch-more-iplayer-spotify-statistics-a8281706.html ) 

Therefore, I think the online access idea would be extremely advantageous for the Scottish clubs longer term. I don't think it's sustainable in like a Box Nation method but as part of a wider Netflix or Amazon Prime subscription? I reckon it'd open us up to a lot more viewers and potentially bring younger fans in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scottish football should definitely have a presence on Netflix, Amazon etc, but taking the rights exclusively to those platforms without a TV service would leave loads of folk frozen out.  Getting some members of the older generation to understand how these services work would be a really big issue, and that still represents a really big chunk of Scottish football's TV fanbase.  It's not even all generational - there are also loads of remote communities in Scotland who might not have a good enough internet connection to stream properly.  I moved about 10 minutes out of Glasgow to East Dunbartonshire and have already noticed a bit of a drop off in my broadband speed (although I do have access to fibre and will probably go that way soon).

These streaming services will also shoot up in price soon once they've captured the market and killed off their major competitors, so I don't think the cost issue will remain relevant longer term.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:

I'd disagree with that.

You need a paid subscription at an exorbitant price to have Sky Sports. BT is alright if you have it included in your Virgin package (Usually again, one of the top packages) or on BT, but can also be extremely expensive.

The BBC has even recently admitted that more people watch Netflix than their content, particularly amongst the younger generation (See link: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/bbc-netflix-young-people-watch-more-iplayer-spotify-statistics-a8281706.html ) 

Therefore, I think the online access idea would be extremely advantageous for the Scottish clubs longer term. I don't think it's sustainable in like a Box Nation method but as part of a wider Netflix or Amazon Prime subscription? I reckon it'd open us up to a lot more viewers and potentially bring younger fans in.

agree with this, sky is extortionate if you want a full package, Not too sure how this affects Scottish football at the moment but I recon traditional broadcast tv is on the road out,  the days of having to be somewhere at a certain time to watch a programme are long gone now that everything is on demand.  Yes I know this doesn't apply to live sport as by definition it must be showed at a certain time. but im not so sure they can go on charging as much as they do for packages, I got rid of mine in 2015. apart from sports the rest of their tv is horseshite  . Netflix & amazon are miles better at 1/4 of the cost, even if they charged double what they do now to include  a sports pack then theyd still be far better value than sky

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎24‎/‎06‎/‎2018 at 21:48, Ludo*1 said:

The rumour is we're looking to receive more than we did even back in the lofty Setanta days. Although adjudging for inflation I don't know if this is the case. I'd like to see BT get it but they're under extreme pressure just now and are being slated in the media for 'overspending' on football even punting their CEO. I reckon we should be one of the first to be part of Facebook/Amazon which might not net us as much money, but can get our game out their to a wider audience depending on the way they decide to frame it.

I don't think BT looking to slash their outgoings is necessarily a bad thing. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it probably costs BT less to broadcast a Scottish game than it does to broadcast an Italian or French game, so you might actually see an uptake on the amount of games in Scotland they cover. I'd be interested to see the comparative viewing figures for non-OF Scottish fixtures and the Italian fixtures BT show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, BishopLenBrennan said:

I don't think BT looking to slash their outgoings is necessarily a bad thing. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it probably costs BT less to broadcast a Scottish game than it does to broadcast an Italian or French game, so you might actually see an uptake on the amount of games in Scotland they cover. I'd be interested to see the comparative viewing figures for non-OF Scottish fixtures and the Italian fixtures BT show.

I'd say it probably costs less to broadcast a continental game's feed with English commentary. Than it is to produce & broadcast a Scottish game.

They also got rid of the likes of the European Football Show to save money around those leagues.

And while they might not necessarily be big rating winners, they eat up hours of tv across 3 channels during the season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The arguments against moving to a Netflix/Amazon type service sound an awful lot like the arguments against England moving to Sky back in 93, it seemed to work out ok for them.  

Personally I think moving to an established online service would be a total boon.  It would put us for the first time in a long long time at the vanguard of football on TV

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 28/06/2018 at 09:20, SaucyJackPirate said:

Personally I think moving to an established online service would be a total boon.  It would put us for the first time in a long long time at the vanguard of football on TV

I agree. Scottish football was one of the first to move to satellite (with BSB, which was later taken over by Sky), and that was a time when Scottish football was in a much better relative position than it is now. I don't think we should be afraid of moving to IP broadcasting when it is the obvious platform of the future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...