Should Scotland games be back on terrestrial TV?

[V.Aye.R]

I’m contemplating paying Now TV a tenner for their day pass for the Scotland v Israel game. I got to thinking about what a shame it is that Scotland games are no longer on terrestrial TV.
President Eck was bringing this up as an issue a decade ago back in 2008. 

Mr Salmond said: "Let me simply say that when it comes to getting the national team back onto the screens of all our citizens - it can be done and it should be done." he never managed it. 
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7267706.stm

More recently the man in the Union Jack suit, Ian Murray was fighting for Scotland games to be returned to the air waves. He never managed it.
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/leader-bring-scotland-football-games-back-terrestrial-tv-1481853
 
What are your thoughts? Are the BBC/ITV doing us a favour by keeping them off the telly or was taking them off terrestrial telly a poor decision which has eroded support for the national team.

You can get a month pass for £25 if you look around.

If you are in the SSC you can get 2 months at £20/month.

£40 is no bad for 6 internationals plus other football, F1 etc.

[Thereisalight..]

“Big” games like this one should definitely be on terrestrial TV. I noticed that the ROI game is on their terrestrial tv channel tonight 

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

On 07/10/2020 at 15:15, ThatBoyRonaldo said:

That's an attractive way of looking at it but I suspect even while it'd be good to explore how well Scotland is served by the broadcaster the BBC don't view their spend on football in such terms as 'investment in English football' - they probably just view it as paying for a product.

There's also the point that you might justifiably ask if spending money on Premier League highlights can even be viewed in such terms. The EPL is a league played by millionaire players from all over the world, by clubs ran as multinational businesses with turnovers in the hundreds of millions if not billions, owned largely by a supra-national class of billionaire oligarchs. 

If the argument we are making is that a public body (the BBC) should invest in football equally across the UK because football has a social value, my first reaction is probably 'what social value is there in lining Dermot Desmond's, Mike Ashley's and the UAE Royal Family's pockets?'. International football I definitely see the rationale for a parity in spend across the UK - elite club football not so much. 

Just FYI, there has never been a billion pound turnover club, or Euro.  Barcelona got the closest last year at about 750m, that's the highest there's ever been for any club, they were projected to become the first billion Euro turnover club in the next few years before Covid, f**k knows now.

[GiGi]

8 hours ago, V.Aye.R said:

You can get a month pass for £25 if you look around.

If you are in the SSC you can get 2 months at £20/month.

£40 is no bad for 6 internationals plus other football, F1 etc.

Just got a weeks pass for a tenner. I can live with that as a one off.

[V.Aye.R]

Just got a weeks pass for a tenner. I can live with that as a one off.

The week pass isn't available through sky now. I know you can get a voucher elsewhere.
Think sky realised it was probably too good value and withdrew it [emoji23]

[GiGi]

2 minutes ago, V.Aye.R said:

The week pass isn't available through sky now. I know you can get a voucher elsewhere.
Think sky realised it was probably too good value and withdrew it

It's decent value if you only want to watch a few games, like this. Otherwise it's still ten pounds for one week of viewing which is not cheap IMO. That's a month of Netflix.

[GiGi]

Could also turn out to be very costly if Scotland cause me to break my telly or laptop in a fury.

[DA Baracus]

Based on the last few games, the reply to the topic title is an emphatic no

 

[BillyAnchor]

The nation has suffered enough

[Scary Bear]

10 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

Based on the last few games, the reply to the topic title is an emphatic no

 

So you won’t be watching the Serbia game?

[Scary Bear]

9 hours ago, BillyAnchor said:

The nation has suffered enough

Our nation should suffer together through the play-off final. Give the whole nation the joy of swearing uncontrollably, throwing an empty can at the telly, then stomping out the room in a foul temper when we get humped, like I had the opportunity to do with our last play-off.

[DA Baracus]

42 minutes ago, Scary Bear said:

So you won’t be watching the Serbia game?

Not on terrestrial TV, no.

[cyderspaceman]

STV Viewer Enquiries via freshservice.com
Hi there,

 Thank you for your email.

 

STV is very keen to include Scottish international football games in our schedule, however, the rights are made available on a UK wide basis and as such, we are not in a position to bid for games.

 

ITV leads scheduling for the channel 3 network which we are part of, and have secured rights for the England games therefore these are included in our programming.

 

We hope this helps clarify the situation for you and we thank you again for taking the time to get in touch.

 

Kind Regards

 

STV Enquiries | Tel: 0141 300 3704 

email: enquiries@stv.tv | website: www.stv.tv

STV | Pacific Quay | Glasgow | G51 1PQ | switchboard: 0141 300 3000 

Please consider the environment before printing this email 

Edited October 9, 2020 by cyderspaceman

[GordonS]

On 09/10/2020 at 08:57, cyderspaceman said:

STV Viewer Enquiries via freshservice.com
Hi there,

 Thank you for your email.

 

STV is very keen to include Scottish international football games in our schedule, however, the rights are made available on a UK wide basis and as such, we are not in a position to bid for games.

 

ITV leads scheduling for the channel 3 network which we are part of, and have secured rights for the England games therefore these are included in our programming.

 

We hope this helps clarify the situation for you and we thank you again for taking the time to get in touch.

 

Kind Regards

 

STV Enquiries | Tel: 0141 300 3704 

email: enquiries@stv.tv | website: www.stv.tv

STV | Pacific Quay | Glasgow | G51 1PQ | switchboard: 0141 300 3000 

Please consider the environment before printing this email 

Hang on... are they saying that ITV chooses what to bid for, and as it got the Englands game it had no interest in getting the Scotland games too?

Feckin branch office shit, that.

[stuart87]

When we qualify for next years tournament, all our games will be on BBC and STV [emoji3]

[The Master]

24 minutes ago, GordonS said:

Hang on... are they saying that ITV chooses what to bid for, and as it got the Englands game it had no interest in getting the Scotland games too?

Feckin branch office shit, that.

The ITV/STV situation is complicated and actually I don’t think there’s much STV can do. 

ITV Plc. isn't interested in Scotland games, and to be honest why should they be? They’re an English and Welsh broadcaster. 

Even if STV did have the money to pay for the rights to Scotland games, the rights are sold on a UK-wide basis. STV would need to find a way of showing the games in the rest of the UK. But again, ITV Plc. won’t be interested in contributing to the rights cost and STV are hardly doing to let them show the games for nothing. 

STV obviously are prepared to pay to be able to show the England games, but that’s probably because it’s cheaper than anything else they could fill the time with. 

Indeed, for a time when ITV had the FA Cup rights, STV didn’t show the games. But they changed their tune after a season or two - almost certainly for cost reasons. 

Edited October 11, 2020 by The Master

[GordonS]

1 hour ago, The Master said:

The ITV/STV situation is complicated and actually I don’t think there’s much STV can do. 

ITV Plc. isn't interested in Scotland games, and to be honest why should they be? They’re an English and Welsh broadcaster. 

Even if STV did have the money to pay for the rights to Scotland games, the rights are sold on a UK-wide basis. STV would need to find a way of showing the games in the rest of the UK. But again, ITV Plc. won’t be interested in contributing to the rights cost and STV are hardly doing to let them show the games for nothing. 

STV obviously are prepared to pay to be able to show the England games, but that’s probably because it’s cheaper than anything else they could fill the time with. 

Indeed, for a time when ITV had the FA Cup rights, STV didn’t show the games. But they changed their tune after a season or two - almost certainly for cost reasons. 

That's a shite state of affairs. We're second-class Britons.