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Sky to stream midweek English Football League games after new £600m TV deal

Last updated on .From the section Footballcomments325

Wembley play-off final
The new EFL television deal will run from 2019 until 2024

Sky will be able to stream all midweek Championship matches after agreeing a new £600m five-year domestic rights deal with the English Football League.

All EFL clubs will be able to stream midweek league games via their websites if Sky are not broadcasting them live.

The contract will run from 2019-2024, with the value of the rights increasing by 36% from the present agreement.

Sky will also continue to broadcast the Carabao Cup, Checkatrade Trophy and play-offs until May 2024.

Matches played between 14:45 and 17:15 on Saturdays will continue to be blocked from live streaming.

"These negotiations came at what was an incredibly challenging period in the sale and acquisition of sports rights in the UK," said EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey.

"Having fully tested the market, we believe that not only has a significant increase in value for our clubs been achieved, but also the very best deal, with the best partner has been delivered."

The existing EFL television deal runs out at the end of the 2018-19 campaign and is worth £88.3m per season - a figure that will rise to £120m under the new terms.

A maximum of 150 EFL games will be shown per season, including 16 midweek Championship matches and a minimum of 20 League One and League Two games.

Analysis

Simon Stone, BBC Sport

The EFL remain confident midweek attendances will hold up despite the wider availability of fixtures following Tuesday's announcement.

In the winter months particularly, lots of long distance games are played in midweek - Blackpool v Gillingham, Bristol Rovers v Rotherham, Charlton v Rochdale, Oldham v Wimbledon and Oxford v Blackburn are all scheduled to be played on Tuesday, 21 November this season for instance.

Away fans willing to undertake those trips are unlikely to be put off by an ability to watch them on a live stream.

In addition, as Sky have no access to broadcast European games until at least 2021, the midweek slots offer them the chance to screen live football.

What no-one can really know is how the media landscape will have changed by the time the deal ends in 2024.

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325 comments

  • Comment posted by Rob, at 10:30 12 Sep 2017

    I've cancelled my subscription and can confirm that my family are all well and in good spirits! I refuse to fund all this.

  • Comment posted by User0636177925, at 10:38 12 Sep 2017

    Sky subscription cancelled!

    Season ticket to local team purchased!

  • Comment posted by D1679401573653, at 10:30 12 Sep 2017

    Shows how far the Scottish league has fallen that Sky would rather show Burton Albion than Glasgow Celtic...

  • Comment posted by Paris, at 10:30 12 Sep 2017

    I'm amazed the clubs agreed to this, surely this is terrible for ticket sales of midweek games?

  • Comment posted by hobbs, at 10:31 12 Sep 2017

    More empty grounds

  • Comment posted by User0250689056, at 10:35 12 Sep 2017

    More money for Sky. More money for football. More money for footballers. More money for everyone...except healthcare workers, police, fire fighters, homeless charities, women's shelters etc etc. Excuse me for my cynicism but this is the first thing I think when I see an article like this. The world we have created seems broken somehow. It depresses me.

  • Comment posted by Loiner76, at 10:50 12 Sep 2017

    Football selling what's left of its soul for 50 pieces of silver. they would rather take a little money for broadcasting rather than encouraging fans to attend games and building stronger fan bases in the local community. Whilst sky have bought footballs soul WE, the fans who attend the games have allowed it to happen. No price limit on tickets, disgraceful ownerships, who's to blame? Us or sky?

  • Comment posted by thenestofvipers, at 10:30 12 Sep 2017

    Queue, inflated prices of mediocre EFL players and yet more football agents appearing.

  • Comment posted by talks_sense, at 10:33 12 Sep 2017

    Just in sky have bought the rights to show the south Northants division 3 Sunday league for 50,000,000

  • Comment posted by dbfinch, at 10:36 12 Sep 2017

    Oh good, more money into English football, as if it hasn't done enough damage already.

  • Comment posted by Old-Stager, at 11:25 12 Sep 2017

    Fair play to the late Brian Clough who warned everyone that Televised Football would eventually ruin our National Game.
    We already have a situation whereby every Village Idiot in every village in our country struts around the village pond wearing a latest Premiership football shirt on Saturday afternoons instead of following his/her local League Team.

  • Comment posted by User0294587551, at 10:35 12 Sep 2017

    Watch crowds plummet. Not that it matters to the clubs, they'll be getting their Sky money kickback to further increase the gap between Championship and L1/L2 as they try to catch-up to the PL gravy train. Everyone who has one, do football a favour a cancel your Sky contract!

  • Comment posted by davey bones, at 10:46 12 Sep 2017

    Well they won't be using my money, I decided a couple of weeks ago to cancel my subscription. SKY is the biggest waste of money, football has become boring, golf is just adverts and the rest ain't worth anything either.

  • Comment posted by User0420047092, at 14:55 12 Sep 2017

    .

    Sky and Murdoch

    Ruining Football since 1992

    .

  • Comment posted by nosnibornala, at 11:15 12 Sep 2017

    The big bubble due to burst soon with football is crowd attendances dropping once grass root supporters get sick. It's easy work convincing countries all over the world to spend money so they can watch the great atmosphere of English football, when you wish you were in the crowd. But try selling half empty stadium fixtures to those markets, hearing the ball echo as it is kicked

  • Comment posted by notts_white, at 11:36 12 Sep 2017

    So, let's do the maths...

    £600m / 5yrs = £120m / year

    £120m / 72 EFL Clubs = £1.666m per club per year

    £1.666m / 46 games = £36.5k per game per club

    £36.5k is not a lot of money in terms of lost gate receipts to compensate for the lost revenue directly into the club!
    To me this is routing finances out of football, which is happening too much anyway!!
    :(
    Sean Harvey, oh dear

  • Comment posted by Swifty1863, at 10:31 12 Sep 2017

    Let's hope it's not a repeat of ITV Digital....

  • Comment posted by Jim G, at 10:44 12 Sep 2017

    Is this the start of the end of football as a spectator sport? Too many games to watch so if I miss this one another will come along. Have not had Sky for 10 years. I'm happy with MoTD and especially the FA Cup games, one camera, no replays and no commentator trying to referee the game and more importantly, no adverts!

  • Comment posted by Toasy, at 10:45 12 Sep 2017

    Seems like sky are in a cycle of decline. Decreased viewers leads to them spending more money to desperately get more football leads to more people cancelling subscriptions leads to ......

    Put the subscription back to a reasonable amount, and people will come back. But this football arms race between Sky and BT isn't good for anybody, especially the viewers.

  • Comment posted by Rotherham Lad, at 12:09 12 Sep 2017

    I had Sky for years, but gave it up and went for a season ticket for my local team. Best thing I ever did!

    How much better it is to actually experience the highs and lows first hand, rather than sitting in front of the TV, having pundits and commentators spoon-feed me the experience.

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