TV Fixtures and TV Rights thread.

BaZ87 said:
As supporters of PL teams we may not like it and maybe the law does need revisiting however there is a very valid argument that attendances of lower league sides will be effected by PL matches being televised at 3pm on a Saturday. Going back 10+ years ago when Sunderland were in the PL, Nial Quinn confirmed that even Sunderland, a PL side, suffered reduced attendances as a result of local pubs broadcasting their matches via illegal satellite broadcasts.

There are many supporters of PL sides that also follow a lower League side. For instance a noticeable chunk of Tranmere's home crowd will be supporters of Liverpool or Everton. How many of them will stop going to watch Tranmere if they could watch Liverpool/Everton at home or down the pub at 3pm on a Saturday? I don't know the answer btw but I'm sure they'd lose some fans.

There should be a fairly easy compromise here that satisfies everybody. The PL could offer more money to the EFL in return for their support in lifting the 3pm blackout however the PL don't want to give more money to the EFL and they don't want to lift the 3pm blackout either. If the PL cared about the 3pm blackout they could work a way around it very easily - like they do on the last day of the season, they could move matches to a Sunday or move kick-off times to later in the day but they don't because as things stand, there is no value for them to sell these extra games. Everybody who is willing to pay to watch football is already doing so, so Sky, BT etc aren't going to pay more for an extra x games and the PL aren't giving them away for free.
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Good post but you can't use Sunderland fans for a barometer of anything :D

I think it's more to protect match day revenues further down the pyramid than Tranmere though as thats the lifeblood for the lower league teams. If you want football at 3pm on a Saturday then go and watch your local team, they'll appreciate it. Let's face it, English football is the most tribal sport in the world. If geographic issues are stopping you from watching your team then you've probably lost at least some of that connection with the club and the town anyway. It's not that fun to watch at times but protection of the lower leagues is vital for the game to thrive.

Having said all that, as an ex match goer the KO movements for TV is an absolute pain for fans, in particular away games but home games too. Getting home from a game on a Monday night or a Sunday is different to a Saturday afternoon and it messes your weekend up. Small price to pay for being a watchable Premier League side, granted.
I do think there should be some way of watching a 3pm away game for a season ticket holder though, via some kind of PPV system maybe but don't know how that would work without being abused. Pay a tenner for a one off pin code entered pregame or something.
 
Vandle said:
If you want football at 3pm on a Saturday then go and watch your local team, they'll appreciate it.
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My local team (and to be honest probably most peoples local team) plays on a Sunday :)

Unless of course we are specifically talking your "most" local team which is also in the national leagues.
 
So I've often wondered if the PL could simply work around the 3pm blackout. There are ten games per weekend. First game, 8pm kickoff on a Friday. Then unless you play very early on a Saturday, which would suit the Far East but royally hack off UK fans, realistically the current Lunch time kickoff is the only game you could get in before 2:30 when the blackout starts. Two games down, 8 to go.

Next game could kick off at 5:30pm on Saturday, then the next game at 7:30 or 8pm. I doubt any team or fan would be too happy about a game kicking off at 10pm, especially families, although the US and South American Audience would love it I'm sure. So that's two more games done, 6 to go.

Sunday, again the most likely kickoff time is 12:30 for the same reasons as on a Saturday. So you'd be looking at 12:30pm, 3pm, 5:30pm and potentially 8pm although I'm sure some shifting of games by 15-30 minutes would be doable. So that's 4 games on a Sunday, if you don't play at 10pm. Two games to go. Do we really want two games on a Monday? it would have to be done if we realistically wanted every match outside the blackout, or at least 1 game kicking off at 10pm in the evening which I don't think is viable.

Anyway, I doubt the 3pm blackout has any chance of being dropped as at the moment it would require all members of the Football League to vote for it AFAIK (to Google! I couldn't find anything that states a majority or unanimous decision is required sadly, only that it would require the FA's approval, which likely means every member club would get a vote).

TBH I don't mind the 3pm blackout, but when a foreign viewer can watch any game they wish, even if two matches are happening at the same time on a Sunday Afternoon, yet we're stuck with one choice it does get annoying. And, for example, the 'double game week' for Brighton/Palace and Southampton/Brentford aren't even being shown on any UK channel!
 
Vandle said:
Good post but you can't use Sunderland fans for a barometer of anything :D
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It was your lot who smashed your gaff up, punched a horse and went on to wear Arabian clobber when taken over by a murderous regime. Really aren't the fans to be commenting on how others go on ;)

As for the 3pm blackout, it does have an impact on attendance. Whether it would be enough to truly affect the finances of most clubs is the question.

Niall Quinn's comment was back when every pub was using dodgy satellites to get streams from abroad. Those quickly got shut down and while IPTV is a big thing in households now, there aren't many pubs risking it. It's nowhere near as reliable as the dodgy satts were either.
 
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MissChief said:
So I've often wondered if the PL could simply work around the 3pm blackout. There are ten games per weekend. First game, 8pm kickoff on a Friday. Then unless you play very early on a Saturday, which would suit the Far East but royally hack off UK fans, realistically the current Lunch time kickoff is the only game you could get in before 2:30 when the blackout starts. Two games down, 8 to go.

Next game could kick off at 5:30pm on Saturday, then the next game at 7:30 or 8pm. I doubt any team or fan would be too happy about a game kicking off at 10pm, especially families, although the US and South American Audience would love it I'm sure. So that's two more games done, 6 to go.

Sunday, again the most likely kickoff time is 12:30 for the same reasons as on a Saturday. So you'd be looking at 12:30pm, 3pm, 5:30pm and potentially 8pm although I'm sure some shifting of games by 15-30 minutes would be doable. So that's 4 games on a Sunday, if you don't play at 10pm. Two games to go. Do we really want two games on a Monday? it would have to be done if we realistically wanted every match outside the blackout, or at least 1 game kicking off at 10pm in the evening which I don't think is viable.

Anyway, I doubt the 3pm blackout has any chance of being dropped as at the moment it would require all members of the Football League to vote for it AFAIK (to Google! I couldn't find anything that states a majority or unanimous decision is required sadly, only that it would require the FA's approval, which likely means every member club would get a vote).

TBH I don't mind the 3pm blackout, but when a foreign viewer can watch any game they wish, even if two matches are happening at the same time on a Sunday Afternoon, yet we're stuck with one choice it does get annoying. And, for example, the 'double game week' for Brighton/Palace and Southampton/Brentford aren't even being shown on any UK channel!
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Interesting idea, a few thoughts:
  • Train services are poor on Sundays so I don't think you could get away with an 8pm game, especially as it's a school night.
  • Avoiding 3pm doesn't necessarily mean you have to show every game. There are games not played at 3pm that aren't on TV even today, e.g. sometimes you have 2x Sunday 2pm matches, or multiple Wednesday night games (I remember an Arsenal game in the past year or so that was midweek and not on TV)
As for the argument about impacting lower league attendances I've never been that convinced that there are bunch of people who want to go and watch lower league football but would choose not to just because there is a PL game on TV at the same time. Apart from anything else there is usually a PL game finishing less than an hour before kickoff and another one starting less than an hour after the final whistle. So if someone really wants to watch PL football instead of lower league they are best off staying at home to watch 12:30 and 17:30 kickoffs unless they live very near the ground.

To me it would make more sense if PL teams didn't play at all on Saturdays, in the context of the argument about impacting lower league attendances.
 
Heres more of the insane logic of the Saturday 3pm TV blackout

Tomorrow night.. a Wednesday, has Everton play Arsenal and Liverpool play Wolves. Neither match is allowed to be shown on UK TV live because both matches were originally scheduled for a Saturday 3pm kickoff. So even though they are not now being shown on a 3pm Saturday kickoff, the blackout rule still applies to them and they cannot be shown live in UK.
 
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Tombstone said:
Heres more of the insane logic of the Saturday 3pm TV blackout

Tomorrow night.. a Wednesday, has Everton play Arsenal and Liverpool play Wolves. Neither match is allowed to be shown on UK TV live because both matches were originally scheduled for a Saturday 3pm kickoff. So even though they are not now being shown on a 3pm Saturday kickoff, the blackout rule still applies to them and they cannot be shown live in UK.
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That is a special kind of stupid isn't it.
 
Tombstone said:
It is indeed, it goes to show that its got nothing to do with the lower leagues because they arent playing tomorrow.
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I assume that its because once the rights are assigned they are assigned. If that game has no rights assigned to it then its doesn't matter if its moved. Who would get to show it?
 
Had to cancel my Now subscription due to other bills going up and it's given me a new appreciation for the FA Cup games.

Wish clubs would give you the option to pay for the odd 15:00 game through their own sites. I'd happily pay £20+ two or three times a season to watch a few of the blackout games that I can't afford to attend.
 
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ArcticHeron said:
Had to cancel my Now subscription due to other bills going up and it's given me a new appreciation for the FA Cup games.

Wish clubs would give you the option to pay for the odd 15:00 game through their own sites. I'd happily pay £20+ two or three times a season to watch a few of the blackout games that I can't afford to attend.
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If its just for premier league games you need it for just buy a day pass for sky sports and you get 9 months on your mobile with it. £11.99
 
fez said:
I assume that its because once the rights are assigned they are assigned. If that game has no rights assigned to it then its doesn't matter if its moved. Who would get to show it?
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Thats why I think there should be an additional package at the tender stage, a sort of "Rescheduled Matches" package, the TV companies can bid on that package too and they get to show any games which are rescheduled in the calendar.
 
CliffyG said:
If this 15:00 blackout is unlikely to be voted out then why not just schedule no games then?
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Because there's currently no value to broadcasters and therefore the PL to broadcast every game. And the PL aren't going to give these games away for free.

Sky aren't getting any more subscribers if they were broadcasting Brentford - Brighton, Wolves - Bournemouth and Arsenal - Everton at the same time than if they were just broadcasting Arsenal - Everton on its own. Heck, they're unlikely to get many more viewers from their existing subscriber base - almost all of the Brighton, Brentford, Wolves and Bournemouth fans would have just watched the Arsenal - Everton game anyway.

The PL hope that Amazon or another streaming platform will be more interested in multi game broadcasts and that's why they created the package of rights which Amazon brought. They've just been testing the market though.
 
MissChief said:
So I've often wondered if the PL could simply work around the 3pm blackout. There are ten games per weekend. First game, 8pm kickoff on a Friday. Then unless you play very early on a Saturday, which would suit the Far East but royally hack off UK fans, realistically the current Lunch time kickoff is the only game you could get in before 2:30 when the blackout starts. Two games down, 8 to go.

Next game could kick off at 5:30pm on Saturday, then the next game at 7:30 or 8pm. I doubt any team or fan would be too happy about a game kicking off at 10pm, especially families, although the US and South American Audience would love it I'm sure. So that's two more games done, 6 to go.

Sunday, again the most likely kickoff time is 12:30 for the same reasons as on a Saturday. So you'd be looking at 12:30pm, 3pm, 5:30pm and potentially 8pm although I'm sure some shifting of games by 15-30 minutes would be doable. So that's 4 games on a Sunday, if you don't play at 10pm. Two games to go. Do we really want two games on a Monday? it would have to be done if we realistically wanted every match outside the blackout, or at least 1 game kicking off at 10pm in the evening which I don't think is viable.

Anyway, I doubt the 3pm blackout has any chance of being dropped as at the moment it would require all members of the Football League to vote for it AFAIK (to Google! I couldn't find anything that states a majority or unanimous decision is required sadly, only that it would require the FA's approval, which likely means every member club would get a vote).

TBH I don't mind the 3pm blackout, but when a foreign viewer can watch any game they wish, even if two matches are happening at the same time on a Sunday Afternoon, yet we're stuck with one choice it does get annoying. And, for example, the 'double game week' for Brighton/Palace and Southampton/Brentford aren't even being shown on any UK channel!
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CliffyG said:
If this 15:00 blackout is unlikely to be voted out then why not just schedule no games then?
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I covered this, it’s not really feasible.
 
Bigpig said:
Not sure where the best place to post this.

Seen posts stating no more weekend end fixtures and no replays.
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TV Fixtures and TV Rights thread.

Cosimo has been very kind in posting the tv fixtures every month or two but they're often lost in the Banter thread so I've created this thread where he (if he wants) or anybody else can post the TV schedule. BT announced that they won the rights to the CL again recently - things like that can...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk
 
Sui said:
Just read there’s 30odd 8pm Saturday fixtures next season, not sure I like that from a attending a game perspective.
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Its rubbish for the match goer...simple as that really. When i used to go every week 3pm on a Saturday was perfect, anything else was a pain in the ****. I cant see many "big" games being 8pm on a Saturday though.
 
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