Jump to content
IGNORED

Sky TV deals: anyone got access to the Times on line?


Recommended Posts

 
Save

Little bit of cut and paste, hopefully legible?

 

The EFL is to undertake an overhaul of how it negotiates TV deals after an independent report raised questions over the process surrounding the controversial signing of a £595 million contract with Sky.

A number of Championship clubs were unhappy with how a five-year Sky deal was pushed through in November, which led to the EFL calling in independent consultants to look at its practices.

The findings of the independent report by Harbottle & Lewis are contained in a confidential letter sent to club chairmen, a copy of which has been seen by The Times. It raises questions about whether four members of the commercial committee that voted for the deal were actually eligible to vote. Three voted in favour of the Sky deal, which prevented the Championship clubs from blocking it.

The report states: “There is clearly a great deal of confusion as to the composition of the commercial committee and which members have the right to vote.”

It also questions whether the EFL should have amended its regulations in 2014 to make clear which members could actually vote.

The letter to the clubs, from Debbie Jevans, the executive chairman, admits there is a need to rebuild trust between the EFL and the clubs, and that as a result of the report the EFL’s board will now review how decisions on TV deals are taken, and the make-up of the commercial committee.

The review will also look into the impact of Sky showing Championship matches on the red button, and how it has affected the clubs’ own streaming services. Several of the leading clubs had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds setting up their own streaming platform only to find the games becoming available to Sky subscribers.

The row over the TV deal led to Shaun Harvey stepping down as chief executive. Jevans has taken over as executive chairman until a successor is found.

Jevans’ letter states the actions to be taken include: “A review of the relationship between members of the executive, the commercial committee, the board and the clubs and to better understand how each of those parties views the role of the other.

She identified a need to “rebuild trust between all stakeholders, including consideration of a history of leaks of sensitive information to the press and the consequent reluctance to provide certain information.”

The review will also consider potential conflicts of interest of club members who are on the board and commercial committee.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure how the Red Button games have affected anything too much. The streaming services arn't available in the UK, well BCTV isn't, so when you can't get to a game the Red Button option was great.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, Sniper said:

Not sure how the Red Button games have affected anything too much. The streaming services arn't available in the UK, well BCTV isn't, so when you can't get to a game the Red Button option was great.

I thought the non-3pm Saturday games were allowed to be streamed in the UK. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Red Right Hand said:

I thought the non-3pm Saturday games were allowed to be streamed in the UK. 

Yes, you're right. Except for when they are on Sky - the red button games aren't counted for this. Hence the issue that the red button games impact clubs streaming revenue for UK subscribers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, bcfcshorey said:

Yup, and because of that, streams have been much easier to find meaning you don’t need to pay the £10 to watch the game on bctv.

I think the £10 charge was meant to act as a barrier to counter drops in attendances.

There needs to be a happy medium where anyone can watch a stream legally for a reasonable fee, but not dis-incentivise actual attendance. What about an away-pass for season card holders for £50-£100? I would snap it up in an instant. I haven't been to an away league game since the 90s. No one's losing out. Throw in a free x-strikes home pass that you could use for a limited number of games in the season if you couldn't be there in person and provided your season card wasn't used for that game.

You'll never stop the illegal streams, but you can make the legal streams more available and a much more attractive proposition.

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...