The end of the 3pm blackout?

[CloudyThatchers]

A potential end to the 3pm blackout if DAZN get the elf tv rights 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11916029/amp/DAZN-launch-bid-buy-TV-rights-EFL-matches-2024-25.html

[Davefevs]

Interesting about moving fixtures / times too.

[Never to the dark side]

1)I am quite happy to have midday kick offs to places like Middlesbrough Sunderland and Hull

Would much prefer to have had a good nights sleep for a four/five hour journey to the North

and at least two hour daylight journey back home.

 

 

2)My thoughts are that radio commentaries will suffer,

who would wanna listen to a match when you could watch it.

Same way that cup final radio commentaries were on Long play records on vinyl at 33 and a third,

until the Video recorder arrived circa 1979

[BCFCGav]

[Maltshoveller]

More good news for the armchair "Fan"

[Bristol Rob]

Initial thoughts.... it doesn't seem like a lot more money for ten-times more content.

Armchair or fresh-air.... I wonder how many people would hold off buying the commitment of a season ticket if they could have the first month of sport at home and then decide that their side could be in with a shout, or if it looks like it would be an average campaign, they'll just stick to pay on the day.

Potentially, great news if you happen to have a pub in the area where any one particular side have a strong following, if every game was shown, your Saturday afternoon trade could be massive! 

First thoughts... I'm not sure I'm in favour, would want to see more details and alternatives. For example, 'away games with a 3pm kick-off available to home season ticket holders/members via some sort of DRM code that might/could change at half time'  - you'll never stop sharing completely or someone having all their mates over to watch the game, but if it generates more money for the clubs, it might deter a few from actively seeking a free stream if they thought their spend would go in to the game.

[Pearcy]

I was just reading about this somewhere else. This is called UEFA Article 48 and rather interestingly only three countries currently apply it, England, Scotland & Montenegro. Whilst it's got some clear pluses like more income for the club and better availability for fans to watch more games legally, I fear it will have a negative impact on attendances and atmosphere at grounds, especially for smaller teams in Leagues 1 & 2. Even bigger teams like Sunderland & Middlesbrough complain about the lack of away fans coming to their grounds, this will only make it worse. It could have a positive impact on ticket prices though. Clubs may be forced to lower them to simply attract people to attend. 

[Port Said Red]

Good news for those with disabilities/restricted travel options. Would the club be compensated for the presumed loss of Robins TV income?

[Bristol Rob]

Surprised that this hasn't generated more of a response.

It could be the biggest change (in our lifetime) as how people consume their football.

Get that people VPN or access streams, but that won't be the majority. As it stands, I do home games - league and cup - season ticket for the league and then buying tickets for monumental events like 'Lincoln'. I quite like that - with the odd away-game-on-the-telly exception, my time is only committed to a Saturday/Sunday or Tuesday/Wednesday, and even then it isn't every week.

If all games were available to stream, would I start to watch every match, in particular the away game that I wouldn't usually as that time is taken up doing other things, I'm not sure. I like the idea of the content being available but not sure if I'd want all my free time to go on City. 

[Unan]

16 hours ago, Never to the dark side said:

1)I am quite happy to have midday kick offs to places like Middlesbrough Sunderland and Hull

Would much prefer to have had a good nights sleep for a four/five hour journey to the North

and at least two hour daylight journey back home.

 

 

2)My thoughts are that radio commentaries will suffer,

who would wanna listen to a match when you could watch it.

Same way that cup final radio commentaries were on Long play records on vinyl at 33 and a third,

until the Video recorder arrived circa 1979

They will, but you move with the times as you’ve pointed out 

[The Journalist]

I think it'll only negatively impact on attendances if clubs continue to completely price out large swathes of ordinary fans with the ridiculous cost of watching bang-average live football these days.

If this means clubs are forced to rethink ticket pricing that's only a good thing, I think, because the majority of football fans know the live product is better than watching on TV. Make it affordable and accessible and they'll keep coming whether it's on TV or not.

[Super]

It won't affect home games but surely it will have an affect on away games.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, Port Said Red said:

 Would the club be compensated for the presumed loss of Robins TV income?

Think we’d need to know what the tv package covers / doesn’t cover.  I wondered this too.  With the amount of money being discussed it would more than cover RTV / iFollow income, but I guess there are more revenue streams to cover than just the tv stuff.

I’d love some kind of NBA-type package where every game is live, and can be watched in full whenever afterwards (even if that’s by setting it to record), or as 10 minute highlights, etc.  £99 for a season, for all teams, not just your own!!!

I do worry that it becomes a downward spiral of lost attendances and fans.

[Lrrr]

An extra £81m a year for an extra 1500 odd matches per season? Think the EFL should be asking for more 

[Davefevs]

11 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

An extra £81m a year for an extra 1500 odd matches per season? Think the EFL should be asking for more 

Based on the 80:12:8 split, it’s worth an extra £650k p.a. to a lg2 team.  It doesn’t sound hugely appealing.

Walsall are 12th average attendance.

uplift of 10% in revenue, but how much do they lose by reduced gates, reduced match sponsorship, etc, etc.

I’d expect Lg2 and Lg1 clubs to want to change the split!

[Lrrr]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Based on the 80:12:8 split, it’s worth an extra £650k p.a. to a lg2 team.  It doesn’t sound hugely appealing.

Walsall are 12th average attendance.

uplift of 10% in revenue, but how much do they lose by reduced gates, reduced match sponsorship, etc, etc.

I’d expect Lg2 and Lg1 clubs to want to change the split!

If you said a hypothetical £20 a ticket then 1400 less fans per game in the ground would see teams making a loss on current levels. For most they won’t lose that many fans, but the bigger league two clubs might be worried about getting towards the 1000 mark at least and then it barely making them any better off with a lot less fans in 

[steviestevieneville]

Long term I think it will be a disaster. Financially these figures seem way below what the efl would want . If they don’t want a lot more then they’re not fit for purpose.
on a actual fan experience , as I said long term it could spell the end of football as we know it . Gradually I think attendances , especially away support will dwindle . Walk ups could disappear . I’ve had a season ticket for 25 years , will do for as long as I can afford one & am physically able to go to games. However, with invention of streaming , it’s the first season in probably 30 years + that I haven’t been to away games.  I just can’t see the positive to this. Football being the way it is, any extra revenue will be swallowed up in players demanding more money. It only takes one club to bend to the demands & we end up back where we were . 

[Coxy27]

9 hours ago, Super said:

It won't affect home games but surely it will have an affect on away games.

I don't think it will.

At the clubs with the highest demand for away tickets, the allocations are sold out, almost always. Demand could reduce and they'd still sell out.

The next level down, fans who go, go because attending a match is simply a much better experience than watching on TV at home.

I think people, especially those who don't go themselves, underestimate how much fans enjoy going to away games, the whole day experience. I reckon if you look back at games we've had on TV, it's actually home match going fans who are less inclined to travel and more inclined to watch on TV. So home attendances are more affected.

[Tim Monaghan]

On 29/03/2023 at 18:19, Maltshoveller said:

More good news for the armchair "Fan"

So am I not a “fan” then, as I live outside of Bristol and find it hard to attend games with a very young family? I attended matches home and away for over 15 years, but now I’m not even considered a “fan”? I can’t tell you how upsetting that comment is to me if I’m honest. 

[Barrs Court Red]

Let’s be honest, you can pretty much watch every match going already, for free, and it doesn’t seem to have harmed attendances. 
 

 

[And Its Smith]

3 hours ago, Barrs Court Red said:

Let’s be honest, you can pretty much watch every match going already, for free, and it doesn’t seem to have harmed attendances. 
 

 

Vast majority of people still don’t know how to do that so attendances don’t suffer. I’m dead against this move as it will harm clubs a lot 

[Lrrr]

Thing for the championship is a good half of the matches would have to not be played 3pm Saturday for the whole thing to work, or if the PL tried blocking it then 11/12 games would have to be moved to make it work. So City at Saturday 3pm would probably no longer be a thing.

[Davefevs]

14 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

Thing for the championship is a good half of the matches would have to not be played 3pm Saturday for the whole thing to work, or if the PL tried blocking it then 11/12 games would have to be moved to make it work. So City at Saturday 3pm would probably no longer be a thing.

Guessing 5 of our 23 are already midweek.

[Lrrr]

11 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Guessing 5 of our 23 are already midweek.

Perhaps but that wouldn't change and you can't put too many games midweek to start so you'd see City playing 12:30, 17:30 or on Sundays a lot more regularly so that they could get around the blackout rule.

[Davefevs]

16 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

Perhaps but that wouldn't change and you can't put too many games midweek to start so you'd see City playing 12:30, 17:30 or on Sundays a lot more regularly so that they could get around the blackout rule.

Yep, just quantifying that we aren’t talking about moving 12 Sat 3pm k/os, because 5 are already midweek, plus probably 2 moved for tv anyway….so probably talking about 5 needing to be moved.

I’m not suggesting that makes everything rosy because it’s now “just 5” either.

My own view is that I’d have no issues with a few more midday / evening / Fri night / Sun afternoon games…but that’s taking absolutely no account of the financial dynamic.  It would just work fine for me.

[old_eastender]

Speaking as someone who already watches all City league games via RobinsTV at what works out for under £4 per game, it will be interesting to see what the charge for the DAZN service will be and whether that will mean an end to RobinsTV, IPTV etc. 

Costs are ultimately what deter most fans from actually attending and opting to watch on TV. As several have mentioned this might result in clubs having to lower admission prices to avoid a fall in attendances. For me, taking into account fuel and parking charges, a full price admission matchday means forking out about £50. These days I only go down to discounted entry price cup games, not shown on streams. For me, and mates doing the same, only if we were really pushing for promotion would we be prepared to start paying our £50 a time to attend league games to soak up the atmosphere.

Overall I think attendances would take a modest hit, say 10% drop, unless clubs lower prices, as this service will have a wider audience than RobinsTV and the like.

 

 

[Bas's perfect hattrick]

1 hour ago, old_eastender said:

Speaking as someone who already watches all City league games via RobinsTV at what works out for under £4 per game, it will be interesting to see what the charge for the DAZN service will be and whether that will mean an end to RobinsTV, IPTV etc. 

Costs are ultimately what deter most fans from actually attending and opting to watch on TV. As several have mentioned this might result in clubs having to lower admission prices to avoid a fall in attendances. For me, taking into account fuel and parking charges, a full price admission matchday means forking out about £50. These days I only go down to discounted entry price cup games, not shown on streams. For me, and mates doing the same, only if we were really pushing for promotion would we be prepared to start paying our £50 a time to attend league games to soak up the atmosphere.

Overall I think attendances would take a modest hit, say 10% drop, unless clubs lower prices, as this service will have a wider audience than RobinsTV and the like.

 

 

I'd add geography as another big reason why people watch the matches on RobinsTV. I haven't lived in Bristol for many years now and while I try and get back for a couple of matches a season, I was very happy when RobinsTV started as I could watch all the matches and support the club financially too. 

One big doubt I have (that someone else mentioned on the thread): will the club get more money from this than they do from the current setup? If so, ok. If all the matches from every club are available, it would be nice to catch the occasional game from other teams, but it also would sting a bit knowing that the money I'm paying goes as much to the gas, Cardiff and Swindon as it does to City. 

[MarcusX]

It’s an interesting debate. All my mates who rarely if ever go to games think it’s a great idea - of course they do…

This will have the biggest impact on non-league clubs IMO.

Just taking same friends for example, a few of them will go down the local clubs on a Saturday afternoon as there is no other football on.

How much will attendances be affected at those step 5/6 clubs if fans can stay at home and watch their main team?

Also, player availability for Saturday teams has been dwindling for years. I think it’ll make it even more difficult on a wet and windy winter afternoon if an alternative option is to sit in the pub and watch Liverpool v Man Utd instead.

People who regularly go to games will likely be unaffected, we’ll still go as much as we can but away games may take a hit. 

One suggestion is to change kick off times for lower league football to earlier in the day. I think at park level that’s actually a really good idea. 10:30 KO off on a Saturday would be really popular IMO, people can still have their weekend with their families/partners then rather than losing a whole day every week and people can also go and watch their teams too if they wish, live or otherwise.

[Bristol Rob]

One of the biggest issues here is going to be getting the next generation invested, I'm sure most of us (but not all) went on a similar journey, taken to games as kids enjoyed it and then then as adults continued our commitment. Kids these days..... my nephew (for example), if you ask him who is favourite team is mentions about half a dozen teams - and he's a season ticket holder at the Gate! 

His knowledge of clubs and players in Europe, Sky Sports, MOTD, Champions League and god knows what other tournaments he streams has given him a huge amount of information, he also - when he isn't watching football - either playing football with his mates or more than likely, playing football on his Playstation. 

So yes, he loves City - it's who he goes to see, he was/is also a fan of Barca, PSG a couple of German clubs and some Italian side.

He can't be alone is being bombarded with opportunities to watch games, so for kids who aren't being taken to games, how on earth would showing every game encourage them to part with cash, get off the sofa and go and see sport in a live setting? 

 

[Rocking Red Cyril]

13 hours ago, Barrs Court Red said:

Let’s be honest, you can pretty much watch every match going already, for free, and it doesn’t seem to have harmed attendances. 
 

 

How do you watch every match for free ?