The changing face of watching football.

[BroadstairsR 2,137]

A highly significant immediate and future change in live television of championship games is reported today in the Times:-

"Television viewers will be able to watch live coverage of any midweek Sky Bet Championship match under a revolutionary five-year, £600 million deal between Sky TV and the English Football League.

Details of the agreement for 2019-2024, which the EFL communicated to its 72 clubs last night, were to be announced today.

Sky will be able to screen some midweek EFL matches IMMEDIATELY.

The value of the rights has increased by 36 per cent from the present £88 million-a-year deal and the new arrangements will allow far greater access for fans to live coverage of EFL matches.

The impact will be felt this season as Sky will be able to screen some midweek Championship matches immediately. From next season the broadcaster can show every midweek match via its interactive service so that viewers can choose which game to watch.

There are eight full midweek rounds of Championship matches so there will be regular head-to-head clashes with Champions League games being shown on BT Sport.

In another development, clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two will be allowed to stream live on their websites all their matches kicking off outside the Saturday 3pm window, apart from those being shown live on Sky.

Sky will have the option of screening up to 150 EFL games each season, not including those on the interactive service."

One of the obvious set-backs of our team''s Championship existence for us exiles is being denied the ability to watch live games. I have only seen one ninety minutes this season, the opener against Fulham, and therefore any comments I post on this forum about performances, players and selections are necessarily reduced to reliance upon reports, highlights and comments on this forum. we/I are therefore reduced to more generalised commentary, or at least should be.

In this respect City being in the Premier league was not just more fun for exiles, but kept us more informed about things.

Two up and coming Sky games will soon plug a few gaps, but this latest initiative will surely add up to a more informative stance.

The above news is tremendous for all, exiles and those living nearer unable or unwilling to venture outside the county on a Tuesday night in Winter, and when you throw in the live streaming to Club''s web sites possibility then the day is surely approaching when pay-per-view for all games will be readily available to all of us.

Great news and worth forking out for, imo, to the benefit of the club with the oft-held, and valid view that it is only the live match experience that counts being romantic and somewhat impractical for the vast majority of our worldwide support.

For everyone of the 25, 000 privileged enough to attend the Carrow Road terraces on a regular basis it is my contention that there are about four or five of us who cannot feasibly do this for various reasons.

Also, most of us would love, in some way, to contribute to the coffers to the great benefit to our club (we could be a Tony Zia (?) with knobs on) but the current system doesn''t allow this apart from direct donation at the expense of contributing to Oxfam, Children in Need and all those other worthier causes for which we need no reward apart from self-contentment.

[BroadstairsR 2,137]

I will add that despite all the negatives about the increased money now being regularly pumped into the Championship it has seemingly raised the profile of the league to the extent that Sky now consider a £600, 00m contract worth investing in ... to the benefit of all it''s participants.

The Chumps is rapidly becoming Premier League Mark 2. For good or bad is another matter, extra televised live games though cannot be other than good.

[Mr Tea 105]

My first post, and one I feel strongly about. Ive always got the hump with SKY about what I feel they have done to football by moving it away from the '' average'' man and family . The money in it all is madness in both quantity and the fact is based almost totally in the premier league .

It should be fed down through the leagues so other clubs can survive

To this it needs to be either reduced in the prem, never going to happen, or spread out better.

[Nuff Said 5,082]

" For good or bad is another matter, extra televised live games though cannot be other than good"

I''m a plastic who only gets to a few games a season, although I wish it could be more, but I have to disagree with you on this one. What impact do you think it has on attendance when a mid-week game in some far-flung location like, say, Middlesbrough on a Tuesday night, is shown on TV? I would imagine it is a significant influence, and hence has a knock-on effect on the quality of our support, and thus potentially the team performance.

You could, and I admit this is supposition on my part, extrapolate from that to speculating that wholesale screening of all matches,

even those at 3PM on a Saturday, could change the whole face of the game. We''ve recently seen both our own and other clubs acknowledge that the income from attendances is of declining value when compared to TV income.

[Greavsy 2,412]

Welcome Mr Tea, and a good first post. Enjoy the forum.

I do agree that the money, mainly from sky, is slowly and surely destroying football as we knew it.

It''s nice to be able to watch your team on the TV, but a mat being screened live has never stopped be going to one, as I thing the whole experiences are different.

At the game you''re part of it, and totally involved etc. On the TV you I feel merely a spectator. Obviously timings, expense, location and other factors accepted I would always go for attending at the ground over watching on the box.

[Hoola Han Solo 448]

A welcome announcement and good news for plastics everywhere.

I''m very much an away game plastic these days myself.

[PurpleCanary 5,553]

[quote user="BroadstairsR"]A highly significant immediate and future change in live television of championship games is reported today in the Times:-

"Television viewers will be able to watch live coverage of any midweek Sky Bet Championship match under a revolutionary five-year, £600 million deal between Sky TV and the English Football League.

Details of the agreement for 2019-2024, which the EFL communicated to its 72 clubs last night, were to be announced today.

Sky will be able to screen some midweek EFL matches IMMEDIATELY.

The value of the rights has increased by 36 per cent from the present £88 million-a-year deal and the new arrangements will allow far greater access for fans to live coverage of EFL matches.

The impact will be felt this season as Sky will be able to screen some midweek Championship matches immediately. From next season the broadcaster can show every midweek match via its interactive service so that viewers can choose which game to watch.

There are eight full midweek rounds of Championship matches so there will be regular head-to-head clashes with Champions League games being shown on BT Sport.

In another development, clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two will be allowed to stream live on their websites all their matches kicking off outside the Saturday 3pm window, apart from those being shown live on Sky.

Sky will have the option of screening up to 150 EFL games each season, not including those on the interactive service."

One of the obvious set-backs of our team''s Championship existence for us exiles is being denied the ability to watch live games. I have only seen one ninety minutes this season, the opener against Fulham, and therefore any comments I post on this forum about performances, players and selections are necessarily reduced to reliance upon reports, highlights and comments on this forum. we/I are therefore reduced to more generalised commentary, or at least should be.

In this respect City being in the Premier league was not just more fun for exiles, but kept us more informed about things.

Two up and coming Sky games will soon plug a few gaps, but this latest initiative will surely add up to a more informative stance.

The above news is tremendous for all, exiles and those living nearer unable or unwilling to venture outside the county on a Tuesday night in Winter, and when you throw in the live streaming to Club''s web sites possibility then the day is surely approaching when pay-per-view for all games will be readily available to all of us.

Great news and worth forking out for, imo, to the benefit of the club with the oft-held, and valid view that it is only the live match experience that counts being romantic and somewhat impractical for the vast majority of our worldwide support.

For everyone of the 25, 000 privileged enough to attend the Carrow Road terraces on a regular basis it is my contention that there are about four or five of us who cannot feasibly do this for various reasons.

Also, most of us would love, in some way, to contribute to the coffers to the great benefit to our club (we could be a Tony Zia (?) with knobs on) but the current system doesn''t allow this apart from direct donation at the expense of contributing to Oxfam, Children in Need and all those other worthier causes for which we need no reward apart from self-contentment.[/quote]On the face of it then Sky is getting this dirt cheap. At the moment Sky broadcasts between one and three Championship games a week  at the weekend? Very very roughly about 80 games a season at most? Assuming those weekend games are kept then this adds 96 extra midweek games (eight rounds of 12). And the cost for Sky has gone up only 36 per cent?

[Bill 1,788]

"us exiles is being denied the ability to watch live games."eh ?I could watch the City games whilst I was in Edinbugger and Le belle Francethe first one was with no sound and no replays etc, but that changed even though it was using Radio Norfolk at the same timeSky appears to be scrabbling around to boost it''s falling sales

[Diane 500]

Firstly welcome to the forum Mr Tea, nice to see yet another newbie joining in.

Re Sky showing midweek championship games, guess its good news for the exiles who just can''t get to Carrow Road and good news for the fans who are able to go to Carrow Road but choose not to and would rather moan with their keyboards.

As for us season ticket holders and fans who like to get to a handful of away games, guess its also good news for us when we are away to Boro/S''land midweek which is impossible for some.

Also agree with City 1st ( Bill) that maybe Sky are having to boost sales

[Crafty Canary 495]

As a proud plastic this is great news. However, for our beloved owners it must present a dilemma. Given their dislike for how money has changed the game can they, in good faith and holding to their deep felt belief in the evil of money in the modern game, accept any increase in tv revenues the club will receive. For games the club''s website streams they will surely not charge fans.

[Bill 1,788]

"Also agree with City 1st ( Bill) that maybe Sky are having to boost sales"my point was that I didn''t have to spend that long to be able to access Championship coverage that is only supposed to be broadcast outside of the UK - in each case it was a matter of  ''here you go pal'' and there it was, City liveif it is that easy, and that widespread then how long will both Sky and Bt be able to ensure their income streams meet the payments to PL clubs ?my understanding is that clubs receive payments on an ''instalment'' basis - as the payments come into the broadcasting companieswhat happens when those revenues do no meet, and start to fall below what is due to the clubs as with ITVDigital ?I suspect most clubs have contingency plans, and wage contracts are subject to such possibilities - which is maybe why City are taking a more cautious approach with regard to long term commitmentsbut if so much is now so easily obtainable without payment, how long will that small snowball take to grow ?

[Woodman 92]

Isn''t this just Sky''s way of enabling people to watch streams ''legally''?