Sky will be able to stream 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 it 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.
Irrelevant for us Angelic - We'll be in the Champions League by that time and so this Championship deal won't mean anything to us.
Good idea and it shows a sign of progression with the times. It won't impact on home attendances too much I should think, but could well impact away attendances.
I think a great idea - plenty of interest out there, only a handful of fixtures affected and the revenue can offset the tickets to attend to be slashed to a bargain price.
I have just joined BCFCTV Plus to get the games live here in Canada and the only time I can't see a match is when it is covered by Sky. What he hell was the point in offering this new service if someone was working on a deal like this? The quality of the streaming is poor and the pitch coverage is sometimes difficult to follow and without commentary it can never be like a full TV match. I wonder if City know yet how this will affect their delivery of the live streaming service which went against the wishes of most of our fellow competitors? Anyway I'm trying to get my crystal set up and running to watch tonigh's games unless someone tells me we're on Sky just to ruin the whole day.
Ah well, that doesn't happen that often Mike. ...I'm not sure why that would be the case, as you'd think the international rights would be separate, but there must be some legal wranglings.
I think there's another possible issue with the streaming service in that I believe that all the other teams that signed up with the full package coverage will not allow BCFCTV to access their streams. Bristol City were one of 3 clubs that decided to go it alone so I think that constituted a conflict with the teams that did sign up for the full league coverage. If this proves to be the case then I won't be able to see any other games than home games that aren't covered by Sky and away games at the other 2 clubs who went the same way as us. Not quite what I expected and discounted possible Sky coverage because history shows that they avoid us like the plague but it wasn't quite as advertised on the box.
I'd imagine City are still subject to the same deal. City just decided to go it alone in terms of bringing the website development in-house (or at least outsourcing to an agency of their choice).
