A new £150million TV for Scottish football could be agreed as soon as next month.
The SPFL are in talks with Sky Sports despite the current agreement not expiring until 2025 and only came into effect last September. The new proposal would see the maximum number of games the broadcaster can show increase from 48 to 60 per season, although they opted not to take their full allocation of live matches last term
The money going into club coffers would increase from £25 million to £30million, but that jump wouldn’t happen fully until the 2028/29 campaign. Given the bump in number of games being shown, the pounds for game ratio would actually fall compared to the current deal, working out at around £500k per match. A further ten-game bundle is also available to Sky from 2024/25 and matches not picked up for live broadcast could then be sold on a pay-per-view basis by clubs for punters to watch within the UK and Ireland.
However these would have to be screened outside the current blackout window. This currently prohibits matches being shown live in this country between 2.45pm and and 5.15pm on Saturday afternoons. The number of games Sky can show from each Premiership ground will also rise from four to five per season.
Under League rules, Neil Doncaster and co. have 28 days to respond to the offer, with an 11-1 majority vote from member clubs required for the deal to be ratified. A resolution has been sent to clubs recommending they accept the proposal.
It remains doubtful whether Rangers would vote in favour of the proposal. The Ibrox club have been heavily critical of the governance of the Scottish game in recent seasons, and were involved in a sponsor spat with the league body after cinch became the primary sponsor.
The Gers refused to display cinch branding in their stadium and during live and recorded TV interviews with players and staff. The SPFL announced over the summer that the Ibrox club were no longer contractually obligated to do so. Managing director Stewart Roberston has also insisted that the game is undersold by Hampden powerbrokers.
The Daily Mail reports that Rangers are surprised that no tender process was undertaken in order to try and attract a rival bidder for TV rights. The SPFL’s stance is that the broadcast market is declining so securing an early deal makes more commercial sense.
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