Kris Boyd insists that Sky Sports’ broadcast deal with the cinch Premiership has been great for Scottish football, insisting that critics of the partnership ‘don’t have a clue what they’re talking about’.
The broadcaster secured the rights to Scottish football’s top flight in 2009 after Setanta Sports ran into financial difficulty and lost them, and has ploughed millions into the game since then.
However, there has been criticism over the years for spending too much time focusing on Celtic and Rangers, while simultaneously not treating the cinch Premiership with the same level of care as the English Premier League, Sky Sports’ jewel in the crown.
Boyd, though, believes that Sky Sports deserve credit for putting their money where their mouth is and investing in Scottish football. And the former Rangers striker, who has worked as a pundit for the broadcaster for years, has little difficulty in brushing aside criticism of his employer.
“I think it’s people who quite clearly don’t have a clue what they’re talking about, if I’m being brutally honest,” Boyd said. “When you strip everything back, every media outlet that has worked in Scottish football has had the opportunity to put the money in to take over the rights.
“Sky are the ones who have actually done it and they’ve done it over a number of years. If you go right back to the start, they bailed Scottish football out. I would love to see where the game would have been if it hadn’t been for Sky after the whole Setanta thing in 2009.
“I think there are a lot of people who have a lot to say about Sky and the way they go about their business and I switch off to it. Not just because I work for the company – even when I was playing it was always better televised, better prepped.
“Sky have been brilliant for Scottish football over a period of time. There are a lot of people who are fans of clubs who say ‘they don’t care about other teams [outside Rangers and Celtic].
“But I think the other companies who had the opportunity to bid in the past were left to pick up those games because Sky had first picks.
“It’s easy to develop the perception that the channel doesn’t care but what I will say is that we have a news channel which is on 24 hours a day.
“Are there mistakes? Of course there are, it’s live TV. But I think there are people out there who can’t be bothered with Sky and that’s just what happens when you are at the top and when you are there at the top you are there to be fired at.”
Sky Sports and NOW will show exclusive live coverage of the cinch Premiership, with up to 48 games available this season.
