IT is “excruciatingly unfair” Scots are the only football supporters in Great Britain who must pay to watch their national team, an SNP MP has said.
Pete Wishart, chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee, presented the group’s findings on public service broadcasting in Scotland to MPs on Thursday afternoon and expressed disappointment there were no concrete proposals to show the national team’s matches for free.
But he expressed hope that deals could be struck with broadcasters on a case-by-case basis as has been the case recently, such as Scotland’s show-down with Ukraine last September.
There has been a sustained campaign across Scotland to have the national team’s matches shown for free – but the rights belong to Swedish streaming company Viaplay.
Whereas Channel 4 own the rights to broadcast England games for free and Welsh games are shown by the public broadcaster S4C, Scots must pay to watch the Scotland team play.
Scots are among “few” European countries where this is the case, Wishart claimed.
The English rights are highly-sought after because of the huge audiences they bring in while Wales fans benefit because S4C struck a deal where people can watch for free with Welsh commentary or pay to have English commentary.
Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate, Wishart said it was “not cheap at all” for Scotland fans to watch the national team.
“There is a huge amount of excitement about international football and the prospects for the Scottish football team – the only problem is, you have to pay to watch it,” he said.
“We’re the only part of Great Britain where this happens. In Northern Ireland, it’s the same situation as us but if you’re in England and you’re in Wales you can watch your national football team free to air, no problem.
"But if you’re in Scotland, you’re going to have fork out or you’re going to have to go to the pub and watch it with your friends.
"Now that’s not a bad prospect, but why, why is it the case that it’s only Scots, on this island that have to pay? And it’s not cheap, it’s not cheap at all."
He added: “A standard Viaplay subscription for a month is £14.99. Now Viaplay have been reasonably generous and launched a package which accounts for £59 to buy for this year. But we’re talking about a cost-of-living crisis.”
Responding for the Government, Media Minister John Whittingdale said: “The reason you are able to watch England football matches on television [for free] is because broadcasters, free-to-air broadcasters have obtained those rights.
“They don’t have any exclusive ability to bid for them, others could too.”
He added: “Of course, we’re happy to keep it under review but I would say […] that in determining whether or not should be included within the listed events regime, that has considerable financial consequences for the sport involved.
"So you have to strike a balance between giving as many people as possible the opportunity to watch that particular sporting event against the wish to obtain the revenue to put back into the sport which is possible from a sale of sporting broadcast rights to whoever is willing to pay the most.
“And that is generally a matter which, I’ve always felt, the sporting authorities are well-placed.
“It is the case, I understand, that a significant proportion of the Scottish [Football Association’s] income does come from the sale of broadcast rights to a subscription service.”
