Ron Gordon has labelled Scottish football as the 'little brother' of the English Premier League as he hailed the new Sky Sports TV deal as the best option for our game.
The Hibs chairman yesterday hailed the strategic action plan to significantly improve income to Scottish clubs from £28.4million to £50m by 2029 following the findings of the Deloitte review. He is also aware that other leagues out there have bigger numbers but stressed they show every single game as he pointed out that Scotland has the highest per capita rate of any league in Europe.
Talks are on the table to increase the number of live fixtures on the key broadcaster to 60 per season and then 80 while talks over PPV as part of the new deal are ongoing and while it is not secured just yet, Gordon says it is something they are trying to carve out. Speaking to the Daily Record, the Easter Road chief said: “I feel Sky are the best partners for us but the Deloitte report also validated this. I feel they are the best partner for us, for a variety of reasons.
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“They are tried and true and all we are trying to do is to make it better. It is also the home of the best football in the UK. The Premier League is there and we are the little brother of the Premier League.
“If you want to see top football then you want to be on Sky. That is not to say there won’t be other players further down the road because we will have opportunities to go with a second package in three years, assuming this Sky deal moves the way we all think it is going to move. I don’t have any visibility of anybody who can play to the level of Sky as it stands.”
He added: “A lot of leagues have bigger numbers but a lot of them show every game. The revenues at the game are not what they are in Scotland, we have the highest per capita rate of any league in Europe.
“What we are doing with the Sky relationship is to have more games because we have to get more money but not at the expense of our gate. We have put two things on the table. More games so it is potentially going up to 60 games per season and then 80 games, that is out of more than 200 plus games.
“We are also in talks about pay-per-view. We don’t have that at the moment and we are trying to carve that out, which would be excellent. We want to protect our gate, have more exposure and create another revenue through the pay-per-view which we currently don’t have.”
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