EFL TV Rights Deal 24/25 to 28/29 - Goodbye iFollow

Without iFollow, I won't be able to watch all of our games. Surely they have to keep it for supporters living abroad?

 

they are doing, says it in the article

 

From a quick working out of 2 or 3 games each weekend, that would leave about 13 full sets of fixtures eg midweek or bank holidays.

not sure how many midweek games we have each season? Would that sound about right?

 

Think it won’t be the case. Seems it BBC presenters on IFollow..

 

So if iFollow is still available to supporters living abroad it should hopefully still be possible to watch via a VPN, as I've done this season for most of the away games that I haven't attended in person.

 

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/sportlatest/23505607.ryan-sparks-bantams-said-yes-new-efl-tv-deal/

 

so we are getting an extra £200k and currently we earn more from UK iFollow.

 

We make up 1/3 of ifollow income in the division. Wow.
Maybe my £300,000 guess isn't far off the mark.

 

Not everyone has Sky, so who knows. However, I think they are right we don’t want to be down here we have ambitions.

 

Sparks interview made out ifollow fully going with what he was saying.

 

From next season, another deal is in place for the EFL, having renewed it's international streaming rights. Pitch International has the rights to the EFL games to be broadcast overseas, with its new deal to include streaming of 38 L1 & L2 matches per season. As it's US based, the article event hints that they are going to target Wrexhams popularity. But there could be a chance we are selected for some international streaming games in future. This deal seems like it is going to carry on the iFollow service for overseas fans.

EFL agrees innovative new international TV rights deals - The English Football League

EFL ANNOUNCES RECORD INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST RIGHTS REVENUE - Sport Industry Group

As well as this, Stoke City this week leaked some early info mistakenly about next seasons new Sky Sports EFL deal. It seems like it was announced an eternity ago, but from next season there is way more EFL football on TV. Sky will be showing 328 Sky Bet Championship matches, 248 Sky Bet League One matches & 248 Sky Bet League Two matches over the season as well as the usual play offs. Stoke City jumped the gun in a deleted post and announced that for Championship clubs, the agreement is at least 2 home and 2 away patches per season will be selected for main TV. I'm guessing from the numbers, the L1 & L2 agreement may well be that all clubs will be shown at least 3 times per season?

I'm guessing the idea at the moment around how Sky can show so many matches, it will be similar to mid-week Championship fixtures? When there's a full championship Tuesday schedule, all 12 games are on Sky at once, with one on the main channel and the rest via red-button. If they do that for the 10ish midweek games a season, 12 games a round, that will cover about half of it with the rest being a handful a weekend. Complete guess.

 

I think the aim for sky is to launch it's own streaming platform for league one and two teams, depending on how it can manage the volume of games.

They are readying it now I believe and in preparation they have agreed a deal to show all the rugby super league matches live this year. Upto until June they are spread across all sky channels including some at the same time, however come July only three games will be on the main sky channels, with the new platform showing all 6 games live and on demand with other rugby league content, such as documentary and library games.

That's been charged at £19.99 per month for non season ticket holders and £14.99 for season ticket holders at super league clubs. I'd be expecting something similar for the EFL version

 

The $M question is: does any of this mean I can watch more City at home and at about the same cost without being tied into a contract as I can currently with i-follow? Live in hope I suppose.

 

@Jordan I think each team will have to be on more than 3 times a year if they are showing 248 games a season as that is almost half of the matches. There are 552 matches a season, 12 games a week and 46 rounds of matches.

So if all things are equal, which obviously they will not be, every team should be on at least 20 times. So that is 20 matches not kicking off at 3pm on a Saturday.

 

I wasn't saying everyone will only be on 3 times a season. I'm just using the wording they've used for the champ teams, where they have said each team will have AT LEAST 4 matches per season on the main TV channel. And roughly L1 & L2 have about a quarter less games on their deal, so ours might end up being that each L1 and L2 team will be on the main EFL TV channel at least 3 times. It will be so that they can show your Sheff Uniteds, and maybe Leeds, Southampton types most weeks and only show the Plymouths, QPRs, Millwalls of the league might only be on a few times. But its the few times on main TV thing, meaning they'll be the headline for that gameweek, and every other game will have to be a red-button one or whatever alternative Sky offer by next season.

So if we have a similar agreement to the champ on 75% scale, you might see a Barrow game a handful of times a season but Wrexham might be on 3 times out of 4. They wont be equal by any stretch. If Derby are still in L1 or Portsmouth, they will be on TV next season way more often than a Burton for example in L1. Look how often Leeds, Leicester and Southampton are on Sky now compared to your Roterhams or Plymouths.

 

Ahh, 4 times on the MAIN channel. not all the games will be on that so that will be the major difference between the 20 and the 4. vast majority will be via their new platform that they are launching

 

Sky with all the bells and whistles costs enough as it is. If they think people will pay daft money to watch dozens of crap football teams they have another think coming. Only supporters of clubs will likely watch their own club, as opposed to Sutton Utd V Morecambe on a tues night on Sky?
I’d rather poke my eyes out.

 

Just get a firestick pal, they’re virtually flawless and everyone you ask these days seems to have one

 

I actually think Sky are involved somehow behind the scenes with the easily accessible dodgy streams leaked out, it's like they know there's a huge percentage of sports fans out there who would never pay the extortionate costs of Sky etc. So they help fund the black market avenue in a way of getting them fans to pay them something.