Season Ticket Options

The clubs were all pushing to use iFollow to show any match not on a paid broadcaster but the paid broadcasters refused and the contracts are such that without a situation like we saw at the end of the season where the gov steps in there isn't much they can do as they would be in breach of contract.

There is also the legal issue with 3PM's. It's a law that there is the 3PM blackout, the government waived it at the end of the season but continuing waiving it is problematic. I'm not sure if its being waived fully for EFL clubs but I believe if you have bought a season ticket its being deemed that you can be given a 'virtual' ticket for matches that either have no fans or where only some of the ST holders are allowed in but that makes buying a ST appealing. If the PL clubs had 3PM's either on existing outlets or via a subscription elsewhere it very well might hit income for the EFL clubs that really do need help right now.

 

I don't believe its a UEFA rule as other European countries show 3PM matches both domestic football and the likes of the PL.

I believe its a UK rule that's been in place ever since football has been broadcast with the intention of protecting revenues of the less appealing for broadcast clubs (and now clubs outside the PL)

 

I'm not aware of any law that prevents broadcasting of football at 3pm on Saturdays. There has been a convention within the old FL since the 60's that TV broadcasters wouldn't do that (as you say to protect clubs' revenues} and that that convention has been perpetuated and incorporated into the Sky and BT TV broadcasting contracts. It's simply a stipulation of the PL and the EFL that the TV broadcasters don't broadcast live football on Saturday at 3pm. And that is now ruthlessly protected by Sky.

When football was broadcast during the lockdown, it was simply a matter of the PL and EFL together with Sky and BT agreeing that for a period there wouldn't be a limitation on when live football could be broadcast.

UEFA do impose restictions on when games under the aegis of the English FA (and other domestic FA's) can be broadcast because the FA owns the broadcasting rights to FA matches. I believe this means in our terms that the FA can prevent FA cup games and internationals being broadcast live if they choose to but this doesn't exend to PL and EFL games.

 

Just looked it up and its not really a UEFA regulation. Article 48 allows a member league to have a blackout of all football from UEFA countries blacked out in that country during a specific window. So UEFA couldn't stop 3PM's being shown but they protect the right to have the blackout

 

I'm pretty sure I've seen PL clubs make the argument they can't have 3PM due to regulation at governmental level. Are you sure that while it may not be a law per say that there isn't some regulation at a higher level like the protected list?

After all the PL gains nothing from it, the PL clubs gain nothing from it, the broadcasters gain nothing from it so you would think it would have been challenged by now.

 

I'm not aware of anything other than the straightforward commercial aspects of the broadcasting contracts. Blame Bob Lord for the restriction. He was the owner of Burnley decades ago and he was the one who convinced the old FL to restrict TV broadcasting of live games on Saturday afternoons. Since then, that view has simply been incorporated into the many domestic TV broadcasting agreements.

These days, I don't understand the logic of the restriction especially for those clubs who have tens of thousands of fans who cannot get tickets to watch their teams live. A couple of the Big 6 (rumoured to be with Amazon's support!) asked the Competition Commission to look into the arrangement a couple of years ago but were knocked back after a group of clubs, broadcasters and I think the PL itself argued it wasn't a competition matter. I doubt the matter will end there!

 

Personally I like the blackout. I was born Carlisle and my dad worked for Esso. When I was 2 they consolidated a number of the northern local operation centres into 1 in Trafford so we moved to the Manchester region. This is where I started to get into Football and United (United specifically because my Granddad was Irish and used to take my Dad to watch Best play). Then when I was about 8 they consolidated further and he was moved down to their operations centre in heathrow so we moved to Hampshire. This is where football started to become a major part of my life. However I was hundreds of miles away from OT and as my dad worked shifts he often wasn't around on match days to take me to OT so with friends I would go and watch the local club Farnborough Town. I went most weeks they were at home until I was about 18. I would never have called myself a supporter, it didn't hurt when they lost like it does United and most of the time I had a pocket radio with me listening to Five Live for the united updates but they got not only a decent amount in gate receipts via me but also from HT refreshments. My friends were largely the same and I would hazard a guess a decent number of people attending did so simply because it was a live game of football that was easy for them to get to and get tickets for. While they would eventually go bankrupt (Due to Graham Westley running off with half the staff, players and money) but I suspect if 3PM top flight matches had been on TV they would have gone bust much sooner.

I would actually be in favour of all PL games being shown but to for the Saturday 3PM to be left for the lower down clubs to exploit the causal fan who just wants to watch a live match when their actual team isn't playing