Record Back Page 31/03/2017

[ian1964 10,720]

[ian1964 10,720]

[ian1964 10,720]

Scottish football's pathetic TV deal is bottom of the Euro table

 

A Record Sport investigation reveals the extent to which the SPFL is underselling our game as chief Neil Doncaster gets set to negotiate a new TV deal.

 

THE battle has begun to get a fairer price for Scottish football from mega-rich TV bosses.

 

But a Record Sport investigation into TV revenue across the continent has provided damning proof of why our game remains the poor man of Europe.

 

With Neil Doncaster already in discussions aimed at thrashing out an improved deal with broadcasters, the figures we release today show how far our top clubs are lagging behind foreign rivals – and highlight why the SPFL chief executive has to bring home the bacon for the sake of our national sport.

 

In fact, they provide damning proof the Scottish game is receiving a relative pittance for the rights to screen 60 live top-flight games per season on Sky and BT Sport.

 

The current deal – which has three years still to run – sees Scotland anchored to the bottom of a league of 18 countries, below the likes of Poland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark and dwarfed even by Greece.

 

BT Sport are believed to be keen to strike a new agreement which would see them go it alone from summer 2020.

 

But while the potential sums involved are thought to be in excess of the £31million a season which failed satellite company Setanta once forked out for Scottish football, even that would fall way short of the kind of cash which is being pumped into the game abroad.

 

It’s understood the SPFL’s joint crown-jewel deal with Sky and BT Sport is worth slightly less than £19m per season.

 

This figure rises close to £30m when overseas rights, highlights packages and a separate deal with the BBC are factored in.

 

The vast majority of that cash is spread between the top 12 clubs at the end of each season, with the leftover money dripping down to the lower leagues.

 

But the numbers are made to look absolutely paltry when compared with the enormous amount of cash the same two companies are ploughing into the game south of the border after recently agreeing a new three-year deal worth an eye-watering £5.14billion.

 

In other words, Sky and BT are forking out £1.71bn a season to showcase the Premier League – which works out at 90 times more than the going rate for Scottish football. Or, in other words, our struggling clubs pocket just 1.1 per cent of that annual telly jackpot.

 

While not even a newspaper as patriotic as this one would argue Scottish football deserves financial parity with the glitz and glamour of the English game, the sheer scale of this imbalance is ridiculous.

 

Scottish football is not only shivering in England’s financial shadow. Our figures show disparity knows no borders where our game is concerned.

 

Not surprisingly, Scotland’s TV cash is dwarfed by the other four of the big five – Germany, Italy, Spain and France.

 

The Bundesliga has just entered into a new four-year deal worth £900m a year. Serie A is raking in £805m per season.

 

And La Liga is currently tied into a three-year deal worth £753m a year.

 

In France, the existing deal for Ligue 1 is worth £638m per season. But it’s when you travel outside the most established, wealthy football nations that the paucity of Scotland’s current financial arrangements becomes even more apparent.

 

Sixth on the list is Turkey which, although it has a complicated system for selling rights to its Super Lig matches, dishes out £385m a year.

 

In Portugal the process is even more complex and allows clubs to sell their own broadcast rights to TV companies on contracts of up to 10 years at a time.

 

Benfica and Sporting Lisbon are believed to have negotiated their own deals worth in excess of £350m. But, even so, the total value of the broadcast deals for the entire Primeira Liga is calculated to come in at around £110m per year.

 

In Holland, a long-term deal has also been done for the rights to screen Eredivisie games at £70m a year.

 

Ninth in the table are Belgium who are entering into the final year of their TV contract, which has been worth £60m a year since 2014.

 

Even in Greece, a country that has been for some time teetering on the edge of economic obliteration, the TV deals dwarf those in place for Scottish football.

They are currently gorging themselves on a contract which runs until 2019 and is worth £50m a season.

 

In 11th place in our rich league is Denmark which is incredible given that the Danes have a population of 5.6 million people – which is just 300,000 more than our own.

 

But, even so, the Danish Superliga is worth 54 million euros per season to domestic TV companies – which means the likes of Copenhagen, Brondby and Nordsjaelland get to split a total pot of £46m per year.

 

And in Norway, where Ronny Deila is currently in charge of Valerenga, it’s a similar story.

 

In fact, there is a six-year deal in place for the Eliteserien worth a total of £35m a year.

 

Which is not only enough to keep Deila in spotless underpants but also secures 12th place in our table.

 

Surprisingly, the Russians are down in 13th position with TV rights worth £35m a year. A bumper new deal will kick in later this year but even before that money floods in the existing contract still makes them relative oligarchs compared to the Scots.

 

In Poland the Ekstraklasa may sound more like a chocolate bar to cure constipation but it’s worth a tasty £28m a year.

 

Even the Swiss league is more interesting according to telly bosses who fork out £25m a year for the rights to a Super League containing Young Boys, Grasshoppers and Basel.

 

In Sweden the going rate is 25m euros or £21m per year to broadcast games from the Allsvenskan, with Austria’s top flight close behind on £19m for each campaign.

 

And only after all of them comes the SPFL and its relative pauper’s contract with Sky and BT which at the last count was valued at £18.75m a season.

 

No wonder then that Doncaster has already started the process of escaping from this agreement, which will keep the Scottish game in the poorhouse for three more years. The end can’t come soon enough.

[Tannochsidebear 2,405]

But but but Peter told Neil & Stuart that this was a good deal, nay, a great deal. Look back at your Daily Rhebel headlines from when the deal was signed for proof. Hypocrisy in the Scottish mhedia?

[ian1964 10,720]

I have never had sky and I don't want sky, however if Scottish football were to get a fair deal,who knows what a fair deal would be?, I would consider getting it. The problem is nobody is interested in Scottish football, even Scottish football itself isn't interested!

[Gribz 837]

How can Austria produce a decent national team on practically the same amount. But to be dwarfed by Norway and Denmark shows they run their leagues and countries well.

 

Even if we did get more from SKY I wouldn't trust the powers that be to spend it fairly or wisely.

 

Its an argument for summer football though. More viewers would tune in when there is no Premier League to say a Aberdeen v Rangers / Hearts v Celtic game. And an Rangers v Celtic game in the July sun would generate bigger audiences.

 

But we would end up getting out done by this ICC summer friendlies who are paying silly money to get Europes big clubs around the world.

[ian1964 10,720]

But but but Peter told Neil & Stuart that this was a good deal, nay, a great deal. Look back at your Daily Rhebel headlines from when the deal was signed for proof. Hypocrisy in the Scottish mhedia?

 

 

Doncaster, Regan and Lawell are the ones responsible for the state of our game!, the way the whole of Scottish football focussed all their energy in chasing Rangers down ruined any chance of negotiating any deal, and the Scottish gutter press are complicit in this!

[Bearman 9]

So the likes of Sweden Switzerland and Austria get more money pumped in than what the Scottish League gets? Celtic as things stand are pulling in more than any of their top clubs put together.

 

However, if an Association is being run with only one objective then it can be said the Scottish Association is running on gas right now!

 

The Daily Record are delighted about that! Ask Liewell.

[Bearman 9]

The Tramps hold on to their '67 achievement like no other.

 

Rangers have a more glorious history representing Scotland in Europe yet this scum ridden country of ours wants us dead!

 

F*ck them all...we'll come back even stronger than ever! As TRUE Brits!

[ian1964 10,720]

'Scottish football no longer exists': Sky Sports chief's call after deal flop revealed

 

TV anchorman Richard Keys remembers when the order came through to “shut down Scottish football - it no longer exists," after the dispute between satellite giants Sky TV and Roger Mitchell.

 

Richard Keys had a seat inside Sky TV’s high command when the order came through from above: “Shut down Scottish football. It no longer exists.”

 

That was 15 years ago. But Keys believes the game in this country is still paying the price.

 

And yesterday, when the TV anchorman read Record Sport’s expose on the paltry broadcast deal that is keeping our game locked in Europe’s poor house, his mind immediately raced back to that mean-spirited dispute between the satellite giants and Roger Mitchell – a row he blames for our game’s financial plight.

 

Yesterday, we mapped out the paucity of the SPFL’s TV deals with Sky and BT Sport by comparing them with mega-money contracts being handed out in countries across the Continent.

 

While Scotland’s clubs scrape by on a share of £18.75million for the rights to 60 live games per season, 17 other leagues are raking in relative fortunes.

 

From £1.71billion per season in England to £46m a year in Denmark and £50m in Greece, our game has been frozen out of football’s broadcast fortunes. Keys caught up with our figures as he boarded a flight from Heathrow to Doha, where he hosts live football every weekend for big-spending Qataris beIN SPORTS.

 

And he said: “I wasn’t surprised by them, I was astounded by them. The sums are frightening.“It’s a crying shame the way Scottish football is being treated. In fact it’s beyond a crying shame – it’s a disgrace.”

 

And Keys knows what he’s talking about. He had a ringside seat when former SPL chief executive Mitchell picked a fight with the heavyweight executive at the top of Sky’s empire, Vic Wakeling. And got knocked out cold.

 

Even now when Keys shuts his eyes he can still hear Scottish football’s bones being crushed. He said: “You can trace it all back to 2002 and the deal Vic Wakeling didn’t do with Roger Mitchell who was in charge of the SPL – but who wasn’t very good at it.

 

“Vic put something like £60m on the table and the response was, ‘Come back to me when you’re serious’. Vic withdrew the offer and overnight he made it clear we were to stop talking about Scottish football on Sky Sports News which was a disgrace in itself.

 

“The instruction was, ‘Scottish football doesn’t exist. Shut it down. We don’t talk about it, we’re not interested in it until they come back to the table on our terms’.“It really was a disgrace and in my view Scottish football has never recovered. Scottish football has made some extraordinary decisions domestically which I didn’t understand but which have had a very detrimental effect on the game.

 

And you know what I’m referring to.“All these years on still no one can tell me what Rangers were guilty of when they were sent down to the bottom tier.“The expectation was they would be found guilty but my understanding is they were never convicted of any wrong- doing. But I guess that’s another matter entirely.”

 

Keys stayed at Sky for nine more years before leaving under a cloud of controversy in 2011.

 

But in his next job, with TalkSPORT, he was quick to reconnect with the Scottish game – and to understand its value.

 

He said: “When we went to Talksport I was very much aware that the station was broadcast nationally. But that we only ever talked about English football. I said when I went there I wanted our show to have an audience of over one million. I was told we would never do it.“So after a week or so I told them I wanted a full set of newspapers delivered every morning, including in particular the Daily Record because I wanted to know what was happening in Scotland.

 

“The only reason I knew what was happening at Rangers in 2011 was because I started reading the Daily Record. And that’s when we started covering it properly.“Effectively we broke the story in England because no one else down here had been paying attention to what the Record had been writing.

 

“A club the size of Rangers going bust? This was a huge story – it was cataclysmic – but no one in England cared about or even knew about it until TalkSPORT picked it up.

“When we left that station our audience was 1.25m and a large part of that was the decision to show a genuine, grown-up interest in Scottish football. I’m not sure any of the major British broadcasters have done so since. Too many people who live and work in London and who broadcast from London believe the UK ends at Berwick.”

 

Keys was the frontman for the big TV relaunch of England’s top flight in 1992. And that experience has convinced him Scottish football can also be completely over-hauled if the big broadcasters are prepared to pay it the going rate.

 

He said: “I don’t buy into the theory they won’t pay proper money for it because it’s not a very good product because when we set up the Premier League in England it wasn’t a very good product either.

 

“It only is what it is today because of the amount of TV money that’s been poured into it. Unless you commit to it in that way you can’t expect it to be better.“What you certainly can’t do is expect the product to get better by completely ignoring it the way Sky is just now.“The problem is they got stung massively in the last round of negotiations for the rights to the Premier League. As a result Sky are now paying £11m a game.“On any given weekend they’re paying £55m to put five games on and that’s just for the rights, never mind all the staff and technology involved in such big live broadcasts.

 

“So something had to give. They lost things like speedway and all the other stuff around the periphery. The attitude was, ‘If we can nick Scottish football then let’s do that’. It’s time football people in Scotland demanded a far better deal.”

Edited March 31, 2017 by ian1964