Hi all,
This is an incredibly complicated thing. I will try to explain...
As well as my role with the Robins Trust, I have been on the Football Supporters Association National Council for the past two years as one of three reps for Leagues One and Two.
This is a subject that has been discussed at length, with our FSA Council colleagues - who represent all the other divisions and interests of the grassroots game. It has also been discussed in two of the three structured dialogue meetings I have been a part of with the senior management of the EFL.
The 3pm blackout exists in UEFA statute as well as the laws of the land. But perhaps more crucially it is part of the contracts that both Sky, BTSport, the BBC and TalkSport have taken out with both the Premier League and Football League.
All four of those entitites pay significant amounts to carry exclusive broadcast rights for games. The money CTFC receive from the EFL's Sky deal, through the direct TV deal and solidarity payments from the Premier League, is perhaps the single-biggest entry on our club's turnover each year.
Put simply, if anything was to effect that deal, our club and pretty much all of the 72 other League clubs would suffer significantly. BBC Radio also pay for exclusive broadcast rights, again a figure that directly supports our club.
The current TV deal started in 2019 and runs until 2024. It is a commercial contract that cannot be broken.
After 2024, and with the rise of effective streaming things will change, but most clubs will campaign hard for the 3pm blackout to be maintained, because if it goes, there will be live Premier League games televised at 3pm on a Saturday and attendances will drop.
What the media landscape will look like after 2024 is an unknown, but clubs like ours who rely on two significant income streams (TV money and ticket money) will be loathe to change.
Currently an iFollow match pass costs £10 - 50% cheaper than a standard, on-the-day terrace ticket. If it rains, and 500 people decide to stay at home and pay their tenner rather than attend. the club loses £10,000 or more.
Put that over the course of the season that loss is in the hundreds of thousands and that's before you factor in the people who circumvent even the £10 payment and illegally stream - illegal streams (with no revenue to clubs) will only increase if iFollow becomes more of a norm...
Commercially, the case - I believe - is overwhelming. Remove the blackout and our club will suffer significant, perhaps even catastrophic drops in revenue, both from the TV deals and ticket sales.
Personally, I have always added my opinion to all the meetings that I've been in that football has a duty on itself to look after the entire pyramid.
When CTFC are away and I am not travelling to the game, I'll often go and watch a local non-League game. Something I know a lot of other Robins fans do as I see them there! The money we pay over the turnstiles, in the bar, for programmes etc... helps keep those clubs alive.
Of course there are nuances, there are people who are unable to attend matches who have relished iFollow, it kept me sane during lockdown like many others so I get that, but I hope you can all agree that this is a massively complext issue with lots of vested interests, laws and commercial agreements involved.
Here's a link to the EFL/FSA meeting minutes where this was discussed - the headline figure is that during lockdown ifollow earned the 72 EFL clubs £45million - ticket sales during that period were predicted to be more than £240million...
https://www.efl.com/contentassets/2f010 ... y-2021.pdf
If and when this is raised again with the FSA or the EFL, I will endeavour to report back to here or via our social media / website as to any developments.
Cheers, JY