Selling Sky short may yet prove costly... and not just for Rangers
SKY SPORTS don’t get much thanks for throwing millions of pounds at Scottish football every year. Fans look at the cash they spend on the English Premier League and think a £125million deal for the SPFL is derisory.
Celtic supporters think Kris Boyd is a Rangers shockjock. Rangers supporters think Andy Walker is a Celtic mouthpiece.
Fans outside Glasgow, meanwhile, see those slapdash captions confusing Dundee with Dundee United and think all they care about are the Glasgow clubs.
When Sky bosses made it known they were unhappy with the lack of access to Rangers’ management and players after Sunday’s title win, then, a nation shrugged. Karma, was the cry.
Some journalists even did the same. Media outlets and football clubs fall out in spectacular fashion all the time and reporting rows can feel a bit self-indulgent. There’s a feeling journos should report news and not make it.
Yet fans of all clubs should be concerned by an apparent breakdown in relations between Rangers and the broadcaster.
Because a £25m-a-year deal for exclusive rights to the Premiership wasn’t the only thing the channel agreed last summer.
When coronavirus forced clubs to stick padlocks on the turnstiles chairmen needed something to help them sell season tickets.
And, to ease the financial distress, Sky agreed to let them offer a live stream for their home league games in order to sell virtual season tickets for up to £500 a pop. Without that gesture clubs — including Rangers — would have been forced to ask diehards for acts of charity.
The reasons for the strained relations are not entirely clear. Gripes with comments made during commentaries are standard fare. It might stem from a Sky employee poking a camera in the face of Steven Gerrard after his set-to with referee John Beaton at Livingston the other week.
Whatever the reason, Rangers have let it be known they are now prioritising their club channels. Pleased by the in-house viewing figures for their title celebrations last weekend, big clubs see this as the future.
Ending central rights bargaining, restricting club content to their own platforms, controlling what’s asked and said, cutting out the middle man and raising revenue at source is where the market is heading.
The problem is that they’re not quite there yet. And, in the next few weeks, the time will come for Premiership clubs to ask the punters to stump up for season tickets yet again.
As yet, there is still no time frame for when crowds will be allowed back into grounds next season.
Nicola Sturgeon has yet to offer UEFA any guarantees that Hampden will be allowed to accommodate any fans at all for the Euro finals and that puts Glasgow’s status as a host city in doubt. An unrepentant First Minister has already warned that restrictions won’t be lifted in a gung-ho fashion.
It’s possible football clubs in Scotland could be restricted to 25 per cent of their capacity for home games at first. Hearts owner Ann Budge fears fans won’t return to grounds at all until the end of 2021 and we may not see capacity crowds in any form next season.
If that’s the case, then season tickets will remain a vital source of revenue and an increasingly hard sell. And the Sky/Rangers stand-off doesn’t really help on that score.
If you were Neil Doncaster right now you’d be a worried man.
Rangers publicly called for the SPFL chief exec to go last summer. And the last thing Doncaster needs is another row with the Ibrox club after his official broadcast partners kick up a stink over their lack of access to players and managers.
So far, the broadcasters have yet to lodge an official complaint. They would prefer constructive talks to a state of open warfare. But, as yet, there’s no sign of a rapprochement.
And the worry remains that if the new champions feel disinclined to offer Sky Sports a Stevie G exclusive in return for their millions, then the broadcasters might feel equally disinclined to continue letting top-tier clubs sell live streams of home games to their own fans next season.
And suddenly it becomes a hell of a lot harder to persuade fans to renew those expensive season tickets.
Punters already feel they’ve been fleeced this season. They paid good money for seats they’ll never get to sit in.
Take away the live stream for home games next season and some will no longer see the point.
At a time when clubs are squeezed tighter than ever before, it’s in everyone’s financial interests to get this sorted. Rangers included.