Kick Off Times | Vital Football

Kick Off Times

T

Therealwaldo

Vital Squad Member
I’ve been a little hesitant to renew my season ticket for one reason only. I’m not sure how many people are aware that our kick off days and times are likely to be a little bit all over the place next season. The new TV deal is likely to make us much more like the Premier League in terms of when matches are played. Traditional Saturday, Tuesday might be a thing of the past. It might be helpful if we had a bit more detail but obviously that’s not going to happen until the TV schedules are announced. Am I being a bit alarmist ?
 
If we were Wrexham, then maybe. Gills will just be on when we play them, as will all the other teams when they play them too.
 
I know more games will be on TV but I also believe a lot will be simulcast, so you’ll go on BT’s streaming service and choose what match you want to watch.

That was from what I think I gleamed from the information disclosed at the time the deal was announced, though.
 
The pitch is that games will be allocated more evenly than having favoured teams on every week, remains to be seen quite how that'll actually pan out but with so many more games it has to be a bit more varied.

So our schedule is probably going to get messed about with a bit with 5 weekend L1 & L2 fixtures getting shunted about, but maybe not to PL levels.
  • Yes, the blocked period between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturdays will remain.
  • This means there will be seven 3pm games in the Championship, and 19 x 3pm games in League One and Two combined, which will not be broadcast each weekend
  • League One and League Two clubs will be live approximately 16 times per season

www.efl.com

Q&A: EFL & Sky Sports broadcast rights agreement

EFL Clubs have overwhelmingly approved a recommendation put forward by the EFL Board and Commercial Committee to enter into a new five-year broadcasting deal with Sky Sports worth £935m.
www.efl.com www.efl.com
 
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Therealwaldo said:
I’ve been a little hesitant to renew my season ticket for one reason only. I’m not sure how many people are aware that our kick off days and times are likely to be a little bit all over the place next season. The new TV deal is likely to make us much more like the Premier League in terms of when matches are played. Traditional Saturday, Tuesday might be a thing of the past. It might be helpful if we had a bit more detail but obviously that’s not going to happen until the TV schedules are announced. Am I being a bit alarmist ?
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Not at all.
Didn`t realise that the changes were upcoming. Hopefully there will be plenty of notice when game days and times are changed - can play havoc with booking trips etc. Thanks for the heads-up.
 
The plus side is the new tv deal is a much higher figure than the previous one, it would have been good if we could have got promoted to league 1 this season though as those clubs inevitably get a bigger slice than league 2 clubs will.
 
Shades of ITV digital.
How many will tune in to watch Huddersfield play Bristol City on a Friday night? Not that many I think. It's all about ratings. EFL lawyers need to negotiate a cast iron deal this time, or it will all end in tears.
 
The Roone said:
Shades of ITV digital.
How many will tune in to watch Huddersfield play Bristol City on a Friday night? Not that many I think. It's all about ratings. EFL lawyers need to negotiate a cast iron deal this time, or it will all end in tears.
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I don’t think it will matter to Sky though; as they are only really worried about the Premier League rights which they have, and to a lesser extent the Championship. If they schedule League 1 and 2 fixtures directly against Premier League ones then I’d only expect fans of the respective league clubs to watch and a few thousand at most neutrals.
We might get games at odd times eg early kicks offs if they want to keep their live matches on at different times.
 
Any idea how this affects iFollow? If I remember rightly, until now games televised live haven't been available on iFollow.
 
madrid_gill said:
Any idea how this affects iFollow? If I remember rightly, until now games televised live haven't been available on iFollow.
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Its all on the link:

CHANGES TO CURRENT WAYS OF WATCHING ​

Will matches still be available to watch via iFollow, or Clubs’ alternative streaming services?

  • From the 2024/25 season onward, this new deal with Sky Sports will effectively replace the EFL’s domestic video streaming option provided via iFollow and club streaming services
  • Audio services will remain alongside existing audio-visual arrangements for international audiences.
So no iFollow video for the UK but that final point likely means no difference if you're sneakily using a VPN.
 
Mark_GRS said:
Its all on the link:

CHANGES TO CURRENT WAYS OF WATCHING ​

Will matches still be available to watch via iFollow, or Clubs’ alternative streaming services?

  • From the 2024/25 season onward, this new deal with Sky Sports will effectively replace the EFL’s domestic video streaming option provided via iFollow and club streaming services
  • Audio services will remain alongside existing audio-visual arrangements for international audiences.
So no iFollow video for the UK but that final point likely means no difference if you're sneakily using a VPN.
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Not sure that really clears up my doubt though. Until now, if any of our league matches were live on Sky, they were unavailable on iFollow. As we're hardly ever live on Sky, that's not really a problem, worst case scenario there may be one game a season unavailable.

As of next season, if there's a chance we're going to be live on Sky maybe 4 or 5 times a season, then if the current rules continue to apply, that's 4 or 5 games that iFollow subscribers are going to miss out on.

Not really clear though whether current rules will continue to apply. If they do, hopefully iFollow will have the decency to reduce the subscription price accordingly.
 
madrid_gill said:
Not sure that really clears up my doubt though. Until now, if any of our league matches were live on Sky, they were unavailable on iFollow. As we're hardly ever live on Sky, that's not really a problem, worst case scenario there may be one game a season unavailable.

As of next season, if there's a chance we're going to be live on Sky maybe 4 or 5 times a season, then if the current rules continue to apply, that's 4 or 5 games that iFollow subscribers are going to miss out on.

Not really clear though whether current rules will continue to apply. If they do, hopefully iFollow will have the decency to reduce the subscription price accordingly.
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Ah, misreading your query slightly I think.

So it’s completely replacing iFollow video for the domestic market and audio and video remains the same for international streaming.

No mention of any blackout for Sky games, but seeing as there’s no such restriction for those this season hopefully that would continue. Given that we’ll apparently be on many more times that would wipe out a lot of the season if they did.

 
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