TV football fan? Feast on this....

Huge rise in live TV Championship games
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| July 5 2017, 12:01am,**
There will be a huge increase in the number of Championship matches shown live on television, according to a tender document issued by the English Football League.

The EFL will allow the number of league games broadcast live to almost treble, from 112 to 324 matches a season in 2019-20. Up to 228 of the 552 Championship matches would be live, compared with 92 at present.

The rights will be split into separate packages, , with a weekend package, including the play-offs, of a minimum of 114 and a maximum of 228 live games, and a midweek package of up to 96 matches. There will be a third package for the Carabao Cup — the new name for the EFL Cup — with all those matches available to be shown live. Interested broadcasters will be asked to stipulate how many matches they intend to show.

The EFL will also allow broadcasters to screen matches simultaneously, as happens now with BT Sport and the Champions League, so viewers can choose which live game to watch.

The tender document for the new deal, to start from the 2019-20 season, marks a considerable change in approach from the EFL, which has created a set of packages that it believes will appeal to broadcasters in the expectation of stiff competition for the rights between Sky and BT. Both have previously indicated that they are interested in bidding.

That competition and the extra matches should ensure a significant increase from the £90 million-a-year rights at present, but the EFL has had to balance that expected surge in income against the fact there will be considerably fewer kick-offs at the traditional time of 3pm on Saturday, and the possible impact that this could have on attendances.

If BT Sport is happy to remain as the secondary broadcaster for Premier League games, as Simon Green, its head, has recently suggested, then it may decide that investing heavily in the EFL is a good way to secure a lot of weekend games. The midweek package may appeal more to Sky, given that BT Sport has Champions League and Europa League matches sewn up. There is also the possibility of a free-to-air broadcaster bidding for the midweek games after Adam Crozier, the outgoing head of ITV, said in May that it would look at the rights.

The EFL plans to maintain a highlights programme for a free-to-air broadcaster to run at about 9pm on a Saturday night — the slot filled by Channel 5 at present. Live League One and League Two matches would mostly be shown on international weekends.

If the broadcasters decide to show the maximum number of matches, then there would be a huge choice for the armchair viewer. The Premier League is increasing its number of available live games to at least 190 of the 380 matches, and also considering a Saturday evening window. With the increase in EFL matches, that would mean live football every weekend, almost continuously, during peak hours.

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Gazwag said:

Surely its time for the meaningless "law" that a 3pm Saturday KO cannot by televised to be repealed, any proper football fan will still attend matches at 3pm on a Saturday irrespective of whether there is a game on TV

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