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Massimo Cellino blocks Sky Sports from Elland Road







atomised

Well-known member
Mar 21, 2013
5,120
Chief exec of the football league, did he leave leeds under a cloud at all?
Saw something on Twitter suggesting attendances had been better at televised Elland Road games
 


Official Old Man

Uckfield Seagull
Aug 27, 2011
8,613
Brighton
That's bunkum.

The market for a Championship club (even "mighty" Leeds) selling their own TV rights to all their games would be utterly miniscule. The highest bidder ? Who'd be the buyers, Challenge and UK Gold ? I can't see that being much of an auction. They'd end up with far, far less net income than what they currently get with the Sky TV deal, and they're already locked into a contract anyway, they have no independent option for the foreseeable, even if it was viable. And in the fantasy realm where they did somehow get independent rights away from the rest of the Football League to sell their games to whoever, there is absolutely no way the Football League would allow Leeds to chop, change and dictate the date and time of their fixtures to suit their own independent TV deal. Complete non-starter.

Cellino has now been banned TWICE by the Football League. This is primarily about being a pain in the arse to them and giving them the finger, not much more than that.

Bet I'm right. He wants to own the rights to sell to who he wants.
 


atomised

Well-known member
Mar 21, 2013
5,120
Bet I'm right. He wants to own the rights to sell to who he wants.

Definitely, he was happy to mess about with Cagliari fixtures when he was there. He's spoken before about not understanding why he can't control what they get paid for broadcasting their games, he sees broadcast rights as another income stream like ticket sales that he should be responsible for
None of this has anything to do with Sky inconveniencing the fans
 


atomised

Well-known member
Mar 21, 2013
5,120
IMG_20151229_142041.jpg

The stats on attendance when on sky and when not on sky
 








Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
61,824
Location Location
Bet I'm right. He wants to own the rights to sell to who he wants.

Definitely, he was happy to mess about with Cagliari fixtures when he was there. He's spoken before about not understanding why he can't control what they get paid for broadcasting their games, he sees broadcast rights as another income stream like ticket sales that he should be responsible for
None of this has anything to do with Sky inconveniencing the fans

I very much doubt the motive is "inconveniencing fans" as well. But the market just isn't there for anyone to televise purely Championship football, just ask ITV Digital. Quite how much he thinks he'd make by selling the rights for Leeds games I have no idea, but they must be getting comfortably north of £3m a season at the moment from Sky. Does he really see a market out there that would surpass that ? Its Leeds in the 2nd division !

He's obviously not a stupid man. But he's brilliantly bonkers.
 




Acker79

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Nov 15, 2008
31,921
Brighton
Surely based on that they need to make a decision in the next hour.

I would guess that the 2.5-3hr time is the average it usually takes when they can do it at a reasonably leisurely pace. They could probably get it done quicker if they have to, and of course, they could delay kick off if they need to - they seem to control kick offs to fit their commercial breaks.
 




atomised

Well-known member
Mar 21, 2013
5,120
Seems that the 2 and a half to 3 hours is based on there being no supporters etc getting in the way
 




Simster

"the man's an arse"
Jul 7, 2003
54,282
Surrey
I very much doubt the motive is "inconveniencing fans" as well. But the market just isn't there for anyone to televise purely Championship football, just ask ITV Digital. Quite how much he thinks he'd make by selling the rights for Leeds games I have no idea, but they must be getting comfortably north of £3m a season at the moment from Sky. Does he really see a market out there that would surpass that ? Its Leeds in the 2nd division !

He's obviously not a stupid man. But he's brilliantly bonkers.

In Spain, clubs throughout the league are allowed to negotiate their own TV packages. As a consequence of this, Real and Barca hoover up HALF of what domestic television cash there is. Whilst this makes for a shockingly predictable league year after year, it has also allowed the biggest two to become global powerhouses in the footballing world.

Obviously the Championship isn't as big as La Liga, but the principle still applies as far as Leeds are concerned. They are the biggest club in the division, and it really isn't close. They have Premier league support - gates aren't anything special but they have the 4th or 5th highest number of affiliated supporter group members in the country which is why they bring 2-3,000 to the Amex for a dreary and fairly meaningless Tuesday night game.

So whilst a league is stronger when negotiating together, it doesn't mean that the biggest clubs in the football league don't get shafted. Here, Sky constantly put Leeds on TV regardless of form of league position, purely because they know people will watch, and Leeds are paid a rate far lower than what Leeds could negotiate on their own.
 


atomised

Well-known member
Mar 21, 2013
5,120
In Spain, clubs throughout the league are allowed to negotiate their own TV packages. As a consequence of this, Real and Barca hoover up HALF of what domestic television cash there is. Whilst this makes for a shockingly predictable league year after year, it has also allowed the biggest two to become global powerhouses in the footballing world.

Obviously the Championship isn't as big as La Liga, but the principle still applies as far as Leeds are concerned. They are the biggest club in the division, and it really isn't close. They have Premier league support - gates aren't anything special but they have the 4th or 5th highest number of affiliated supporter group members in the country which is why they bring 2-3,000 to the Amex for a dreary and fairly meaningless Tuesday night game.

So whilst a league is stronger when negotiating together, it doesn't mean that the biggest clubs in the football league don't get shafted. Here, Sky constantly put Leeds on TV regardless of form of league position, purely because they know people will watch, and Leeds are paid a rate far lower than what Leeds could negotiate on their own.

There are figures I saw somewhere (may have been Yorkshire evening post) that televised leeds games regularly attract figures upwards of 350k with other clubs attracting significantly below 200k
 








Simster

"the man's an arse"
Jul 7, 2003
54,282
Surrey
There are figures I saw somewhere (may have been Yorkshire evening post) that televised leeds games regularly attract figures upwards of 350k with other clubs attracting significantly below 200k

Quite. So Sky have paid the Football League around £85m a season for the next 3 seasons. I'd guess that if Sky had it their way, they'd have preferred to negotiate with individual clubs, cherry picked the well supported ones, and had about a quarter of their budget left over to cover the games important to promotion and relegation battles at the business end of the season. I'm sure they could have snaffled that for less than £85m a season - perhaps £70m or so?

So if Leeds were negotiating on their own, I reckon they would probably receive a fair chunk of that three quarters - something like £10-14m - depending on how competitive they would be expected to be. But under the current collectively bargained deal, there is no way Leeds United benefit to that extent (an estimated 14%-20% of what would be the entire Sky football league outlay)
 


Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,870
West west west Sussex
They are being allowed in :(
Boooo

Although I had just realised I'd become fixated about:-

Employees of a company I don't like.
Not being allowed into a ground I don't like.
In order to do a job I have no interest in.
 


Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
50,851
Faversham
Bet I'm right. He wants to own the rights to sell to who he wants.

I agree. The fact he may actually lose money is not really a consideration to this megalomaniac. His view will be that he will charge what he likes, and that has to be a good thing, from his point of view. He is a low rent Italian version of Robert Maxwell. Don't imagine for a second he has actually done his sums properly.
 








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