[Football] Scrapping the 3pm blackout

[Arthur]

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Surely the prem would follow suit if EFL voted in favour of this?

Good thing or bad thing?

 

[Badger Boy]

It's a good thing providing the clubs make appropriate revenue from it. If we were in the Football League, I'd want to watch every game and I'd be happy to pay the club for the privilege game by game or on a subscription service. I think it's a real potential earner for clubs at that level and in this day and age it should be possible for them to stream their games and bank that cash. I don't think it would impact people wanting to attend in person, but would give those who can't the option to watch the game.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I worry for the lower league and non-league teams who play the vast majority of their matches at 3pm on a Saturday. Surely scrapping the 3pm blackout slot will hit their attendances?

 

[zefarelly]

About time too 3pm Sat kick off is a rarity anyway.

I'd sign up for a TV season ticket today if I could. . .

 

[zefarelly]

I worry for the lower league and non-league teams who play the vast majority of their matches at 3pm on a Saturday. Surely scrapping the 3pm blackout slot will hit their attendances?

Thats more of a 'fair distribution of TV revenue' issue Shirley? I do agree though.

 

[amexer]

That would be a poor decision. Apart from streaming it is good for all levels of football only way to watch on a Sat mid day is to go to a live game.

 

[beorhthelm]

I worry for the lower league and non-league teams who play the vast majority of their matches at 3pm on a Saturday. Surely scrapping the 3pm blackout slot will hit their attendances?

thats the argument for the blackout. it suggests fans are so fickle they'd not bother to watch their team if a big team is on TV. i'm not sure fans of Mansfield wouldn't go along to their local club because Man U vs Burnley or Liverpool is on TV. the arm chair fans or pub crowd arent going to the live games anyway.

 

[studio150]

No it would be a first step to removing the collective approach to TV deals, whereby individual clubs will have their own control on deals, so the bigger clubs get bigger and the minnows struggle even more.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

3pm blackout is a relic of a bygone age and serves no purpose anymore. It's about as relevant as coding up the HT scores and having to buy a programme to decode them

 

[m@goo]

I worry for the lower league and non-league teams who play the vast majority of their matches at 3pm on a Saturday. Surely scrapping the 3pm blackout slot will hit their attendances?

Probably not. You can stream games now.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

The blackout should remain.

The government, the PL, the FA and TV authorities should clamp down harder on the streaming services

More fixtures should be Sat 3pm as opposed to having a near full round of Sunday 2pm's which aren't on TV anyway

We were a Div 4 team not so long ago. How would we feel about having our numbers thinned and maybe going to the wall, because Arsenal etc are on a dodgy stream at the same time?

Smaller clubs are going to the wall

 

[Badger Boy]

That would be a poor decision. Apart from streaming it is good for all levels of football only way to watch on a Sat mid day is to go to a live game.

You still can. Nobody is stopping you, but they're adding the option for ex-pats or people who have moved away to watch the games they can't attend in person.

I don't believe that attendances would be affected, but it would require a proper study to determine whether it would or not.

 

[Arthur]

We were a Div 4 team not so long ago. How would we feel about having our numbers thinned and maybe going to the wall, because Arsenal etc are on a dodgy stream at the same time?

Smaller clubs are going to the wall

You should probably read the article first.....it's the smaller clubs asking for this to happen.

 

[Badger Boy]

You should probably read the article first.....it's the smaller clubs asking for this to happen.

It's a real shame you didn't think through the poll options to get some genuine responses. The options provided are not very good.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

thats the argument for the blackout. it suggests fans are so fickle they'd not bother to watch their team if a big team is on TV. i'm not sure fans of Mansfield wouldn't go along to their local club because Man U vs Burnley or Liverpool is on TV. the arm chair fans or pub crowd arent going to the live games anyway.

We've had fans that have admitted that they wouldn't attend a game as it was being shown on tv and they couldn't be bothered to travel and lose a lot of their day. (especially more likely for those longer distance fans for a midweek game) It won't take that many fans from league 1 & 2 teams to decide not to go before that tv money is less than their income

The revenue at that level from tv rights is unlikely to make up for the lost matchday income imo (ticket, food and drink, club shop sales, etc) something I remember Leeds for one being very vocal about when we were both in the championship

And then you have those who attend local sides (possibly non-league) when their team is away, having those games on tv mean it's likely those other local clubs will lose out on revenue as a result too

 

[Arthur]

It's a real shame you didn't think through the poll options to get some genuine responses. The options provided are not very good.

Oh sorry. I'll make sure I'll run my future polls via the post police in future.

Pretty sure no one is stopping you doing your own poll. Be my guest.

 

[Giraffe]

I don't see the harm in it personally. During covid we very used to watching every single PL game on the telly to the point where it was quite disappointing when this didn't continue.

If they spread the kick offs sensibly, and therefore included 3pm I wouldn't have an issue with it. However as part of that they really need to think through the times for games where fans travel a long distance. They should be the 3pm kick offs.

 

[A1X]

I worry for the lower league and non-league teams who play the vast majority of their matches at 3pm on a Saturday. Surely scrapping the 3pm blackout slot will hit their attendances?

If they're the sort of "fans" who won't bother going to watch their team because Man Utd are on the telly then aren't they also unlikely to turn up at 3pm on a Saturday if there's a big game taking place just before or just after anyway?

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

If they're the sort of "fans" who won't bother going to watch their team because Man Utd are on the telly then aren't they also unlikely to turn up at 3pm on a Saturday if there's a big game taking place just before or just after anyway?

No. We can't all be superfans. There's a spectrum of commitment. We need to give people as many reasons to watch football at all levels as possible

 

[keaton]

Wouldn't the simple way around it be to move all their games to 12.30 or 5.30 and they can stream them as they like?