'Stark and blunt reality' of Sky's EFL deal and the major impact on Stoke City
EFL boss Rick Parry talks to StokeonTrentLive about the impact of the new Sky Sports deal
The Championship has become a premium product for Sky Sports amid an avalanche of live matches this season, believes EFL chairman Rick Parry.
Stoke City were live on television for a 26th time this term when they went to Millwall yesterday, with at least another four set for broadcast too. Further games at this stage of the campaign are being announced with a three-week warning.
It comes after Sky agreed an unprecedented £935 million five-year deal with the EFL, meaning they can show all mid-week matches, all Carabao Cup ties and all games on Bank Holidays plus the first and last days of the campaign.
The deal was worth about £60m per season than the previous one and Championship clubs, once the money has been shared out, will be about 46 per cent better off. Stoke’s income from media rights will go up from about £9m to £13m.
But there have been major changes to the calendar, including 10 lunchtime kick-offs for Stoke supporters to navigate, fixtures being moved from Saturdays and a hit on corporate sales. Attendance figures have held up but some ticket holders’ seats have been empty.
Parry has been reviewing the impact and knows Sky’s own review is important too – and he also points out that while extra cash has been welcome, it is dwarfed by extra cash generated by the Premier League in the same timeframe.
He told StokeonTrentLive: “I think there are a lot of positives. It’s early days, still, in terms of the impact. We’ve got to be very mindful of the impact for clubs but also for Sky because we really want a long-term partnership. It’s really, really important that it works for them.
“I think everyone who has tuned into the coverage will see that the product on the screen has been transformed this year in two respects. One is that we now have multiple camera coverage even down in League Two, the coverage of the games is much more professional. The resource that Sky are committing in terms of studios, the whole thing looks like the premium product that it is.
“Instead of being a filler product for Sky, we’ve been elevated to a premium product and that comes across very clearly.
“I think clubs have been really positive in terms of the way they have embraced Sky’s requirements; making players, making managers available, the community stories. It’s a brilliant vehicle to be publicising what we do and clubs have really embraced that well.
“From our point of view it’s really exciting and it’s positive – but, without wanting to be negative, an extra £60m for us is great news but the Premier League’s turnover has gone up £300m so the gap is even wider than it was last year. That is the stark and blunt reality.”
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