Championship/league 1 TV coverage 2025

[Yorky]

Hi All.

Does anybody know what the TV arrangements for the championship & league 1 for next season? 

Although primarily a follower of superleague I started watching a few of the lower league games last season  on 'the sportsman ' youtube channel and really enjoyed it. The problem I found was that the games were few & far between.

Are we likely to get more or less games this season?  Will it still be the Sportsman or some other channel? 

[RigbyLuger]

Clubs should stream their own games and charge. Other sports manage it.

[wroteforluck87]

Unfortunately not.. the sportsman will have a few matches but that's your lot

[gazza77]

7 hours ago, RigbyLuger said:

Clubs should stream their own games and charge. Other sports manage it.

Can't comment for 25, but in previous seasons they've not been allowed to due to the sky deal.

[gingerjon]

2 minutes ago, gazza77 said:

Can't comment for 25, but in previous seasons they've not been allowed to due to the sky deal.

Sky's deal doesn't cover the Championship or League 1 - hence why there was an offer from Premier last season that the clubs didn't take up.

[gazza77]

I couldn't recall how far back it was that the sky deal ran out for Champ/League 1.

[Yorky]

16 hours ago, wroteforluck87 said:

Unfortunately not.. the sportsman will have a few matches but that's your lot

That's a shame, was really hoping there would be 1 game a week. There must be enough of a market for that

[wroteforluck87]

Yea, so apparently premier sports wanted to have the exclusive rights to the championship not sure about league 1 but the money wasn't great so it was refused..

Surely getting the league out there would of been good enough regardless of the money.

[RigbyLuger]

It would only have been good for Premier. They'd have made money from the subscribers, but the Championship wouldn't have many new viewers as figures for the channel were tiny last time 

[wroteforluck87]

It would of been all right for those Rugby League fans with a dodgy firestick

[Forever Trinity]

11 hours ago, wroteforluck87 said:

Yea, so apparently premier sports wanted to have the exclusive rights to the championship not sure about league 1 but the money wasn't great so it was refused..

Surely getting the league out there would of been good enough regardless of the money.

It worked out at about £400 per club for the season after the pie was cut across the game. The clubs were right to reject just having Wakefields support at away games gave the clubs way more income as an example

[JM2010]

I’m not sure why the Championship doesn’t get any decent coverage. I bet it would get quite a sizeable audience if it was given 1 game per week in the same slot.

It also has a good amount of big towns and cities that would come across quite well to any non league fans. Bradford, York, Sheffield, Toulouse and London would give it a big city feel for casual fans and sponsors 

[RigbyLuger]

47 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

I’m not sure why the Championship doesn’t get any decent coverage. I bet it would get quite a sizeable audience if it was given 1 game per week in the same slot.

It also has a good amount of big towns and cities that would come across quite well to any non league fans. Bradford, York, Sheffield, Toulouse and London would give it a big city feel for casual fans and sponsors 

One problem is it hasn't since Sky dropped it, and the other is there isn't much coverage of any second tier sport on TV. The clubs/sport have to be more proactive.

[Gav Wilson]

Clint Goodchild commented on this at the York fans forum on Wednesday night. He was baffled the clubs turned it down and called the decision incredibly short sighted.

[JM2010]

12 minutes ago, Gav Wilson said:

Clint Goodchild commented on this at the York fans forum on Wednesday night. He was baffled the clubs turned it down and called the decision incredibly short sighted.

Yeah any deal is better than none. They have to start somewhere. If they can get a deal and build up some good viewing figures then they might be able to get a better deal next time

[RigbyLuger]

No-one builds up viewing figures on Premier. 

[JM2010]

2 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

No-one builds up viewing figures on Premier. 

Fair enough but if they do well in relation to Premier Sports viewing figures then maybe they might get chance to be picked up by another broadcaster.

Alternatively, could they at least get some sort of highlights package on to Sky or BBC

[bar red]

Do the clubs not have to video games for disciplinary matters anyway. Albeit without commentary.

[Simon Hall]

37 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

No-one builds up viewing figures on Premier. 

No one builds up viewing figures by not showing the games at all.

[RigbyLuger]

31 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

Fair enough but if they do well in relation to Premier Sports viewing figures then maybe they might get chance to be picked up by another broadcaster.

Alternatively, could they at least get some sort of highlights package on to Sky or BBC

If they want to do highlights, they'll have to do it themselves and give it away. Why they don't already do that for YouTube anyway is a mystery?

[Taffy Tiger]

1 hour ago, RigbyLuger said:

One problem is it hasn't since Sky dropped it, and the other is there isn't much coverage of any second tier sport on TV. The clubs/sport have to be more proactive.

Championship Football is second tier sport and has more live games now than Premier League

Edited November 29, 2024 by Taffy Tiger

[RigbyLuger]

1 minute ago, Taffy Tiger said:

Championship Football is second tier sport and has more live games now than Premier League

Outside of football?

[JM2010]

14 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

If they want to do highlights, they'll have to do it themselves and give it away. Why they don't already do that for YouTube anyway is a mystery?

They should be finding a waif getting their games out there. Putting them on YouTube is a no brained really.

Would there be money to be made if they charged a subscription to stream games? I’m sure it would be worth more than what Premier offered them

[Simon Hall]

4 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

They should be finding a waif getting their games out there. Putting them on YouTube is a no brained really.

Would there be money to be made if they charged a subscription to stream games? I’m sure it would be worth more than what Premier offered them

Probably not. I doubt anyone is going to pay separately to stream anything but their own club's games, and even then it'll be a one off when they're on holiday or can't make the game. I'd pay to stream every game if it was part of a package for the season, as would most keen RL fans I imagine.

Only reason the clubs themselves turned it down was they were worried about losing a few away fans through the gate and the resulting corned beef hash sales. Pathetic really.

[Just Browny]

2 hours ago, JM2010 said:

I’m not sure why the Championship doesn’t get any decent coverage. I bet it would get quite a sizeable audience if it was given 1 game per week in the same slot.

It also has a good amount of big towns and cities that would come across quite well to any non league fans. Bradford, York, Sheffield, Toulouse and London would give it a big city feel for casual fans and sponsors 

If you put it in the same slot as Champ games, people moan that half the potential audience are already at a game and/ or that Champ crowds will be affected.

Put it at the same slot as SL games and people moan that it has no chance of succeeding.

Squeeze into another slot (e.g. Monday nights) and people moan it is rubbish for fans.

I think I'd look at putting a Sunday afternoon game on Super League + and sub-contract the Sportsman to produce the coverage.