The English Football League announced on Tuesday night it had submitted a request for proposals to major streaming companies and plans to make all EFL games on Saturdays at 3pm available to watch live on one platform.
The ‘Saturday blackout’ has been used since the 1960s as an attempt to keep stadium attendance high at football games – but the announcement would see it scrapped for the start of the 2024/25 season, making all Championship, League 1 and League 2 games available to watch live.
The EFL has opened up the opportunity to all the big streaming platforms – including Netflix, Amazon and Google, as well as the current sports giants Sky and BT.
They are targeting over £200million in yearly profits, which is nearly double the current Sky deal, under which Sky shows two Championship games a week live as well as the occasional midweek game.
The request for proposals is still in its early days, and it gives the potential streaming companies opportunity to think of innovative ideas and different ways of making the service work.
Ben Wright, the commercial director at the EFL, said: “There is a desire to grow our audience further.”
However, many fans have voiced their worries about the blackout, claiming that the streaming service will negatively impact both the finances of individual clubs, as well as the experience of a Saturday matchday.
Mancunian Matters contacted the Central Wigan blog for a statement in response to the request.
They said: “The idea is one that I support, only if the EFL and selected service keep the clubs’ financial requirements as their main focus.”
It is felt by the Wigan fans that the new streaming service could in fact help clubs financially and possibly stop potential liquidations and bankruptcy that has been felt strongly around the Greater Manchester area with the liquidation of Bury FC in 2019 and Bolton Wanderers going into administration in 2019.
According to Charlie Keegan, the creator of the Wigan blog, four out of Wigan’s seven home games this season have been available to watch online, with an average of 9,548 home fans attending the games when the game was not available to watch live, in comparison to 9,829 tickets sold when the game was available for live stream.
The Wigan fan also put out a poll on the blog asking fellow Wigan fans if they would still attend the game if the new streaming service was created – 81 out of the 100 fan votes claimed they would still attend the game at the stadium even if the game was available for a live stream at home.
Keegan said: “Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, I saw many fans expressing on social media how much they noticed their mental health suffering as a result of not being able to attend the football.
“Football is so embedded within the culture of our English towns and cities, that I can’t see a world where we look around and see empty stands across the leagues.”
Image: the JJB Stadium, home of Wigan Athletic, before a game between Wigan and Gillingham. Image by Hindleyite
