So there will be far less Saturday afternoon matches being played, which means there will be more evening matches on days other than Saturday, and some games even moved to the Sunday.
That is okay for the home supporters, but our away supporters will have great disruption. Just think what time they will get back home from the evening matches. Pretty rough on them, I would think. Would their numbers drop?
Maybe another reason why Sky are increasing the number of matches to be shown live (and therefore more evening matches and less weekend matches, although Sundays might be a little more convenient, dependant on times of matches), in order to encourage more fans to be able to see live football on the tv rather than having the hassle of travelling at the most inconvenient times.
As I understand it, there will be no more Argyle tv live streaming of matches for domestic consumption, even when Sky are not involved, but International consumers can remain able to watch games live streamed on Argyle tv regardless of whether Sky are showing the match or not?
Sky really want to tie up the rights for domestic consumers and want to be the only supplier of EFL football through their television rights. They really are uninterested in the football itself, or the thousands of supporters who are the bread and butter of all of the league clubs, but are only interested in making a profit from their ability to exclusively livestream games at their own discretion as to when the games are to be played.
The EFL (and obviously the majority of clubs that were in favour of voting for the deal) have sold football down the river for the sake of a few bucks, and have given up all rights of showing live games to the thousands of fans who have attended matches, to a company who are only interested in generating as much money as it can, to the detriment of the supporters of the clubs, which is, in my opinion, the start of the downward slippery slope of the game itself.
Sky will suck all of the life blood out of the game. Premiership clubs will always have full attendances to fall back on, but the EFL and its football clubs, especially the smaller ones, will find that Sky's stranglehold on games will slowly reduce their attendances at matches which will further reduce the profitability of the clubs, and the match atmosphere will be reduced such that the company may have to use AI in order to get some sound effects to be transmitted with the televised match. Where will it all end? I can imagine some games being shown similar to the ones we saw during covid when attendances were banned. How can that be good for the game?
Sky have failed to get exclusivity for Premiership games, with other companies winning bids for live streaming as well. Let's hope these other companies don't follow suit and enter the EFL market or it will be a nightmare having to get subscriptions for more than one company just to watch little ol' Argyle on tv, now that our own live streaming on Argyle tv for domestic customers has been excluded. Or maybe that will be the next step, if Sky are seen to be successful in their exclusive showing of EFL matches in this country, others may want to follow.
I dread to think what the EFL have now done (opened the floodgates it would seem) all for the sake of a few dollars. Football is now more interested in gaining more money than improving the nature of the game, especially for its longtime supporters.