Over the last few months, people at Sky Sports’ headquarters in west London have been working on something in secret. It was codenamed ‘Project Chilly.’
All was revealed on Wednesday when the broadcaster announced it will launch a new channel, called Sky Sports+, in August. It is a development which will have a significant impact on their coverage of the English Football League (EFL).
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This can all be traced back to this time last year, when the 72 EFL clubs approved a recommendation by the league’s board and commercial committee to enter into a new broadcast deal with Sky Sports. That agreement will run for five years, from the 2024-25 season through to the end of the 2028-29 one. It is made up of guaranteed payments of £895million, plus an extra £40m in marketing benefits.
Sky Sports will show four times as many EFL matches as it does currently, including 328 from the Championship, English football’s second tier. Last month, it said that, as part of the deal, iFollow and club streaming services would be scrapped domestically.
This is where the new channel comes into the mix.
But what will change? How will it all work? The Athletic explains Sky Sports+, the new EFL deal and what it means for fans.
How will it work?
Sky Sports+, which will not cost any more for existing customers, will be integrated into the broadcaster’s current services when it officially launches later this summer.
The new channel will have the capability to show up to 100 live events — at the same time. You will be able to watch every match from the men’s rugby Super League and coverage from major golf and tennis events, but the biggest change relates to Sky’s EFL content.
It will televise 1,059 EFL fixtures, including 248 from both League One and League Two. All midweek matches across the EFL’s three divisions will be exclusively broadcast live on Sky Sports, and every game played during international breaks (when the Premier League is inactive), on the final day of each division’s regular season and in the promotion play-offs will be available to watch too. Fans of the Carabao Cup can check out all 93 ties live, while every fixture of the EFL Trophy will also be on offer, if that’s your thing.
Put simply, Sky Sports+ is the shiny replacement for their current red-button services.
What are the positives?
The best piece of news was revealed by Sky Sports’ managing director Jonathan Licht at a special launch event held on Wednesday morning at their base in Isleworth, a 20-minute drive from London’s Heathrow Airport.
Sky Sports plans to announce all the EFL fixtures it will showing live from August until the third round of the FA Cup in early January before the season even starts. And by November, Sky intends to confirm which games it will show between January and March. The rest of the season will follow a more “traditional” notice period, as the broadcaster attempts to stay across the main storylines.
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Sky is conscious of the impact changing kick-off times at short notice for TV broadcast has on match-going fans and wants to minimise disruption by giving them longer to plan and prepare. Licht said it takes this responsibility “seriously” and selects games “in a timely manner”, but then discussions need to be held with safety officials, the police and other competitions. The broadcaster hopes this new approach will improve that process.
Another bonus is that every game on the opening weekend of the EFL season in August will be televised live — a first in broadcasting history.
Licht said that 20 of the 48 teams in League One and League Two only appeared on television once this season. Sky has promised to show every club from those divisions 20 times in the next one, while for Championship sides that figure is 24.
What are the negatives?
Following on from our previous point, it is rare for some clubs in the third and fourth tiers of the English game to be shown on TV. So supporters in those divisions have become accustomed to watching their team play each Saturday at 3pm UK time, apart from on special occasions.
The new arrangement changes that completely, and they will have to adjust to different kick-off times. This could have a negative impact on attendances if games are regularly moved into slots that are less convenient for fans.
Football is also a difficult sport to predict.
Nobody expected Ipswich Town to achieve back-to-back promotions to reach the 2023-24 Premier League, but that’s what they’ve done. Picking TV games six months in advance helps fans who will travel to those games, but it also increases the risk of fixtures between teams where there is not a lot at stake by the time matchday arrives being shown instead.
You could also argue part of the magic of Ipswich’s fairytale is that not many people watched them at the beginning of the season before they grabbed our attention and became essential viewing.
Will clubs benefit financially?
The new deal represents a 50 per cent rise in TV rights income compared to the current arrangement.
Under the existing terms, the EFL estimated annual revenue for its 72 member clubs stands at £119million, with an extra £7m in streaming income. From next season, annual income from TV will increase to £180m plus £7m from both domestic streaming and international.
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The way money is distributed favours Championship clubs, who tend to attract the most viewers. When the deal was announced last year, the EFL predicted teams in the second tier would be 46 per cent better off compared to 25 per cent in its other two divisions.
One club official, who spoke to The Athletic about the broadcast changes earlier this month on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, estimated the increase in League One will work out at £450,000 per club and maybe a little over half that in League Two.
How will it compare to iFollow?
iFollow, the EFL’s existing streaming service, will close in the UK but keep running for the rest of the globe.
The major differences domestically will be the number of games available — and the centralised nature of Sky Sports+. On iFollow, fans could only watch matches outside of the 3pm Saturday broadcast window that were not a main game shown on Sky Sports.
Fans of different clubs will also be able to watch games across the breadth of the EFL.
Previously, games on iFollow were sold on a pay-per-view basis. This means a fan of Leeds United, for example, was never likely to pay the £10 needed to watch a Crawley Town match that was available on iFollow.
How will Sky produce this many live games every weekend?
It is a huge step up in scale for Sky Sports, and they will need to be flexible.
For example, there will be at least eight cameras for games on its existing channels but for streamed matches, this drops to a minimum of four in League One and two for League Two. They also have the small issue of finding commentary teams for all those games.
What will a normal weekend look like?
Each weekend will have 10 live EFL matches, half of which will be from the Championship. These will be screened outside the 2.45pm to 5.15pm period on a Saturday that remains blocked under Article 48 of UEFA’s statutes, whereby member nations can select a two-and-a-half-hour weekend slot that sees live football banned from broadcast to protect attendances.
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This means there will be 26 games in the traditional 3pm slot each Saturday across the EFL. However, the blocked period does not apply to the opening weekend, so they will show games at that time.
Six games will be shown in the Saturday lunchtime slot, and the rest will be split between Friday night and Sunday lunchtime. Sky Sports are not currently thinking about adding any other kick-off slots.
Is there anything else I need to know?
During a Q&A session, Licht was asked about extra content Sky Sports could provide around the matches. One person mentioned long-form storytelling and gave the Welcome To Wrexham documentary series as an example, while another suggested a weekly round-up show. Licht said his company wants to tell the stories of clubs across the divisions but is still working out the best ways to do that.
Coverage of the EFL on Sky Sports+ next season also feels like it could be a test event for the Premier League.
The new four-year broadcast deal for the top flight kicks in from the beginning of the 2025-26 season, with Sky Sports increasing the number of live fixtures it shows by 70 per cent to a minimum of 215.
(Top photo: Sky Sports)
