There has been much debate recently over why Scotland matches are not available on free-to-air television, and anger that their recent Nations League matches were not shown by any traditional broadcaster at all, instead only being available on YouTube.
Herald Sport spoke to experts and insiders to explain how this situation came to pass, and try to understand where Scotland’s forthcoming World Cup qualifiers may be shown.
Why were Scotland games on YouTube?
The company who owns the rights to matches involving the Scotland national team are Viaplay, a Nordic broadcaster who were, at the time of their takeover of Premier Sports – the company that owned the rights to Scotland games until 2028 - attempting to break into the UK market.
In July last year though, Viaplay were forced to admit that they had bitten off more than they could chew with their aggressive acquisition of rights in international markets, and announced that they would be withdrawing from Poland, the Baltics, the UK, the US and Canada ‘to re-focus on the Nordics and Netherlands’.
They do however still retain the rights to Scotland matches for the next four years, and have in the past sold rights to individual matches on to other broadcasters, with the opening two matches of the Nations League campaign against Poland and Portugal being shown on ITV4.
Since then, however, no broadcaster has reached an agreement with Viaplay to show Scotland games.
How did Viaplay come to get the rights, were the Scottish FA being greedy?
The SFA aren’t actually responsible for the selling of rights to the national team’s matches, with the process long ago being centralised and controlled by UEFA. Therefore, the governing body here has no say in who those rights are ultimately sold to.
UEFA’s website outlines that agency, CAA Eleven, are ‘the sole agency responsible for the worldwide sale of media, sponsorship and licensing rights for UEFA’s men’s national team competitions on UEFA’s behalf.’
But why are England games being shown on STV, and Scotland games are not?
Put simply, ITV were prepared to pay more for the rights to England matches, and won out in the bidding process through UEFA and CAA Eleven.
Why didn’t the BBC buy the rights from UEFA?
They tried, but were ultimately outbid.
In a letter to Pete Wishart MP last year, Steve Carson, BBC Scotland Director, wrote: “The BBC bid for the rights to live international Scotland games but were unsuccessful and ultimately the BBC was outbid by Viaplay.
“The reality is that the BBC has a finite budget for sports rights and seeks to provide a range of sporting output for audiences, with our portfolio subject to market conditions and interest from other broadcasters.
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“I am sure you will appreciate that the BBC’s commercial negotiations and sports rights acquisition strategy are confidential, but please be reassured that the BBC is active in this market and keen to secure coverage which brings the big sporting occasions to our audiences in Scotland and across the UK.”
Why would Viaplay show the games free of charge on Youtube though rather than recouping some of their money?
Typically, rights holders prefer to sell packages of matches (such as a whole qualifying campaign) rather than single games, a stance that perhaps goes some way to explain why the BBC in particular - who do tend to try to cherry pick games due to their own financial constraints - have not been able to reach an agreement with Viaplay for Scotland games.
With a new CEO at the helm, Viaplay have been undergoing a strict accountancy process over the past 12 months, increasing subscription prices and cracking down on password sharing after coming perilously close to going out of business.
One expert told Herald Sport that it is likely Viaplay will be looking to sell the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers as a package deal for all matches, and will expect to do so. Therefore, they would not look to devalue those rights by selling Scotland Nations League matches at below the rate they think they can achieve for the World Cup fixtures.
So, despite the fact that Viaplay allowed the SFA to embed their stream into their own Youtube feed for the last two matches at no charge to the governing body, and also flew commentators Andy Bargh and Michael Stewart to their Stockholm HQ to provide ‘piped in’ commentary, they believe they will raise more money in future by refusing to sell games to mainstream broadcasters for below what they consider to be their market value.
Politicians are calling for Scotland games to be shown free to air, can’t the government step in and help?
In theory, yes. There has been plenty of support for the idea of the government helping to meet the cost of securing rights for free-to-air channels from politicians such as Gillian Mackay MSP, and shows of public support for the national team from First Minister John Swinney, but there has been no firm commitment as yet to subsidising bids from broadcasters for the rights to Scotland matches.
One source commented to Herald Sport that the money spent so far on the government’s delayed Deposit Return Scheme was equivalent to ensuring that all Scotland matches would be free to air for the next 15 years at the current market rate.
Despite meetings between broadcasters, stakeholders and government officials, there is currently no sign that public finances will be used to help bring Scotland’s World Cup qualifiers to free-to-air television.
A subscription based broadcaster then, such as the relaunched Premier Sports, would be a safer bet to win those rights.
