Like it or loathe it, Scottish football's next TV contract is now set in stone.
Confirmation arrived earlier this week amid a raft of claims and counter-claims on a deal that has everyone talking. There are those who feel the £30m-per-season, seven-year agreement with Sky Sports has sold the game short, while others have contended there's little else to be done when theirs is the only offer on the table.
That debate will doubtless simmer on for a while yet but with the new arrangement confirmed from 2025-2029, it's perhaps time to start looking at what this could mean in practice. A key point is a marked increase in the number of Scottish Premiership matches Sky have the rights to show. That number has jumped from 48 to 60 with the premise being this will result in wider coverage of the top-flight and all it has to offer. However, it's worth noting that just because Sky have the right to show 60 games, it doesn't mean they necessarily will.
How so? Well, let's take a look at the current arrangement. As stated, the deal in place at the moment gives the broadcaster scope to air as many as 48 Premiership matches across a season, plus two play-off final fixtures. The SWPL will also be shown live on the channel for the first time in a historic step for the women's game in Scotland.
However, according to data compiled by SPFL Media Watch , only 41 live Premiership matches were shown last season, a fair way below the maximum offering. Furthermore, 34 of those matches featured Celtic and/or Rangers – 83 per cent of the total figure.
The other seven were comprised two Edinburgh derbies, one Dundee derby plus Motherwell vs Hibs, Dundee vs Hibs, St Mirren vs Aberdeen and Motherwell vs Dundee United. All but one of these matches was broadcast in the first half of the campaign.
This season, the only live pick that didn't involve Celtic and/or Rangers was the Edinburgh Derby and there are no more currently scheduled, with the current confirmed TV selections stretching until the middle of November. Of course, there's still plenty of time for more to be added but it feels like there's a long way to go before 60 Premiership matches per season are being broadcast on Sky.
On November 9, for example, there's a full card of Premiership action scheduled - including Rangers vs Hearts - but none of these games have been chosen for live coverage by Sky. Why not? It's likely EFL Cup matches, one involving Manchester City and Chelsea, have been afforded preference.
Thus, it begs the question, where are these 60 games going to come from? It seems there's currently little appetite from Sky to broadcast matches not involving Glasgow's big two and even they aren't guaranteed a showing when there are English matches on the agenda.
An added feature of the new deal is clubs themselves can select up to five matches for an in-house pay-per-view broadcast, subject to conditions, but that's unlikely to satiate fans if the deal doesn't deliver anything close to the 60 games per-season figure.
