Kieran Maguire has claimed that the Scottish Premiership is fighting for scraps with their TV deal as Rangers and Celtic are the only global attraction as they try to compete with the Premier League.
The financial expert claimed that due to the scheduling of Premier League football on the major broadcasting, there is no appetite outside of Scotland to watch a clash between St Johnstone and Ross County.
He claimed that the Old Firm is the only draw to Scottish football and that Sky is the only interested party, so the £40million TV deal they have at present is the best they’re likely to gets.
Maguire was speaking on The Price of Football Podcast [16 November] when he shared: “One of the issues which Rangers fans and Celtic fans, and fans of Scottish football, always raise to me…
“My observation is, I’ve spoken to broadcasters and I asked why is the Scottish TV deal not out for tender, and he says because, frankly, only Sky are particularly interested in it. If they put it out for tender, all that would happen is it would tie up red tape, a decision would be made and it would go to Sky.
“The biggest issue as far as Scottish football is concerned is that its biggest enemy is not the SPFL, it’s the Premier League. The Premier League is so popular.
“If Sky are going to pay a lot of money, or another broadcaster is going to come in and pay a lot of money for Scottish TV rights, you’ve already got Sky who has the 2pm and the 4:30pm slots on a Sunday, we’ve got a 12:30 slot and a 5:30 slot on a Saturday, so when is Scottish football going to have a time all to itself over the weekend?
“At present, if you take a look at Scottish football matches when they are taking place, there’s quite frequently an English match taking place at the same time. People will prioritise which matches they want to see.
“The overall Scottish audience is limited. If a match doesn’t involve one of the Old Firm… St Johnstone versus Ross County, who’s going to turn on and watch it?
“There are problems because the Premier League is so successful that it will always dominate viewing figures, which means the SPFL are fighting for scraps.”
Attention is on England
The unfortunate situation for Scottish football is that they will always be in direct competition for television rights with the Premier League. Maguire’s assessment that Rangers and Celtic provide the only draws might be right, which leaves the SPFL in a difficult place.
While TV deals are booming in the Premier League, the rest of Europe has struggled to keep up, let alone north of the border where they are in direct competition for airtime as everybody wants to watch the PL.
This could cause problems in the long run for Scottish clubs and even Rangers and Celtic, who simply can’t gain the financial might required to be regularly competitive in European competitions despite the relative size and success of the clubs.
A £40million deal is still an improvement for the SPFL, but that money shared out among all top-division clubs still pales in comparison to the Premier League, with that £40million the equivalent of the parachute payments given to relegated PL sides in England.
