DAZN’s offer to buy £200m of the live TV rights to all 1,656 matches in the English Football League from the 2024-25 season in a proposal that would end the 3pm Saturday blackout…with an interest also in Sky Sports channels And BT Sport and Viapay
- The EFL is seeking around £200m a year from broadcasters for its next rights deal
- The Football Association of England is convinced that there is more demand to watch their matches
DAZN has launched a bid to purchase the live TV rights to every EFL game from the 2024/25 season onwards in a move that will revolutionize the viewing experience for armchair fans.
Sportsmail revealed last October that the English Football League is inviting bids to broadcast all of their 1,656 matches each season in a bold proposal that would require an end to the 3pm blackout on Saturdays, which has been in place since the 1960s.
The Football Association is seeking around £200m a year from broadcasters for its next rights deal, which has led them to explore radical alternatives to the current TV model. The current £119m-a-year deal with Sky Sports is for just 138 live matches each season, and as a result many of the clubs are rarely seen on television.
With Sky Sports’ usual showing of only two Championship matches each weekend, fans of clubs in the bottom two divisions rarely see their side play. Only 20 League One matches were broadcast live last season and only 10 from League Two, as a result of which 26 clubs did not appear on television for the entire season.
The Premier League is convinced there is more demand to watch their clubs on a regular basis, a view DAZN’s bid appears to endorse. The London-based streaming service isn’t tied to buying exclusive rights and has indicated it’s willing to share games with other broadcasters, but wants the ability to show each game themselves.
DAZN has launched a bid for the live TV rights to every EFL match from 2024-25
IPTV rights are set to double to more than £200m a year, sportsmail understand
Sky Sports, BT Sport and Norwegian company Viapay are also known to have submitted bids to the EFL, who are also seeking a ground partner, with ITV believed to be the favourite.
The EFL tender called for bids for a period of between three and five years, and would decide the length of the contract depending on the offers they received. Due to the number of matches available, the rights offer has been divided into over 20 different packages featuring all three divisions of the League, the Matches, the EFL Cup and the EFL Cup.
Dropping the 3pm blackout will come from the Football Association pressing the Football Association, which in turn would have to apply to UEFA for an exemption. The blackout only applies when 50 per cent of Premier League and Championship matches are scheduled to kick off at 3pm on Saturday, however, switching half of the program would also enable all matches to be televised.
The Premier League will be watching the Premier League sales process with interest as the Premier League is set to be brought to market within 12 months with an auction for TV rights from 2025 to 2028. Top clubs feel the existing Premier League TV rights with Sky Sports and BT are overvalued. Undervalued – with those with US ownership in particular pushing for the right to sell more matches to broadcasters.
