Turn on, tune in, slob out

Published on Saturday 19 July 2008 19:24

Couch potatoes have more options than ever to watch the SPL, says Andrew Smith

NOT SO very long ago – the 2002-03 season to be precise – television coverage of the Scottish Premier League amounted to a weekend live game on the BBC in a programme that provided the only opportunity to see highlights from the other matches.

In the wake of the collapse of the ill-fated SPL TV venture, that cobbled-together deal was worth the princely sum of 9m to top-flight clubs.

How times change. In the coming season, SPL football will be available on more platforms than you would find at Glasgow's Central Station, and the revenue earned from it will approach three times what it was six years ago.

The contracts the SPL announced last week to show their product on BT Vision and BBC's Gaelic channel mean their showcase live Setanta coverage – which, when the recently-agreed new three-year deal kicks in come 2010-11, will rake in 30m a season – will be supported by a variety of packages delivering Scottish football four different ways. No league from a country of comparable size can now boast such television exposure or healthy financial returns from media partnerships. Yeah, Lex Gold and his SPL cronies couldn't run a raffle.

"We have been able to do various carve-outs from Setanta's exclusive rights to 60 live games a season and believe we have struck a good balance between getting football out there and not saturating the market," says SPL spokesman Greg Mailer. "More than anything, we believe the revenue from television money largely guaranteed for the next six years will bring stability to the game."

The sums will account for the lion's share of expected record turnover of 25m next year – set to double in 2010-11 – and certainly bring a bonanza of Scottish football into the homes of any armchair fan who has the appetite for it, and is willing to fork out around 20 a month for the complete package of Setanta's coverage of games on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the "almost live" Saturday matches on demand on BT Vision for a 50-hour window from 10pm that evening, and the games that will be screened on a delayed transmission basis from Saturday evening on the BBC Gaelic channel that begins in September.

In addition, BBC Scotland will provide the only terrestrial highlights, on a Monday evening programme expected to be scheduled for either 10.35pm or 11.05pm on BBC 1, as well as offering the goals online hours after games have been played.

BT Vision provides the intriguing addition to Scottish football's televisual cornucopia, in a two-year contract "worth in excess of seven figures".

Along the lines of what they have been doing with the English Premiership for the past year, they will provide extended highlights – between 45 minutes and, possibly, the full 90 minutes – of 28 games a season, these available to buy, pay-per-view style, on Saturday night. Essentially, with Setanta showing whatever Old Firm side is away of a weekend, they will show the other side at home.

"We clearly will be interested in games that subscribers will want to purchase and Celtic and Rangers are the major attractions," says BT press officer Mitch Reid. "But other teams will also feature." On the odd occasion that neither of the Glasgow clubs plays on a Saturday, that is...

Where the 30-odd per cent of active Scottish football supporters who do not follow either of the country's title rivals will be better served is on BBC Gaelic. The remit of Scottish sports broadcaster MNE will be to bring good production values to a game not involving the Old Firm.

"The concept is to broaden the coverage of the game and the channel's funding partners MGAlba believe this is a good way of bringing attention to their service. Both in terms of this exposure and BT Vision, the vast majority of SPL games will have multi-camera coverage," said Mailer.

And of course Scotland has multi-country coverage through a deal for international rights with Sports 5 that begins this season and replaces the previous arrangement with IMG. Mailer says the Scottish game – or, more accurately, games involving Celtic and Rangers – are finding audiences, and winning the SPL modest television contracts, in North America, the Middle East, the Far East and Japan.

Oh, but the cry forever goes up, English Premiership rights are worth up to 50 times more than their Scottish equivalents. As if it has any relevance to compare the far-and-away largest football nation with one of the most modest.

In Holland, twice the size of Scotland, clubs recently rejected all offers from established broadcasters in favour of establishing their own football channel with Big Brother makers Endemol because they believe it could be worth up to 45m-a-year for their 18-club top flight. Or, if you prefer, 15m shy of what the 12 SPL clubs will be sharing from the proceeds of their Setanta contract in two years.