- Print Topic - Archive

While I’m sure firestick’s might be a minor issue, it will have been factored into any decision making clubs and footballing bodies will have made. Ultimately, all concerned know that people by and large are going to use VPNs, and they’re fine with it - if they really wanted to lock it down to overseas customers, there are ways and means of doing it that even a VPN won’t circumvent (e.g. requiring a device’s location services to be switched on, which is a lot harder to spoof than an IP address).

The fact that attendances are up significantly since iFollow was introduced tell you all you need to know - ultimately it’s just another welcome source of ancillary income that in the main facilitates away fans that wouldn’t have attended the game anyway to watch live.

Not sure what will happen to it next season when the new Sky deal kicks in, which means that something like 45% of all League Two games will be broadcast live in some shape or form; presumably it will remain in place as an option for “overseas” customers without access to Sky.

My work laptop goes through a server abroad. I could theoretically watch iFollow with an overseas subsciption I suppose.

Never tried. It would be just my luck to get caught as part of an IT audit at work and get sacked.

Quoted from Poojah

While I’m sure firestick’s might be a minor issue, it will have been factored into any decision making clubs and footballing bodies will have made. Ultimately, all concerned know that people by and large are going to use VPNs, and they’re fine with it - if they really wanted to lock it down to overseas customers, there are ways and means of doing it that even a VPN won’t circumvent (e.g. requiring a device’s location services to be switched on, which is a lot harder to spoof than an IP address).

The fact that attendances are up significantly since iFollow was introduced tell you all you need to know - ultimately it’s just another welcome source of ancillary income that in the main facilitates away fans that wouldn’t have attended the game anyway to watch live.

Not sure what will happen to it next season when the new Sky deal kicks in, which means that something like 45% of all League Two games will be broadcast live in some shape or form; presumably it will remain in place as an option for “overseas” customers without access to Sky.

Do you mean as apart of a highlight package ? What with 3pm kick off black out. Etc

Or are we having 12pm kick offs, or late kick offs for televised gamed?

Quoted from 140381

My work laptop goes through a server abroad. I could theoretically watch iFollow with an overseas subsciption I suppose.

Never tried. It would be just my luck to get caught as part of an IT audit at work and get sacked.

Mine is the same. To be honest I think I'd rather get caught watching porn on the company laptop than Town. It would be less humiliating.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

Mine is the same. To be honest I think I'd rather get caught watching porn on the company laptop than Town. It would be less humiliating.

Oh I dunno It's not far off porn at the moment, I watched town get copulated a few times last month

Quoted from StacyColdicotts_hairline

Do you mean as apart of a highlight package ? What with 3pm kick off black out. Etc

Or are we having 12pm kick offs, or late kick offs for televised gamed?

There's a full breakdown of the deal here:

https://www.efl.com/news/2023/may/efl-announces-landmark-broadcasting-deal-with-sky-sports/

The nuts and bolts of it are:

The 3pm blackout remains in place
248 of 552 League Two games will be televised live on Sky
The bulk of these will be a kind of iFollow+ type service via the red button, with commentary provided by Sky and a minimum of 2 cameras
There will also be 5 games per weekend across League One and Two which will be the full, multi-camera coverage a la our game against Bradford earlier in the season. At a guess, Town will get around 4 - 6 games of this nature across the season
It says each League Two side will be live on average 16 times per season, but this doesn't quite stack up as this only equates to 192 (rather than 248’) games, so that will need some clarification

Ultimately, it's great additional exposure for the league with a lot more money coming from Sky, plus the opportunity to increase commercial revenue. Best stay in the league, then...

Quoted from StacyColdicotts_hairline

Do you mean as apart of a highlight package ? What with 3pm kick off black out. Etc

Or are we having 12pm kick offs, or late kick offs for televised gamed?

I don't think anybody quite knows the dynamic yet as to what the spread of games is . 248 games from league 2- there could be a large portion of midweek fixtures via a red button or/also it could be a large spread of weekend fixtures at various times which could be Thursday night, Friday night , Saturday midday etc etc .

Not sure if anybody else knows the setup on here ?

Quoted from Poojah

There's a full breakdown of the deal here:

https://www.efl.com/news/2023/may/efl-announces-landmark-broadcasting-deal-with-sky-sports/

The nuts and bolts of it are:
The 3pm blackout remains in place
248 of 552 League Two games will be televised live on Sky
The bulk of these will be a kind of iFollow+ type service via the red button, with commentary provided by Sky and a minimum of 2 cameras
There will also be 5 games per weekend across League One and Two which will be the full, multi-camera coverage a la our game against Bradford earlier in the season. At a guess, Town will get around 4 - 6 games of this nature across the season
It says each League Two side will be live on average 16 times per season, but this doesn't quite stack up as this only equates to 192 (rather than 248 games), so that will need some clarification
Ultimately, it's great additional exposure for the league with a lot more money coming from Sky, plus the opportunity to increase commercial revenue. Best stay in the league, then...

Cheers Poojah ,you partly answered my question , we must have been hitting the send key at the same time .

Quoted from Mappers

I don't think anybody quite knows the dynamic yet as to what the spread of games is . 248 games from league 2- there could be a large portion of midweek fixtures via a red button or/also it could be a large spread of weekend fixtures at various times which could be Thursday night, Friday night , Saturday midday etc etc .

Not sure if anybody else knows the setup on here ?

You've touched on a key factor there - when will Sky demand games kick off? Before Sky (and then BT) football was never played on a Monday or Thursday night. Saturday games only kicked off at lunchtime when the local police feared multiple deaths and the levelling of town centres due to 'hooliganism' and there was only one Sunday afternoon game and that was because it was live on ITV. Tranmere played on Friday night to avoid clashing with their bigger neighbours across the river.

I suspect the League 2 games will be seen as filler for the gaps when the premier league isn't being played so that Sky can show live matches all weekend and every night of the week.

We could be playing on Saturday or Sunday and kicking off any time from 11am to 8pm and any weekday at all.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

You've touched on a key factor there - when will Sky demand games kick off? Before Sky (and then BT) football was never played on a Monday or Thursday night. Saturday games only kicked off at lunchtime when the local police feared multiple deaths and the levelling of town centres due to 'hooliganism' and there was only one Sunday afternoon game and that was because it was live on ITV. Tranmere played on Friday night to avoid clashing with their bigger neighbours across the river.

I suspect the League 2 games will be seen as filler for the gaps when the premier league isn't being played so that Sky can show live matches all weekend and every night of the week.

We could be playing on Saturday or Sunday and kicking off any time from 11am to 8pm and any weekday at all.

It will be interesting regarding season tickets , can they really have the cut off date as early as normal if people don't know how many games they will be able to make ?

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

You've touched on a key factor there - when will Sky demand games kick off? Before Sky (and then BT) football was never played on a Monday or Thursday night. Saturday games only kicked off at lunchtime when the local police feared multiple deaths and the levelling of town centres due to 'hooliganism' and there was only one Sunday afternoon game and that was because it was live on ITV. Tranmere played on Friday night to avoid clashing with their bigger neighbours across the river.

I suspect the League 2 games will be seen as filler for the gaps when the premier league isn't being played so that Sky can show live matches all weekend and every night of the week.

We could be playing on Saturday or Sunday and kicking off any time from 11am to 8pm and any weekday at all.

The vast majority of televised games will be those already not scheduled for 3pm on a Saturday - e.g. Tuesday night and bank holidays. As per my earlier post, it’s likely between 4 and 6 games per season will be moved from a standard Saturday berth. I think you’re right that they might be at inconvenient times (Friday to Sunday, as the EFL Q&A does stipulate weekends), but we’re talking about roughly 10% of games, so it’s not necessarily the end of the world.

I’m sure we often played games on Thursday and Friday nights during our non-league days.

Quoted from Poojah

There's a full breakdown of the deal here:

https://www.efl.com/news/2023/may/efl-announces-landmark-broadcasting-deal-with-sky-sports/

The nuts and bolts of it are:
The 3pm blackout remains in place
248 of 552 League Two games will be televised live on Sky
The bulk of these will be a kind of iFollow+ type service via the red button, with commentary provided by Sky and a minimum of 2 cameras
There will also be 5 games per weekend across League One and Two which will be the full, multi-camera coverage a la our game against Bradford earlier in the season. At a guess, Town will get around 4 - 6 games of this nature across the season
It says each League Two side will be live on average 16 times per season, but this doesn't quite stack up as this only equates to 192 (rather than 248’) games, so that will need some clarification
Ultimately, it's great additional exposure for the league with a lot more money coming from Sky, plus the opportunity to increase commercial revenue. Best stay in the league, then...

Can guarantee that Wrexham will be on most weekends, the love-in for Salford will probably restart too. Cynic would argue that moving fixture times would benefit Wrexham with their global audience. Wonder how many times they end up getting the 8pm slots.

As always, there is never an answer to the main question. To answer; i do not use i fo;;ow, i go on Mariner TV, but only for the away games on the tuesday, as i cant attend them. The money spent to Mariner TV goes to the Club, i follow doesnt. And, in my defence, when i am abroad in Europe, which is half a year, i use VPN to put myself in the UK when i am not, but this is when i have to, to buy on Mariner TV. Yes, i can stream from abroad, and get the match for nothing, but my allegience is with the Club i still feel that i need to support as if i was really i the UK. So, you people who think we are cheating and robbing the Club with VPN, cancel me out of this equation as i fully commit when im abroad. Yep, i can scank it, but not me, a true Mariner

There will inevitably be a big backlash once everyone realises 3pm on a Saturday is not the standard kick off time it once was. Our matches will be spread over the weekend at a variety of times. Bound to be a drop in season tickets.

Quoted from dicko995

As always, there is never an answer to the main question. To answer; i do not use i fo;;ow, i go on Mariner TV, but only for the away games on the tuesday, as i cant attend them. The money spent to Mariner TV goes to the Club, i follow doesnt. And, in my defence, when i am abroad in Europe, which is half a year, i use VPN to put myself in the UK when i am not, but this is when i have to, to buy on Mariner TV. Yes, i can stream from abroad, and get the match for nothing, but my allegience is with the Club i still feel that i need to support as if i was really i the UK. So, you people who think we are cheating and robbing the Club with VPN, cancel me out of this equation as i fully commit when im abroad. Yep, i can scank it, but not me, a true Mariner

Firstly, the direct answer to the question is that no one on here knows how much the club makes from online match streaming as, as granular and transparent as the club’s accounts are, they’re not that transparent. What we do know is that it’s a net positive for the club - match streaming provides an additional line of income whilst gates across the EFL have risen by a sizeable degree in recent seasons.

I think you misunderstand a couple of things though. Firstly, although you and I use Mariners TV, the broadcast engine is still delivered by iFollow (hence all the ads you see before the game and at half-time). Presumably by using the club’s own front end we make a little bit more money, but a reasonable slice of takings will go to iFollow all the same.

Regards VPNs, people aren’t using them primarily to watch free streams (you don’t need a VPN to do that), but rather circumventing the 3pm blackout by pretending to be abroad (where relevant laws don’t apply, naturally). You don’t have to pretend to be in the UK to purchase from Mariners TV, in fact doing so would stop you from watching a Saturday 3pm game even if you were overseas at the time.

I’m fairly sure most on here either pay for a full digital season pass or pay on a game-by-game basis through the club’s own platform. You’re virtue signalling to the wrong audience.