SW
In reality, though, it hasn't worked like that - for all the idea that Fridays allow teams playing in the Champions League to have extra time to prepare, the midweek before usually has some midweek fixtures in the Premier League or the Cups, or it's an international break, where they can't have a Friday match. So it ends up with most of the Friday night games being after Champions League fixtures, not before. The same is also true of Mondays, the idea is that teams who played in Europe the previous midweek could play there to give them rest, but again in those midweeks there are other fixtures.
If you were to look at recent Monday and Friday fixtures, the vast majority of them are in European weeks themselves, and usually feature teams who aren't in Europe. While it would initially seem odd to put them in those weeks, they're actually among the most convenient weeks because you can pick any team who aren't in Europe, whereas in other weeks, any team could be unavailable because of the Cups. So Sky generally use Mondays and Fridays as an opportunity to meet quotas for the smaller teams.
The Ofcom ruling regarding this auction says the secondary rights holder will get at least 42 matches. And I disagree that they need two weekend packs, I think what they have now, combined with the Champions League and the FA Cup, suits them down to the ground. They're already able to show big games (Arsenal vs Man U last week, Man City vs Spurs next) and there was a three week period around last March where they showed all the Big Six at least twice via the various competitions, and in big games too. They need quality, not quantity. Setanta had more matches than BT, and a lot of good that did them.
Think FNF is more about offering flexibility rather than the slot - Champions League teams often can't do the Monday so moving the slot to Friday occassionally offers the chance for higher profile games in the pick.
In reality, though, it hasn't worked like that - for all the idea that Fridays allow teams playing in the Champions League to have extra time to prepare, the midweek before usually has some midweek fixtures in the Premier League or the Cups, or it's an international break, where they can't have a Friday match. So it ends up with most of the Friday night games being after Champions League fixtures, not before. The same is also true of Mondays, the idea is that teams who played in Europe the previous midweek could play there to give them rest, but again in those midweeks there are other fixtures.
If you were to look at recent Monday and Friday fixtures, the vast majority of them are in European weeks themselves, and usually feature teams who aren't in Europe. While it would initially seem odd to put them in those weeks, they're actually among the most convenient weeks because you can pick any team who aren't in Europe, whereas in other weeks, any team could be unavailable because of the Cups. So Sky generally use Mondays and Fridays as an opportunity to meet quotas for the smaller teams.
So it's 164 Fixture Slots with 4 of them offering 10 games each, the remainder 1, unless the live 'foxture programme has staggered ko's. No real change from now then. BT really must get at least two of the A-E packs to be seen to be making any progress whatsoever. A reduction in slots to 32+4 will be seen as a failure and retreat for them.
The Ofcom ruling regarding this auction says the secondary rights holder will get at least 42 matches. And I disagree that they need two weekend packs, I think what they have now, combined with the Champions League and the FA Cup, suits them down to the ground. They're already able to show big games (Arsenal vs Man U last week, Man City vs Spurs next) and there was a three week period around last March where they showed all the Big Six at least twice via the various competitions, and in big games too. They need quality, not quantity. Setanta had more matches than BT, and a lot of good that did them.
