Scottish Football Rights BSB and ESPN agree deals

Interesting comments that the SKY/ESPN deal will be revised in the light of Rangers Administration. It now seems almost certain that Rangers will start the 2012-3 season in the second tier, meaning that the SKY/ESPN deal with it's emphasis on the Old Firm fixtures has been blown apart.

So according to the referenced article below the current deal is to be enhanced with Rangers second tier fixtures for 2012-3 being added as a sweetener to the SPL programme following it's dilution. The SPL having acquired these from the SFL at their own expense.

more details ……..

BBC.CO.UK
01-Jul-2012 @ 15:01

More today ... Possible TV deal for Rangers matches in SFL3 on the cards ....


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BBC.CO.UK
19-Jul-2012 @ 19:31

BBC or even STV could jump in here and get a bargin, Would sky really want to see Ranger play all the wonderful teams in D3?

All that Sky care about is they don't have a load of Rangers fans canceling their subscriptions. Which is less likely to happen if they still show some Rangers games.

Don't forget Sky have shown semi-regular English Conference football before, non of which had a team with fanbase and the profile of Glasgow Rangers Football Club.

I think these games would bring more value to a subscription based service than one chasing ratings.

Have they? When?

The only companies in recent times I'm aware of that have shown Conference Football (aka Blue Square Premier) is Setanta and the completely different company Premier Sports.

Maybe about 6 to 8 years ago. It definitely happened. I remember commentator Kevin Keatings kept saying that Hereford United were "going back to Wales" after one game featuring that club. It might have only been about 10 games per season. Then I think Setanta offered either a bit more money or just more exposure and they jumped over and I guess Sky haven't been interested since.

Yes, as mentioned, before Setanta came into existence Sky had the rights to the Conference, they'd show about half a dozen matches a season, usually during international weeks to fill awkward gaps. I dunno when they first started showing it, it was certainly there about ten years ago. I remember in the build-up to the greatest football match Sky have ever shown, Wrexham's LDV Vans Trophy triumph in 2005, they did Conference Goal of the Season.

The reason Setnata bought the Conference is that they'd first tried to buy the rights to League One and Two but the Football League wanted to sell all their rights in one package, so they turned to the Conference. But it's always been a bit pointless, because you don't get thirty live games a season from League One and Two, and rightly so because it's too much. And it's of absolutely no value on Premier Sports because people who have already got Sky and ESPN don't want to pay for a third channel, I don't want to pay a tenner a month because I'd only watch Wrexham matches and I wouldn't swap Sky or ESPN for it because I want to watch other football as well. If it was half a dozen matches on Sky still, you wouldn't have the quantity but you'd have by far greater exposure.

It has been mentioned many many times before that Celtic and Rangers would one day possibly apply to join the Engilsh Leagues where the real money is. Could Rangers have taken this opportunity to jump over the border?

Not passing judgement or opinion, just wondering.

Then again, I guess that tis would be a debate for a sports forum and not a TV one......unless we discuss the TV virtues and financial rewards of the possibility if Rangers coming south.

Let me clear a few things up being a Rangers fan, the first game which is the Ramsden Cup game against Brechin City will be broadcast on BBC Alba on the 29th of July.

Also its been basically confirmed that Rangers that the SFL Division 3 Licence has been granted and the tranfer embargo will commence on the 1st of September.

I'm not sure what that's meant to clear up.

We know that Gaz is a Rangers fan now