The EFL announced their new TV deal today, pushing through an agreement with Sky despite the majority of Championship clubs being reportedly opposed.
Whether we joined the likes of Leeds, Villa and Derby (turns out Phil Gartside was years ahead of the curve with this Premier League 2 thing) in opposing or sided with clubs like Millwall and Brentford I wouldn’t know. Are we good enough to push for a breakaway second tier? We’d probably end up with egg on our face, but we’re used to that by now.
In terms of coverage, it won’t look much different to how things are this season. Sky will show as many games as they are doing this season, with midweek games being available on the red button. Should we still be in the Championship, it’ll mean roughly the same number of ‘proper’ TV games (give or take), plus all midweek games still being on the red button, with a single camera angle and n0 replays.
In terms of money, it works out at under £120 million a year for the entire EFL and it’s 72 clubs, while the same broadcaster will pay nearly £1.2 billion per year when their new deal with the Premier League kicks in next season, which points out the inequality between the top flight and everybody else. That Premier League figure doesn’t include what the clubs will get from BT, Amazon and the BBC (for highlights) either .