Football Bubble: The Crash of ITV Digital

Football Bubble: The crash of ITV Digital
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What can be learnt from the crash ITV Digital and its effect on football clubs?
Primarily, that bidding for sports rights can be particularly risky if overvalued. Perhaps more ominously, ITV Digital’s crash demonstrated the interdependence between the sport and media industries. If one falls, the other will face serious repercussions.
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#premierleague #itv #skysports

[@Sizdothyx]

The weird thing is ... I actually preferred ITV's approach to football. They always had these nice segments leading up to the game with the odd statistic/trivia I enjoyed. Now on beIN, it's all talking heads all the time. Just let me process the information for myself.

[@Ese96Agoaye]

Adrian Arshad Yeah, except for Townsends Tactics Truck...

[@c4diogo574]

I’ll never forget being able to watch legends of the game playing in the champions league because of itv.

[@josephdyson3737]

La La they lost the live rights as of the 2015/16 season, but ITV carried on broadcasting highlights until 2018, although with much lower viewing figures than the live matches, given that the highlights show would be at 11pm on a work/school night

[@michaelkitchin9665]

@@josephdyson3737 And BT put the final up on youtube for free.

[@josephdyson3737]

Michael Kitchin a freebie to keep people happy every year. I recall the stream broke down regularly for last year’s final 😔

[@BurnsTennis]

@@michaelkitchin9665 I belive UEFA constitution states the final must be made available free to air every year.

[@greatestanalyser2354]

Champions league on itv was the best

[@TessaTestarossa]

"Can we give you a bit less money?" "Nah, we'd prefer if you went bankrupt and didn't pay us anything. ... Wait a minute, what the hell??"

[@alexewart7341]

I love your username and profile pic lol

[@L3L3Lee]

Hindsight is unbeaten in clarity of thought.

[@TessaTestarossa]

@aljanat5 Wat?

[@martycub_]

@aljanat5 what are you on about you bad nobhead

[@ibstah92]

aljanat5 What about the straight white males in charge of Arsenal and Manchester United? 💀 You’re an idiot, get out of here with your nonsense

[@ZdzichuWiertara96]

Wait, the EFL sued their lawyers for 150M and got 4 quid?

[@koiyune]

well...

[@willlll89]

Who remembers the u2 - Beautiful day tv opening sequence itv used that was awesome

[@chrismcdermott7954]

I like Bittersweet Symphony intro the use for England games too

[@joecurran2811]

I always thought that was MOTD

[@richbrowes7991]

@@joecurran2811 It was ITV's "The Premiership" I think. It was a really good programme while it lasted

[@Robi2009]

4 £ out of 150 million :) Judge had sense of humor ;)

[@MooglesNest]

The judge really went in there and did the math 😆

[@aleaiactaest8354]

What warrents a 4£ settlement? They failed to provide the pen to sign the contract? Fascinating.

[@tomsmith5584]

In the United States, the United States Football League (USFL) sued the National Football League (NFL) for violations of antitrust laws. The courts agreed that the NFL violated those laws, and awarded the USFL $1.00 in damages, which automatically tripled to $3.00, plus legal fees. The uncashed check is on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. On a side note, one of the club owners in the USFL was a New York real estate developer named Donald Trump. He was hoping to negotiate a merger deal with the NFL where he got ownership of a team, but they didn't bite. He's bitter about that to this day.

[@shellsbignumber2]

Yeah I laughed at that part.

[@rocker1407]

@@aleaiactaest8354 Similar to the USFL v. NFL story, it might have been a case where the defendants did something wrong, but there wasn't any agreement over what damage was actually done or how they were hurt by it, so it's a nominal sum to say "you're right but so what?". If British law is like US law though, Edge Ellison would have still had to pay the EFL's legal costs though for losing the case.

[@MrBlazemaster525]

"The EFL's was negligient" When have they ever been competent?the effects of the ITV collapse are still felt to this day imo

[@sriig]

BlazeMasterGaming at this point the more we learn about how the EFL was doing business in the 90’s...the more we come to see the impetus to create the breakaway Premier League in a new light. No wonder the big money clubs wanted out...who wouldn’t, with such shoddy stewardship as we now know the EFL operated with?

[@MrBlazemaster525]

@@sriig thing is, would the incompetence have been allowed to run unabated had the big money clubs still been in the EFL?Of course not - they know most of all that if the ship went down they'd get dragged into the abyss. Hardly excuses the other outcome but just pointing it out

[@fireboltninja29]

When the story didn’t originally appear on the athletic *wait. Thats impossible*

[@Jayfive276]

Fireboltninja29 shut the FUCK up

[@josephriley9534]

@@Jayfive276 calm down lad

[@MalaysiaPhilip]

The other reason ITV Digital failed was pretty much everyone I knew went out and got the free digi-box from Argos etc and then acquired a pirate card which gave you access to all the channels without subscribing.

[@johnmora1055]

Maybe you guys can do a video on the recent analysis/report on the financial state of the Championship, with clubs posting record losses in their attempts to make it to the Premier League.

[@JamieRollon]

John Mora please!!! I’m doing my dissertation on the effectiveness of FFP regulations so this will be so helpful

[@TBN1]

@@JamieRollon What are you studying

[@JamieRollon]

Diploa accounting and finance

[@jasoncallaghan1630]

I know they are league 1 clubs but look at Bolton who survived by the skin of there teeth and sadly bury's time was up, surely the efl has some responsibility to prevent any more clubs getting liquidated?

[@ethantownsend6609]

John Mora we’re the only team that made a profit in the championship last season

[@djfmitv]

One correction: On Digital (Granada and Carlton TV) originally wanted Sky on board, to make a consortium of Carlton, Granada & Sky, but the competition watchdog blocked the deal (whether rightly or wrongly) as they considered Sky to be 'too powerful'. This led to On Digital and Sky becoming rivals, where On Digital was out-matched from the start.

[@bobj2447]

Leaked codes meant many people could decript and watch for free, suggestions of corporate espionage was suggested. This won sky supreme monopoly.

[@DavidSmith-qf3sm]

Cable had the same exploit years before.

[@jonsouth1545]

you could get cracked On digital boxes for next to nothing I know I had one when I was a student in my first year

[@randlepmcmurphy6117]

@Bob J the same sort of stuff Sky are crying foul over nowadays with IPTV and foreign decoders in pubs, they are horrible bastards and I would party if they ever went tits up.

[@marksparks4787]

Sky actually did this in Italy. They released the codes of the satillite broadcaster who lost millions in revenue and close to bankruptcy. Sky steps in an now owns all rights. I believe it went to court but not sure what the outcome was. What goes around comes around..

[@roban1012]

You’ve left out the rise of dodgy boxes, that was the biggest issue Itv Digital came up against.

[@funksocks]

And the content protection was broken by NDS... who happened to be owned by???

[@NickPwnsUTube]

ITV digital had the rights to a select number of premiership games in the early 2000s. When they collapsed, Dky picked up those games and put them on a new channel, Premiership Plus (later becoming Prem Plus). Prem Plus was a PPV channel where viewers could buy individuals matches for something like £6.99 each, or get a season ticket for all 50 live games for £50.

[@TemporaryOofed]

Sky employed hackers to hack ITV Digitals subscription cards, this is 1/4 of what killed it digital. The other 3 is SKY

[@christopherhulse8385]

I paid up front for a year's viewing for the football on ITV digital (£100) and lost every penny when it went bust. Another issue not mentioned here is the poor digital signal that many people had to suffer as the early days of terrestrial digital TV in the UK were handicapped by a low transmitted signal.

[@danieldorward5638]

I wrote my dissertation last year on how television broadcasting revenue has created a competitive imbalance in the Premier League and this video would have been sooo helpful! Oh, well. Great video nonetheless!

[@fbaallied]

They've just given you a 1st!

[@danieldorward5638]

@@fbaallied Quite possibly! If it wasn't too late! Haha! Got a 2.1 for it in the end.

[@badboybanton]

Would have been cheaper for ITV Digital to send their subscribers to the actual games they showed

[@elonburgers5308]

Great video, but at 4:08 you implied ITV digital used a dish when it actually just used an existing standard analogue TV antenna and a box (this was one of the marketed features over Sky). ITV digital was one of the first digital terrestrial TV networks and when it collapsed the remnants were acquired and remade into the Freeview service by the BBC (which is now the standard for receiving terrestrial TV in the UK). For a long time after ITV Digital went bust the boxes could still be used to watch Freeview service.

[@anthonybradley1555]

also they missed the fact that carlton and granada wanted sky to be a part of on digital and sky were all for it until the competition commission kicked sky out of the deal due to what they saw as a monopoly for sky but overall good video and i recommend the money programme episode on itv digital made shortly after the company went into administration anyone interested just search itv digital and you will find it.

[@windowsad1172]

For the last part, yes you can use an existing ITV Digital box to use Freeview, but these boxes become obsolete after the digital transition in the UK because these boxes have 2k encoder (i don’t what they actually are so i may be wrong that it’s a encoder) while after the transition they all use 8k encoder

[@chrismcdermott7954]

When Amazon get up and running it'll happen again. BT and Sky can't afford to take the hit and will have to pass the increasing cost of live rights to their other, non sports subscribing customers. Amazon will simply absorb the cost as a loss leader in order to get its other Prime services out there. Streaming every game every week is the way forward.

[@fbaallied]

Thank fuck for this, the days of Sky hogging football coverage will truly be over!

[@seduxtive776]

Cherry Boy it started to go downhill for them ever since they lost their CL rights in the 2015/16 season to BT .

[@fbaallied]

@@seduxtive776 Great! Let their demise continue.

[@joecurran2811]

That'll require the law to be changed. You can't show a game live between 3 and 5pm on a Saturday.

[@HarrowNigga]

Does this include Champions League?

[@carlb1056]

I remember being a kid and talking my parents into getting ONdigital we had analogue sky with 19 channels which was ok but was fuzzy as hell. They went upto currys on the retail park and I remember plainly the bloke who served saying don't get On digital its rubbish but get sky instead. So they did. We had to wait 2 months for the installation to take place. Which was like waiting for hell to freeze over. Looking back now, it's as if every outlet in the land was against ONdigital/ITv and in the pockets of BSkyB. It's a shame really.

[@theoneandonly34]

Who remembers not having ITV on sky digital. Now I know why lol

[@bwilshaw3720]

Rejected a reduced contract with itv, but settled for a far less £95million with Sky. That's the EFL for you

[@TeamGeist06]

Aside from ITV, Who remembers Goalissimo (channel 4) and football italiano (channel 5) and the bundesliga highlights on ITV 4. Now there's NOTHING on freeview, except the odd fa cup match and England qualification games (even the England friendlies have gone to sky now). They won't stop until everything is on sky or bt.

[@chrismcdermott7954]

Football Italia was amazing. I still have a soft spot (disgusting acts of racism aside) for Serie A and Italian football. We never had sky when I was a kid so C4 was my only source of live football. Made me a ninja in Championship Manager Italia when it came out and all!!

[@darrenc2721]

I think these days sky have overstretched themselves way too much, they are struggling to keep subscribers for any period of time now. Streaming media subscriptions services can offer better value these days. Sky has to take a loss to keep a subscriber, all i ever here everyone saying is, "I got a free tv blah blah blah", how long can they keep that up for?

[@mashaaa209]

Champions league always Soo much better on ITV great commentary better bulid up better around BT ruined it for Mee

[@seduxtive776]

Mashaaa 209 exactly it all changed when sky acquired the rights of the cl in the 2006/07 season I think , but correct me if I am wrong .

[@therealjeagles]

@@seduxtive776 Sky's CL coverage was good too in fairness; BT have butchered it. Awful channel

[@seduxtive776]

therealjeagles yeah BT are trash in my opinion , sky is okay , but ITV back in the early 200s was where it was at although they had a lot of adverts , it was better than sky .

[@Scallion_D]

Clive and Big Ron. ❤

[@alexroberts8031]

I was just thinking about this, and then I though it'd be great if Tifo had done a video to explain it better. And you have, so thank you for being several months ahead of my brain. Keep up the good work :)

[@ranonchikanda1052]

When it hasn’t originally appeared In the athletic

[@quietbatperson3115]

Ahhhhh the memories of all those ITV Digital Sponsorship Boards being plastered around grounds in 2001/02. The overriding memory of seeing a fellow Albion fan carrying a pitch side one out the ground final day of season when we got promoted.

[@BristolRoversFan]

There's still some on the turnstiles at Bristol rovers lol

[@TemporaryOofed]

@@BristolRoversFan LITTERALY LMFAO IT SAYS "ENJOY THE GAME"

[@notoriousdog8942]

Learnt about this at University. Didn’t learn the £4 bit. Proper tickled me😂

[@DanTheStripe]

EFL sues its legal team thinking it will make them £150 million Ends up getting £4 and costs £5 million Outstanding move.

[@wall-e7179]

*Live televised football in "England" was introduced tentatively. Edit: *ON Digital didn't use a satellite dish.

[@chishamusonda4056]

This is the content I signed up for, it didn't originally appear on the athletic so even better. I get that they have good stories and inside info but sometimes your original stuff is more than enough

[@yashc2902]

My son was originally born on the Athletic:

[@mehmetalikatoglu5966]

The best place to be born on earth

[@laidbackjack3166]

These videos are superb. I knew about the collapse of ITV Digital but this really out flesh on the bones. Tifo smashing it again.

[@sambitkoley2733]

Just think about filing a law suit for 150 mil, spending 5 mil in the process and getting only 4 pounds!!! 🤣🤣🤣 Savage justice!

[@Slickster-rh3mn]

Would love to see a Tifo video on the potential of another crash because of the massive rise in player wages.

[@gdogg3710]

Part of Manchester I’m from was literally overrun with chipped ondigital boxes in those days and to a lesser extent, the old analog sky boxes...

[@iloveyouzion1]

i moved to uk at the age of 12 in 2001...spend 9 years there...as soon as i landed in uk 2001/2002 season started...i didn't have digital tv so i could only watch itv premiership highlights on saturday nights 10p.m it also introduced me to a band called 'u2' lol...at first it was such a joy..then it started to get really boring with so many adverts in between..and as i found out later, motd had much more skilled analysts...no disrespect but itv had the likes of john barnes (at the time i just started to learn english so i couldn't understand his words usually), robbie earle and david pleat...that cannot be compared to motd's lineker, hansen and lawrenson...

[@TheAsianProdigyHD]

I remember itv digital. It died because the scrambler the boxes used were bad and because the smart cards could be easily cloned. I know because as a kid, we had one at home 😂

[@DavidSmith-qf3sm]

Mr Babangoh's Service Charge Collector, I’ve seen plenty of premiership greats on a chipped itv box and also at my uncles who used to pay 70 pounds for all sky sports and the kids channels. People are soon to forget that sky’s never been cheap. I am proud to say that I seen the invisible team of arsenal at the Reebok and even an 18 year old Ronaldo in the away end. By the way I ain’t no Bolton fan but a lot of people around me are. The WWE smack down and Raw free paper views was also a highlight in my teenage years(chipped cable)

[@TheAsianProdigyHD]

David Smith great times huh. Mind you, things are a lot easier for content consumption.

[@speedoflightvanc]

@@DavidSmith-qf3sm You must be the first person ever to have watched an invisible team.

[@sr6424]

At that time I wasn't allowed a sky dish (planning regulations) and cable TV wasn't in my area. I tried to get ITV Digital. The TV reception was no where near good enough. It wasn't just me. Large areas of South Birmingham had similar issues. They got it so wrong. It was another 3 years when I got Freeview which worked fine.

[@EdgyNumber1]

Good video, although it has also been alledged by an investigation by the BBC that there were some dirty underhanded tactics that accelerated ONDigital and ITV digital's downfall.

[@3dsaulgoodman43]

Tifo Football is the best football channel by far. Good content, no swear words, and they like to give out info on smaller leagues from around the world. Really underrated channel.

[@TenkenSoujirou]

I enjoyed this video. The piano music in the background complemented well.

[@lobaxx]

Swedish television started broadcasting English league football already in 1969, showing Wolverhampton vs Sunderland. I didn't know that was before matches where televised in the UK!

[@whatamalike]

This basically comes down to clubs biting off more than they can chew and being completely and utterly delusional about their own worth. Spending money they didn't have is never a good idea (regardless of paper promises from itv digital) and it made them look increasingly greedy and the real start of football becoming the bloated, overfed pig trough it is today.

[@AVFCAM]

I didn’t realise the ITV digital collapse wasn’t influenced by their Premier League highlights deal

[@fireboltninja29]

All these channels originally appeared on the athletic

[@thztan7492]

VERY VERY GOOD ARTICLE & Explained in a very good way👍👍👍

[@TokyoJoe703]

Ah my dodgy card that had the whole package but never lasted long, those were the days.. sort of

[@r00tyschannel52]

There were auto updating ones, you just needed the main key from someone's valid card (and they of course needed to subscribe to, at least something). Also there was better code than that found on the popular "gold card", which was less likely to be hit by ECMs, and you could also actually clone someone's key onto a donor real card too. Basically the "gold" cards were the literal tip of the iceberg here and were the cheap but unreliable solution.

[@Monkey_SK]

I thought the video would cover ITV and its purchase of CL football and then winning highlights for the EPL. but then I suppose this wasn't part of the digital package as such, but I wonder if they over paid for those?

[@CountSwagula24]

Superb video again. This channel deserves way more views

[@gdogg3710]

1983/84 - didn’t ‘Boro play away at Maine Road in United kits as they accidentally turned up with a version of their kit sporting their sponsor’s logo, which was not permitted initially for televised games...

[@joehadden918]

Great video. Maybe do one on how oversees audiences pay next to nothing for prem coverage but UK viewers have to pay through the roof?

[@chrissampson6137]

Are you in the uk? I live in the states and pay 40$ a month for youtube tv. Get maybe 5 or 6 games on the weekend at most. They have a premier league gold pass or something for like 65$ a season to watch the ones that aren't televised.

[@JayTechZM]

That is untrue here in Zambia, DStv which is Africa's largest pay TV provider charges ridiculous amounts per month to show premier league football in a package with leagues no one wants to watch and if you factor in exchange rate to the mix, it is quite an unfair deal. But I understand your frustration when you lot don't even get to watch most afternoon games on TV unless it's via a dodgy stream

[@richardlacinski8841]

Joseph Hadden All games live and on demand including highlights packages and shows come for free through my standard priced phone plan with one of the bigger telecom providers in Australia.

[@samuelwoods164]

@@JayTechZM out of interest how much is the amount you pay in Zambia?

[@comeonman5300]

Have you never heard of the principal of supply and demand? It's the basis of the free market economy.

[@paulhayes5724]

The FA Cup final was first shown in 1938, and then regularly from 1947. 1952 was missed due to a dispute with the FA, though.

[@iMertin90]

ITV digital I remember this and champ league was on this

[@tufferstv]

Just pointing out that you did not need a dish to watch ON/ITV Digital. It was the first terrestrial digital service in the UK.

[@ItsJimmy98]

Could you do a video on all the uk TV Packages from the premier league like Premier plus and what happen to them

[@chimsuaumo]

There is a book called 'The Club: How the Premier League Became the Richest, Most Disruptive Business in Sport by Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson. It goes into this in much more detail as well as a lot more.

[@raykall]

Thanks, will check that out!

[@rubencho3000]

Imagine if there was a streaming platform just like Netflix or Disney+, where you can see online games live hd of the major leagues in football and able to rewatch games of just the ongoing season, watch just the relevant interviews and maybe just stream a recap or football news program each week

[@Tifo]

🥂

[@sagenunn]

It makes the league less money vs. chopping up the rights in as many different ways as possible to sell at inflated prices. What you're saying is good for the consumer but unfortunately the markets are so big I don't think it matters.

[@JohnnyUDoe]

Well, there is one, DAZN, but it is currently limited to several countries (although its parent company is based in the UK, DAZN is not available in that country).

[@asifshahriar4503]

Please make a video on the Helsey Tragedy and the Hillsborough Tragedy

[@md29744]

Tactical analysis on LASK Linz or story on LASK

[@lummatravel]

The itv digital service was dreadful. The boxes were slow and had far fewer channels than sky. They were easily hacked and there was loads of fully open viewing cards for sale where I worked. I still would've paid for the sky subscription to avoid using it.

[@nicholasr39]

There was far less channels than both Analogue and Digital NTL/Telewest cable as well. I was so glad to get back Cable. The signal was just too poor

[@antonydandrea]

I had ON digital and it just seamlessly became freeview eventually, I mean the same box was used

[@ionindolean]

Very interesting. I didnt know this

[@Jean0987654321]

Do Setanta next

[@jackmiller-johnston8689]

Suppose the term "too big to fail" has become the case with broadcasting live Premier League content. But what if either Sky or BT announced out of the blue that they would not be pursuing a new rights deal? Surely the PL bubble can't keep growing unchecked, right?

[@omaid482]

Well, it would be interesting to see what would happen to the smaller PL clubs. The big clubs would adjust given the other avenues that they have, but for a Brighton or a Bournemouth (as an example), losing the PL money would be catastrophic. There was a reason Aston Villa were desperate to go back up. The parachute payments were running out, and their finances are a mess. They luckily dodged a bullet and are back, but it’s a dangerous game to play.

[@omaid482]

Every bubble will burst at some point. Every market will get rattled. The question is what will be the aftermath of a PL bubble burst.

[@azapro911]

The moment ITV lost the Premier League bid, they were dead in the water. BT are wisely taking a cageyer approach.

[@mgphall1]

Also this had a much bigger effect on the spl than the efl

[@JasonCliftJones]

In the EFL, it directly led to the 10pt deduction for administration rule coming in. All three sides relegated from the Prem in 2001-02 went into administration during the 2002-03 or 03-04 seasons, in large part due to the ITV Digital collapse + no parachute payments yet (they didn't come in until 2006-07). Leicester bought a load of players, went into admin in Oct 2002, and came out without paying the transfer fees; they got promoted. This caused the 10pt deduction rule + the "football creditors first & in full" regulation to come in. Derby went into admin in Oct 2003 (losing a load of players cheap) and had a shaky few years before they got back up in 2006 after a takeover. Ipswich went into admin in Feb 2003 which dismantled most of what was left of their Prem squad. Despite a takeover in 2009, they still haven't recovered. Both Leicester and Ipswich have seen 3rd tier football since then, though Leicester have obviously re-established themselves in the top flight in recent years, including a Prem League title.

[@bannanachops]

Setanta and ESPN tried to take on the pay TV market in the UK and lost as well. So that's at least 3 big companies falling flat to Sky. Time will tell whether BT Sport will go the same way?

[@sriig]

If BT’s price hikes for UFC pay per view events is any indication...they’re definitely in need of liquidity.

[@comeonman5300]

Why are you referring to On Digital "offering their boxes and satellite dishes for free" when one of the key advantages of the service was that it was accessible through an ordinary aerial ? Also, Sky had been offering free kit to customers way before On Digital came to market. They did introduce a £99 charge when Sky Digital came to market but that soon dropped off.

[@trandeni]

Can you please make a video on Canal France International and their broadcasting deal with UEFA

[@Osquiii]

which program do u use for producing those fantastic vidoes?

[@ACE360x]

Can you imagine being the EFL and the judge orders someone to give you £4. It would genuinely cost more in admin fees than the actual amount being transferred

[@thespear1566]

Greetings From New York City Special To Joe & Tifo Family ❤️❤️

[@YeOldeFootballChannel]

BSB "merger" with Sky was anything but. Basically Mr Murdoch said "being 'friends' or else". A shotgun marriage in all words. BTW, ITV's live matches during the 80s were on Sundays, not Fridays. These were the timeslots for the BBC "Match of the Day *LIVE*"

[@wwechamp888]

So much so behind the Football pitch on the Color Screen.....

[@2506JJhudson1990]

Judge: The court finds the defendant guilty for breach of contract. You shall pay the plaintiff 4....... pounds..... Defendant: anyone got change? I've only got notes.

[@samuelwoods164]

I think the fact it was so easy to pirate had a lot to do with their downfall. I knew a lot people that had this service for a small one off payment to a dodgy "technician"

[@pietropes1322]

The fact that there are no top flight (or even Championship) live matches on British terrestrial TV is unbelievable. It's supposed to be the nations game isn't it? In America they have NFL, MLB games live on free TV, in Australia they have live free to air AFL and NRL games (as well as the pay tv channels) UK sold their soul for money. National game my arse.

[@darrenc2721]

I feel sorry for my Nan, she supports Norwich and cant watch it on any tv station except if they score a goal, even then they dont actually show it. I have to explain why to her everytime. She doesnt understand. I dont understand how they let that happen.

[@scottwhitley3392]

The same thing happened with Scottish football in the period

[@jonnywarman7331]

This definitely hurt my club among many others, it would be interesting to see what the Premier League landscape would be today if the clubs received the money they were promised

[@decmcgovern9281]

Great insight

[@gareth6956]

If bbc or itv picked up championship, league 1 or 2 it would do wonders for those leagues and honestly they’re not as bad as people make out. Championship can be more entertaining than prem and much less predictable.

[@TheUKNutter]

It would be much smarter.

[@dazzag371]

The football league show used to be on bbc then channel 5 Now it’s on challenge or pick Wish it was still with bbc

[@gareth6956]

@@dazzag371 Thats just highlights and it sucks, im a villa fan and didnt bother watching it when we were in championship as it was about 2 mins of highlights with someone who didnt know anything about the teams on comms. You can get most championship games via IFOLLOW for £3 a match if youre outside uk or have a vpn.

[@TheUKNutter]

The strangest thing is that my dad’s been a Middlesbrough fan since the 1980’s and refuses to watch them until they get back on the premiership lol.

[@gareth6956]

@@TheUKNutter he missing out, uncle albert did a job in that league.

[@zidannemaulana1537]

When ITV Digital collapse: *Brookside still exist *Sky sign the EFL Contract *16 Clubs was undergo administration *Liverpool placed 2nd in the Premier League

[@Avalon_1991]

The fact that we don't get our own 3pm games in England is a joke especially when people in places like the United States and Germany can watch them. A Netflix style system where you pay maybe £5 per game or £18 a month for your clubs 4 weekend games would be so much better.

[@shellsbignumber2]

Never payed a penny to Sky, BT, Amazon etc. Have I missed anything? Oh apart from a load of millionaires chasing a ball around a field.

[@Slickster-rh3mn]

I wouldn't say you have. Elite level football is becoming more niche. Well maybe not niche, but less disconnected from grass roots football.

[@adultmoshifan87]

KZbinr Gondarth had On Digital, he mentioned it in a handful of his videos. I remember reading about On Digital when it and Sky Digital first launched, but only Sky Digital was available in our area. Although Cartoon Network was almost all I watched at the time, I still think Sky was the better option all the way. Still, it would've been nice to have the Carlton Kids channel, I hear they had reruns of Rubbish: King of The Jumble, just one of many Citv shows I enjoyed when I was younger! The BBC and ITV really need to release more of their kids back catalog on DVD. The first time I saw ANYTHING from Rainbow was Zippy's Marmite advert in 2002!

[@simonkevnorris]

On Digital/ITV Digital worked off the TV arial so if you had one of those it should have worked.

[@sammyhill69]

What's the music?

[@pabloncho011]

Do a video for chilean team tacticas of 2015 and 2016 in copa america

[@giles852002]

I call this “The day Football died.” In 1996 when Sky first started showing EFL games in was a massive boom for the EFL. Clubs like my supported team Gillingham enjoyed a national exposure like we’ve never seen. ITV Digital’s collapse killed it & the EFL has not been the same since. Leeds United need to be careful pushing for a better TV deal as 2002 taught us the EFL is not worth as much as they thought.

[@giles852002]

I remember in 1996/97 Sky TV got the rights to broadcast Football League games & it created a huge popularity in the lower leagues. Division 2 & 3 teams could actually buy & sell players without relying on the loan market or out of contract players all the time. By 2000/01 when Sky had it’s last season broadcasting lower league Football it was on such a high that ITV Digital just offered a stupid amount of money as they believed that Lower League Football became more attractive. Which was in essence true but after the collapse Lower League football died. It just wasn’t as good to watch as it once was. 1996-2002 was the golden era of the EFL & they got greedy, plain & simple.

[@bird0804]

Optus sport is my new home

[@TheDutchArsene]

Was literally just reading about this yesterday.... Spooky

[@MrDannyDetail]

Around 3:30 The sad thing is Sky was never meant to be a true competitor to OnDigital, as the original plan had them on the board and supplying some channels to OnDigital (either free to the company, or at rather lower cost, can't remember which.). Unfortunately when the plans were already well underway OFCOM ruled that Sky were not allowed to be a part of it because that would constitute unfair competition. That ruling meant: A) OnDigital had to pay significantly more per year for Sky originated channels to be on their platform B) Rather than perhaps working together to secure TV rights for one or other of their combined pool of channels, they had to bid against each other for rights, inflating the price etc C) Sky's ferocious marketing had to be used against them, instead of as an asset for them All of which massively skewed the odds against OnDigital

[@jacekatalakis8316]

Not football related but ITV were also paying through the nose in 1997 for F1 as well from, yes, the BBC, because...why not. Both F1 and football always had good presentation. Jim Rosenthal was versatile really and could fit anywhere, be it Silverstone one week and Munich the next switching from F1 to a Champions League semi final for instance, ITV always had a knack of putting the right people in the right places at that time. Yes, it cost. It cost a /lot/ But ITV were confident in both acquisitions. Even if you had to get up at 5am to watch F1 on a weekend, and they had some fantastic tie ins. For instance, 1998 F1 season, they had a contest that the grand prize was to attend an F1 race, then fly to Paris for the world Cup final and be put up in a luxury hotel, if I'm remembering that right, you had to call in and enter and some lucky soul would win it, they'd get the VIP treatment, as Jim Rosenthal put it. I'm fairly* sure they did the same in their football coverage especially around 1998 with the World Cup that year. I don't recall if ITV did anything like that for the Euros in 2000 however

[@BadgerOff32]

It's interesting to imagine how different the tv landscape could have looked now if ITV had actually won that fight against Sky. If Sky didn't hoover up the exclusivity rights to football, Formula 1 and a host of other sports over the years and ITV did instead, we might still have had those sports live on 'free' tv, and if the BBC had a direct competitor on terrestrial tv who were as powerful as Sky is now, it would have shaken up the 'establishment' of British tv, and the BBC in particular. They may have had to ditch their tv licence 'scam' altogether by now in favour of starting their own pay-service (which could have 'bombed' and killed off the BBC). Who knows?? It's interesting to speculate 'What if...?' though....

[@Mozee854]

BBC's days are numbered. The rise of on demand TV and the review into the BBC license fee will see to that. Sky has its own challenges with the rise of other paid subscription services too. It's recently launched sky glass is a desperate attempt to remain relevant but I see a future where sky content will be accessable via an app rather than a paid TV service.

[@jed_91]

Do a video on rise of bt sports and uk mess of satanta sports

[@rainbowpearlvlogsandanimations]

I’m guessing that’s a similar story.

[@retrorambles517]

Interesting well made video

[@dequanmsealey1356]

The following comments first appeared on the Athletic:

[@Jayfive276]

dequan Sealey FUCK OFF.

[@mentaldavethefirst]

Pausing 29 seconds in and guessing there is no head on dealing with Sky paying for the ITV box to br cracked to eliminate the competition

[@kino6395]

Guess that explains why the football league is spread across both sky and BT as if 1 collapses they still have enough income to not liquidate the top teir clubs.