£15m deal could see Sunderland, Burnley, Norwich City and Leeds United games shown on free-to-air television
The move could change how Sunderland fans can watch their team on television
A free-to-air broadcaster is reportedly in talks to bring some Championship football games to terrestrial television.
British broadcaster ITV are said to be in discussions with Sky Sports over a £15million sublicensing deal to show up to 20 live matches from the Championship and Carabao Cup on free-to-air television next season. The deal would likely have an impact on fans of Sunderland should their games be selected.
Sky’s new five-year deal with the EFL comes into effect at the start of the 2024-25 campaign and allows the broadcaster to show more than 1,000 matches from all three divisions and cup competitions. Supporters can only watch these games with a subscription to the service in its various guises with no matches currently available on free television.
According to the i newspaper, Sky wants more exposure for EFL clubs and its own broadcast service, while also generating some revenue to offset the cost of the deal. ITV could pay Sky Sports a fee of around £15million which would go some way to recuperating the £935million the pay-TV broadcaster have paid to the EFL.
Reports have stated that Sky have held “preliminary talks” with Channel 4 and Channel 5, but ITV is believed to have “offered the most attractive proposal.” ITV is already the EFL’s highlights partner, showing action from the leagues each game day in a Match of the Day style programme,
Reports add that Sky is “extremely open about the structure of the deal which could allow ITV to have first choice of matches from selected match weeks or cup rounds. The current proposal would see ITV show ten ties from the EFL Cup, including a semi-final and the final itself, and ten games from the Championship.”