Top-of-the-table clash faces blackout after Celtic turn down Premier Sports deal

Celtic have opted out of an SPFL contract granting subscription channel Premier Sports the rights to 20 live games from the Scottish Premiership.

And the move has put paid to any prospect of the top of the table clash against Aberdeen at Parkhead a week on Saturday being shown live on television.

Sky Sports secured the rights to 60 live games per season from Scotland’s top flight until 2029.

Limited to five visits per season to each ground, Sky have already been to Parkhead twice and selected their upcoming fixtures in early September — before Aberdeen’s 13-game winning run gathered pace.

An agreement to sell a secondary package to Premier gave the Irish broadcaster the right to show a maximum of two additional games from any Premiership stadium. And raised hopes of more showpiece fixtures in the SPFL being shown live.

Offered £75,000 for every additional home game — and a maximum payment of £150,000 for two — Celtic were reluctant to inconvenience season-ticket holders and home fans travelling from further afield by shifting more 3pm Saturday kick-offs to a later time. Last night the club declined to comment

As part of their agreed deal until 2029, Sky retained first option of two further bundles of 10 SPFL games at a cost of £4million apiece from this season. When Sky declined to take up the option they were thrown open to the market. And while the deal with Premier falls well short of the figures agreed with Sky, eleven of the 12 clubs voted to take the cash in any case, league sources citing a desire to grow the audience and beam more live games, such as the Dundee and Edinburgh derbies, than last season.

Celtic’s decision marks the second time that one of the biggest clubs has turned their back on a collective commercial agreement, a long running dispute between the SPFL, Rangers and Park’s Motor Group over a title sponsorship finally resolved last year after an apology and the payment of compensation to the Ibrox club

 

Pathetic from the board if we ain’t moving league then it’s high time we help promote the league doing * like this makes us no better than the huns …. Like that peep show meme ( are we the baddies)


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Well done to the club. Putting season ticket holders before cash.

* hate those 5.45 kick offs

 

It’ll be on Celtic tv for anyone with a firestick, I’m really looking forward to a top of the table clash at 3pm on a Saturday.
Our WimTheTim CSC bus was sold out in about 5 minutes from an 7am txt notification so game will be busy, again I can’t wait

 

Your bus a 60000 seater or something?

 

Fans have complained about moving kick offs at short notice for ages and lack of 3pms in general. Can't complain when they stick up for fans.

Also it was not Peep Show but That Mitchell and Webb sound.

 

Majority of the home games are 3pm unless it’s a derby …. It was a significant game it would have been 2.5 hours later is it such a big deal that n a Saturday nobody complains about midweek being 7.45 -8pm …… knocking it back devalues the tv deal do we really expect the tv companies to up any offers when it’s next up for negotiating it ….. how many of us have a vpn and pay for Celtic tv to get game in the uk that probably has more to do with it rather than the kick off time


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The money they are offering is only £75k a game, I agree with the board, not worth the inconvenience to season ticket holders etc.. we'd also make more than £75k in merch and food keeping it a 3pm ko too, as more season ticket holders would turn up for a 3pm ko..

It's the correct decision.

 

Can you seriously say at 5.45 a top of the table clash won’t be a sell out ? ….. a think it’s time to accept that our club and rangers don’t give a * about Scottish football and have no intention of making it better for the rest and are happy with the rest of the clubs being poor while we do e on cl money


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A lot of supporters will have booked flights and ferries etc.. they are correct not to inconvenience fans for £75k and short notice.. less season ticket holders would turn up..

If we want to promote our game better, the TV deals that are negotiated need to be much much better.. BTs coverage of the Scottish game was so so much better than anything Sky have done.. and Premier coverage is cheap and not worth the hassle.

Edit: If Premier want to sponsor the Cups fair enough as we struggle for sponsorship. But for what they are offering for League it isn't worth it. Would rather have the extra few hours recovery before the CL too.

If we go back to the Sky deal it's a joke, the 1200 Sun ko means it rules out games before CL games on a Tuesday and even Wednesday not ideal, or travelling back from Thursday EL games. 5 home games doesn't really work its unnecessary restriction. Celtic v Aberdeen should really be on Sky, the main broadcaster. But, the 1200 Sun slot doesn't really work and we usually use 4 of home allocation, immediately.. 2 x Huns, Flag day and Trophy day.. with SKY leaving a blank weekend in case we clinch the league at home.

They Sky deal is pish and so is their coverage. We need negotiate much much better deals.

 

Wasn’t short notice these discussions were 4 weeks ago when rangers and saints accepted 8pm kick off because of the great Scottish run ….. am sorry but I have totally disagree with the rest of your answer …. How can you negotiate for better if your biggest club is preventing big games being available on the tv deal also you name check bt coverage ( sunset vine ) is who bt used to produce the coverage very same company who premier uses . The whole review of Scottish football by Deloitte the bill that was footed for it was by hearts hibs Aberdeen Dundee and dutd ….. Celtic and rangers conveniently did not get involved until the last minute …. It was these clubs that decided to create a position for the marketing of Scottish football and a three way think tank between spfl sfa and swpl that has made sure all competitions have a title sponsor the aim of the report was to encourage the game to achieve a payout 50 million a season to all clubs by 2030 they are five million off the target I think . One of the ideas floated was to sell off more games which happened with 20 more going to premier something that shouldn’t have took 7 years to happen their is plenty of examples of sabotage from both clubs that proves my point refer back to roger mitchell with that fiasco and sky and the spfl tv idea rangers and Celtic against it because they would be 80 per cent of games fair enough but when Mitchell went back to sky negotiating table they had all the numbers and schematics someone had leaked the whole idea of how it was all gonna work to sky


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Lawell stream killers will be out in force now

 

Until they remove the no broadcasting of 3pm on a Saturday this problem will stand. The board done that survey of fans in the summer and would imagine for fans responding who travel a lot for games I am pretty sure the lack of Saturday afternoon kick offs would have been a source of frustration.

In fact even fans who have a season ticket here, that maybe work Monday to Friday and therefore like to make a day out of Saturday to go to the football but wouldn’t on a Sunday, not to mention public transport availability being less on a Sunday. This season the other two Aberdeen games are midweek fixtures.

The fact the full first month had us playing on Sundays due to TV and opponents playing Euro qualifiers an artificial barrier no longer makes sense.

Plus £75k is a poor offer really the price shouldn’t be set per game but by the magnitude of the game. We could sell out that Aberdeen game twice over on a Saturday at 3pm accepting £75k doesn’t make a lot of sense when you have to move the kick off.

 

The simple answer is £75k to change ko time, when we have a CL game on Wednesday, isn't worth it.

Everything about the BT coverage was better, Scottish Football is an afterthought for SKY.

 

More context has been released which is thankfully painting club in a better light Celtic and rangers home games are not part of the premier deal ….. rangers asked the last game their to be tv as they anticipated that it would be poor turnout


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So the Huns have opted in to some of their home games to be on Premier, even though not part of the original deal? And we've passed on that?

As I see the Huns have home games scheduled on Premier..

 

Also worth noting that moving kick off back almost 3 hours would impact on not just our fans who travel but also away support.

We are quick to moan about playing in Highlands at 12 o'clock but a 5.45 kick off in Glasgow means Aberdeen fans aren't getting home to nearly midnight.

People moaning about promoting our game should be directing their frustrations at TV companies and their *, inconvenient kick off times and their derisory TV deals.

Don't see how anyone can not back the club over this.

Also as an aside, it speaks volumes for that mob across the city that they are so desperate for £150k that they are happy to inconvenience their supporters

 

It's a joke Sky, didn't take the option of the extra 10 games.. shows they don't care about the league as a product.. it's just a subscription booster to attract Celtic and Hun supporters.

 

Well done the board for putting those who travel/attend the game first.

 

But we knew that already they haven’t even met what is meant to be the minimum games on their deal the last two seasons, let alone took extra.