Some thoughts to the 70% increase in English Premier League TV income:
Our financial strategy
Stop feeling sorry for ourselves. We are not part of the easy-money league, so instead of complaining about Burnley’s financial strength, exploit the massive inefficiencies in England. Lazy recruitment strategies, unscientific risk-taking and chronic managerial processes put a lot of money on the table for those who know how to run a football club properly.
If your forward business model involves selling players, better to be close to a rich, lazy, unscientific and chronic league.
Player values
After the last increase in TV income in England was announced transfer fees appreciated markedly, even before the increase came into effect. Forgive the impersonal language, but player commodities are more valuable this week than they were last week, not just in England, but in Scotland and everywhere else.
The goalkeeper we sold for £10m last summer would command a higher fee, if we sold him next summer. A player we ‘hoped’ to earn £7m from selling should now have his target value adjusted to £10m.
More than ever, it is important to manage playing assets. Buy assets with development potential, hoard their registrations if necessary – Benfica employ and loan-out players to top leagues who would easily get into their first team. It helps build the player’s value, which helps build Benfica.
Player trading velocity
If player trading is important going forward, my hunch is that trading velocity should increase. To do this properly, it is absolutely crucial we invest more in the scouting process. Scouting and recruitment is as important to the club as tactics and team selection. Resource it accordingly.
SPFL TV deal
I’ve read lots about what we should do next in Scotland with regards to our TV deal, some ideas have merit, some not. What is perfectly clear is that the current deal is practically worthless. We must change. The potential downside is almost immaterial, as we’re starting from such a low point.
Bin SKY and BT, go it alone, or get one of the new media players involved, or better still, collaborate with the Dutch league, which has its own TV channel, have learned some lessons, have many of our challenges, and would benefit from the fresh content we could provide. There are more leagues in Europe with exactly the same challenges, if a pan-European league is a step too far, a collaborative TV infrastructure is a good start.
In football TV terms, we are the Straw Man, with nothing to lose. Lead a path away from Sky and BT, educate fans on how to link up with Virgin, Amazon or an equivalent, do something genuinely radical.
The Bubble
It’s a bubble. Just because the English TV market has not burst, doesn’t mean it’s not going to. Ask yourself a few questions:
Is this level of contract affordable by Sky or BT?
Will this new cash make the downside of relegation from the EPL any easier?
Will this cash make EPL clubs any more likely to change their business model, specifically, will they be more likely to spend less because they no longer fear relegation?
No, no and no. The downside of relegation from the EPL will become more onerous and clubs will fear relegation more.
Sky are enjoying enormous market power but the entrance into the market of Amazon Prime, Netflix and others, while the offerings from Virgin and BT have matured, leaves Sky open to competition in the TV and film market in the future which they have never experienced before.
You no longer need Sky to watch multi-channel TV, round-the-clock news, recent or legacy films. Their failure to maintain future Champions League rights, together with the fact that they are legislated out of the World Cup and European Championship rights, reduces their assets down to one lucrative prize: English Premier League football.
English Premier League football is the asset they are betting the farm on. They need this and as long as the ‘farm’ exists in the form of a nation uniformly consuming TV through them, they will pay whatever they can to retain these rights.
BT are in the process of buying market share. They are vastly better funded than Sky and need a strategic place going forward (which traditionally telephony isn’t).
It’s not a case of if Sky’s ability or desire to pay changes but when. Then the bubble will burst, then football will plunge into a reverse gear.
Until then, we play the system.
Busy week for CQN11 St Patrick’s Dinner bookings (Friday 13 March, Kerrydale Suite, Celtic Park). Email me for booking details, celticquicknews@gmail.com
1,285 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- ...
- 34
- »
I heard a radio interview with Ronny Deila last nigh in which he addressed the question of Scottish football’s ability to compete with England.
Firstly, he referred to Norway where he explained that the clubs worked together to build up the quality of the product based on good flowing football to make it entertaining. He explained that this brought more interest and eventually more television money to the game and now Norway does quite well for a country of its size.
However, he knows very clearly that the EPL is an a league of its own financially for the immediate future and that Scotland cannot compete.
His view is that we have to build up our strengths – much better grass roots coaching, better training facilities and pitches and develop a more attractive style of play. All clubs must work to this – not just Celtic and a few top clubs. Critically, this is not that expensive if the right philosophy to player coaching is taken.
He thinks that we can achieve some success by building up this way.
The only factor that he missed, in my opinion, was that we need to change the way that referees tolerate players whose role it is to destroy creative football with constant and sometimes violent fouling to break up the flow of the game. I am not taking a partizan stance here as we have our players who will “take one for the team” to break up an opposition attack. But, we can only compete at European level if we are allowed to play in a style which is not hindered by fouling and also that we do not resort to indiscipline in Europe which is highly likely to result in a red card – Brown, Bitton for example recently.
It was the most interesting interview I have heard for a long time and I think that his confidence has grown that he feels able to outline such a positive vision and I hope that he achieves it with Celtic but also benefits the other clubs to improve our league. Although, one footnote must be that Norway’s top club Rosenberg has fallen out of the top Euro positions so that has to be considered as part of any “success” story.
Celtic’s peak was of course Lisbon but we should also remember that Inter allowed us to play the beautiful game that night and the right result ensued. Contract with a few months later against Racing and a few years later again Atletico Madrid.
Whilst the EPL cubs will bring in more millions, they will also pay out more millions and the fear factor of relegation for the top league will intensify and stifle their style of play. In recent seasons, I have lost a lot of interest in the EPL as so many games are so dull, I believe because a point keeps everyone happy. Noticeably, England’s performance in the Champions League has dropped a lot especially when their teams meet Spanssh and German teams which are playing a more fluent game.
Ronny may be up against even bigger odds than Jock Stein was due to the financial gap but the right philosophy, so long as it is allowed to flourish, may let us compete against the EPL millions.
long post – lunchtime over.
Dessybhoy @13.13
Thanks Dessybhoy, will do.
mullet and co 2
13:06 on
13 February, 2015
Mickybhoy. Thought you didn’t go to away games so that you could watch the tele and save money?
———————————
Aye and the tickets for the away leg are 19£’s ?
smapmap
Well said.
Better together?
Not when it comes to football quite clearly.
Offer on CQN Bookstore at the moment…
Get Seville – The Celtic Movement book, the Road to Seville 2 x DVD, Celtic 3IAR DVD and 2015 CQN Annual plus a wee surprise that goes down VERY well…all for £15 inc P&P for Uk and Ireland.
http://www.cqnbookstore.com
NCC: Under Tony Abbott Australia is rapidly becoming a police state.
After staging a prayer vigil (http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/wa-christians-in-julie-bishop-protest-20150128-1307hb.html) in the offices of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s offices as a protest against Liberal party policy of mandatory detention, the peaceful protesters were strip searched by police (http://www.news.com.au/national/asylum-seeker-protesters-strip-searched-charged-at-mp-electorate-offices/story-fncynjr2-1227153226860) and subjected to on-going harassment for many days afterwards by police.
Today we have students making a protest against the Liberals plans to deregulate university fees. The police responded by spraying pepper spray directly into the faces of protesters. These were Senior police, not inexperienced cadets inflicting excruciating pain on young people who are carrying out their civil right to protest
(http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-13/students-pepper-sprayed-at-pyne-protest-in-sydney/6090986).
These are but a few instances where, under Tony Abbott’s leadership, the government of Australia has abused it’s power by using police against its own citizens.
I’d a big long post in my head about this blog.
But I’ll keep it brief instead – for me, as a Celtic Supporter, the sooner Sky and BT are out of the equation the better. Their production values surrounding SPL games tells you all you need to know about their commitment to Scottish football – it is filler for them.
And I agree the bubble will burst. They always do. I’m surprised at the longevity of this one but it’s gonna go pop sooner or later. You and me are paying for a lot of this. I pray for the day.
NCC continued….
Can you imagine what the SMSM would say if the police at the doors of Ibrox had sprayed pepper spray in the faces of the Sevconians after the recent Hearts game?
unionist scum
The Dutch may have their own TV Channel however their games are still shown live on Sky,at least three games this weekend
Does anyone think that if Scottish football set up its own TV Channel it could entice the big players in this market to purchase any rights to air Scottish football on their platforms
I personally don’t think so
Smapmap
On the one hand I find nationalists unwillingness to accept the result of the referendum (despite of course saying they do accept the red,t while clearly not) both disturbing and somewhat depressing at he same time.mdemocracy in Scotland appears to be optional to some.
But I also find the cognitive dissonance heartwarming ly amusing too. We have more chance of influencing things like the sky deal as part of the UK than separately. But that’s too inconvenient a truth I guess.
Hilariously had we voted for independence our economy would be in meltdown with the oil price collapse driving a stake through the SNPs so called economic policy. Funny how wee Nicola is steering clear of that point.
You would be best served working to get the answers to why scotland didn’t vote for independence than simply slagging off those who voted no. Don’t you think?
Paul I wholheartedly agree with your view on the TV deal in Scotland. The current deal is practically worthless. That is actually very empowering and I think going it alone would net the scottish game far more. Similarly it would pose a direct threat to sky. Scottish subscribers would leave them in droves. At the moment sky’s strategy is to keep scots locked in by hp having packages mixed between the English amd scottish games.
But when it comes to you player strategy I part company with you. Your thoughts I believe reveal the problem at celtic. It’s not about the football or the team. It’s only about money. Accelerating sales of players? Can it go any faster? And I guess who cares about the product on the park eh Paul?
I think we are being run by people who have a very narrow mindset and absolutely NO footballing ambition whatsoever.
In fact we should try and hang on to DVD for another year or so should we not. If as you say player values will soar again soon?
And you leave out an area where I believe we and scottish football is far too inactive in. Politics.
Why aren’t we screaming loudly at Sky and threatening to ask our supporters to give up their sky subscription? Why aren’t we demanding more from them now? After all we have virtually nothing to lose? Why don’t we get wee Nicola to publicly shout about the BBCs policies with regards to football in England as opposed to scotland. That would be brilliantly divisive for her would it not? Why are we so silent on this?
Of course celtic appear to treat silence as some sort of strength but that’s as laughable as the Huns using the word dignity over and over.
Why aren’t we making life very very uncomfortable for our politicians and sky??????
Instead you simply advocate selling more players quickly?
Something’s missing here………..
neg…
Just curious…which DVD do you think we should hang on to???
;-)
HH
montreal_bhoy
12:17 on 13 February, 2015
Pod i
There is a map?
HH
https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=735631&add=1#mappage
LiviBhoy @12:26 on
The DR are obssessing about their ban from their Sport headquarters.
LiviBhoy, I’ve been out of the loop for a few days – pray tell why the Daily Wrecker has been banned from £1pox.
A TV channel showing games from Scotland, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Scandinavia,…
Surely that’s worth £10 a month across those countries.
Not sure how UEFA would view it but what about replacing the league cup with a cup competition drawn from the top leagues in each of those countries? Excellent extra content for the channel. Plus think of the extra interest a cup run would generate at the teams that don’t generally qualify for Europe.
This is an idea that could boost the whole game in Scotland.
Apparently Aberdeen have been refused further tickets from Celtic for the league
game on Sunday March 1st.
1800 sheep have purchased tickets.
Empty seats make no sense.
Do Celtic think we’ll have a full house for
a ridiculous midday kick off ?
Tallybhoy.
Sportitalia
Yes – sometimes have difficulty finding it – sometimes I get Padre Pio Tv or BBC Knowledge instead ! Strange things happen here. One tele will have a movie dubbed in Italian whilst in another room , another tele will have the same film in the original language.Another strange thing is watching Sky Cinema which suddenly jumps to Agrigento TVA or 8 Video Calabria in Calabrese.
Paul,
Really pleased to see BT got 2 packages, anything else could be viewed as overextending, in my humble opinion.
Conversely SKY had to overpay to ensure status quo which some might say is commercial roulette.
BT is indeed striving for market share but the cost of EE will have heavily influenced this process though with Champs League/Europa Cup added to FA Cup, then BT isn’t heavily dependant on EPL.
Of course, all this is my own opinion.
P
Was a bit peeved at the TV deal announced by England the other day but in reality it just puts more clubs from other countries in our corner, looking for a way to take them on. They are isolating themselves and the current rate of growth can hardly be sustained.
Players will go there happy to sit on the bench and when the opportunity comes to move to another league for first team football, they wont accept it without a large settlement.
Burnley could have put down more money for us for Armstrong but decided not to. Giving these clubs more money wont give them more sense.
The extra money will have the same effect on them alcohol does on alcoholics.
They are killing themselves and when it happens it will be just as enjoyable as the huns death.
HH
pod i
14:00 on 13 February, 2015Paul,Really pleased to see BT got 2 packages, anything else could be viewed as overextending, in my humble opinion
1 of the BT Packages is 24 Sevco games from the Championship next season ….
Bada,
Ha, I forgot about that….
Changed days since Ian left the business!!
P
Paul
Spot on with your analysis and Benfica do provide pointers.
Critically as you identify – heavily invested scouting system is key.
Get that right and we can become middlemen of choice. Get Wanyama VVD, GMS type players from
Home and abroad, Polish them off and punt them. Old rope if we get it right.
pod i-i thought he might have brought something re TV revenue….
Hrvatski Jim
Sky can do as they wish. Anyone who is not happy with the TV deal for Scottish football should cancel Sky Sports and even move their subscription to Virginmedia as BT are following a similar tact to Sky.
What grates me the most is the BBC deal. The BBC pay millions for highlights of the English game and pay their pundits more than our TV deal with the broadcaster. The BBC could pay £20m per year for the Scottish game and get all the live rights and highlights package and have exclusivity. They choose not to. Having a TV licence is not a choice. We should be demanding more from our national broadcaster. We pump a lot of money into the BBC in this country. I also notice that BBC Scotland are producing nationwide succesful programmes. What we get out of BBC Scotland is a lot less than we put in and the first port of call for a better TV deal should be with BBC and Scottish football fans should be a approaching the minister for sport at Holyrood to demand more of a level playing field. I am not saying we should demand as much as the English game but it should be a competitive deal to bring Scottish football in line with similar countries in Europe. Celtic are competing at a fairly good level in Europe due to our gate receipts, the other Scottish clubs are not faring as well and that is due to the lack of TV revenues. They are playing against teams from much smaller and economically poorer nations than Scotland and being easilly swept aside 90% of the time. Scotland national games are only on Sky TV. How are our children supposed to get excieted about our football? If they don;t have Sky they are not seeing it. The current BBC highlights package goes out late on a Sunday night. How does that help Scottish football? We now have BBC Alba. Why does that not have a full Saturday card highlights show on a Saturday say 10pm and Sunday full weekend round up say 2pm.
It’s not difficult and they can show live matches on that channel which I believe is available on all freeview boxes so that young and old rich and poor can watch our national game.
The SFA/SPFL blew it big time at the last negotations and let’s not forget the clubs themselves blowing it the time before that plumping for Setanta rather than Sky because they wanted to flex their muscles against Celtic and Rangers. Setanta went under and Sky got the deal at a rock bottom price and the value has never recovered.
Also factor in the Armageddon quotes from Regan and Doncaster and I fail to see how these two jokers are still employed.
The Scottish parliament should be fighting for this from the nation point of view. Scotland is a football crazy country and yet I would wager the best selling club jersey in this country is not the national jersey it may not even be Celtic. It is Barcelona or Chelsea or some other club 100’s of miles from Scotland. We have created this void because we have rolled over and allowed our game to be pushed from pillar to post. We have not made any demands. It’s like Oliver in the famous film. We creep to the front of these TV guys and beg for more instead of putting together a plan and having the baws to say here is our strategy for the next 10 years. This is what we will do. This is what we want to achieve. This is what we propose for our game and this is how much we want to charge for it on a sliding scale if we meet our targets. Any game watched by more than any EPL match should incur a bonus from Sky or BT. If they get the viewers above their premier tournament then Scotland should get the coin for it. If Celtic v Aberdeen get more viewers than Hull City v West Brom for instance then it should result in a bonus.
The BBC should also be told by the SFA/SPFL. What we want is this – The highlights should be on at a decent time so kids can view them or they should be repeated so that they can be viewed at a normal time. The time is next season to make these demands. If we don;t get what we want then tout to the other TV companies. There are plenty out there. ITV have just lost the ECL coverage. Will they be interested? Virginmedia so far have not wanted to pay the crazy fees for football but they should be approached. BT are new players and have big cash sloshing around. They already have a foot in the EPL and have our product currently. Ask them if they want live exclusive rights. Another kick in the eye for Sky.
The SPFL/SFA need to realise that the product is decent. They need to realise it will get better. Like Ronny says they need to talk up our game and be ambitious. Set targets and meet them. Lower prices in competitions so that the stadiums are fuller and set demands on KO times and live TV matchdays. Our manager is a TV companies dream with his soundbites. What he says is not rocket science. It is common sense.
Currently Scottish football gets £20m a year from Sky/BT. EPL new deal is £10m a game. We should be demanding at least £1m per game that should be the starting point. As for the BBC they should grow a pair and if Sportscene is on Saturday at 10pm then I’m afraid MoTD moves back and people need to stay up later to see it. Do other counties accomodate another nations football before their own like Scotland does?
We do not help ourselves.
LB
Bada,
I actually like the thought of that ;)
The big Dutch one not the latest celtic A to Z
Hvratski Jim
You make a lot of good points, I agree that refereeing has a part tp play but remember it was a Spanish refree we had against Juventus who held our players on numerous occasions to break up play he even booked scott brown for being the victim of a foul
Neg…
Seriously this time.
I think the point about worthless TV rights is a powerful one. Unfortunately worthless to Celtic is not totally worthless to say St Johnstone or Motherwell. It is though apparent many of the clubs have transformed or at least rearranged their finances to make themselves going concerns within their local constraints.
There is no league sponsor either so the money environment is very tough and it is to be wondered if any Scottish club can even break even without the very modest TV revenue. One advantage of sharing a TV platform with English football is that some of our nugget players are seen and become more marketable. For instance the sales of Johnny Russell, McArthur, McCarthy & Billy McKay certainly helped balance the books. Sales of players, as we know only too well, has become a vital financing tool. Would our potential foreign signings be less convinced to join us (with a future eye on the epl) were our games not shown UK wide?
I have sympathy with going alone on TV but I can understand the fear of some. As always it will come down to £££££s.
HH
Mea Culpa
Missed your reply from last thread.
I had just wanted to mention the terrible tackle on Suarez by Etxeita at the weekend, hence my question.
I think BMCUW posted a link on the last article pages.
Sounessesque.
Oil Fund CSC
Here’s a wee snippet which I read recently…
More pubs have BTSports than Sky Sports.
So where does that leave Sky consumers currently paying £40/50 per month.
This is only going 1 way because I don’t believe Sky can create efficiencies to such a level.
P
My friends in Celtic,
Another day, more nationalist innuendo.
However as soon as someone replies with some inconvenient truths they are immediately castigated for introducing politics to the blog.
Are we constantly going to live in the “if only” or “what if” land. Imo it is pie in the sky to believe that our TVs deals would magically improve if last years result was the opposite way round.
I have no problem with any differing views to my own, as long as the right of reply is afforded.
HH.
Excellent article – Play what’s in front of you rather than complaining about what is your reality.
One point I don’t agree with is that this is what Celtic should do to find success. Celtic adopt this approach already to some success. But Celtic pursuing financial success unilaterally will only result in a more exaggerated version of where we are already. I.e. A big club with the credentials, fan base and aspiration to compete in Europe. But attaining moderate infrequent European success because they draw their revenues in a market many times smaller than the main leagues in Europe.
It’s not just Celtic that has to grow, its the entire league that has to grow. Since there’s no TV money, then every team in the league needs to grow their own revenue. If the best way to achieve that is to ‘buy low sell high’ then that’s the strategy the entire Scottish game must adopt. A rising tide lifts all boats.
Growing just our Club will only put us further into the no-man’s land between the EPL and SPFL. Growing the entire game in Scotland makes the game more attractive to players, and broadcasters alike.
Given the track record of those in charge of the business of our game in Scotland, I’m not holding my breath on this one.
The ‘North Atlantic League’ remains my preferred non-option
jimtim
13:04 on 13 February, 2015
See some of the belfast bhoys having wee problems with printing off flybe return e tickets . I stayed in the holiday inn a couple of months ago . They have a printer in the lobby , which is available to use , even for people not staying . A couple of young lads came into the hotel and asked if they could use it . check in staff were very obliging .
~~~~~~~~~~++~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for that info,mate.
We are staying in the HI so I’ll let the lads know they can come along.
Coatbridge St James @StJamesCSC 7m7 minutes ago
@MireCSC1 we have 6 spare if anyone needs any
Careful With That Tax, Moonbeams
Pun of the decade, right there :-)
Speaking of which…
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/feb/13/winning-puns-comedy-championships-leicester-leo-kearse
Justafan I understand the fear too. But the point is that going it alone will not result in a lower net income. I actually believe the reverse would happen. If as paul says you throw in games from some of the other smaller leagues in Europe then you will create a nice package too.
There is literally nothing to lose. It was a massive mistake by sky and BT to give the coltish game so little and they simply took advantage of the mess up here. But it will come back to haunt them. If they had given a reasonable amount the economics of leaving would have been more difficult. Now it’s just a no brainer. This will hit their subscriptions by far more than they give to the game and with lots of ex pat scots in England and elsewhere the numbers will be even larger.
Sky and BT will be hoping we are too fearful and they will give a better deal next time to avoid this. This is the window in which we can go it alone.
But the bit I just don’t understand is why the clubs and the sfa etc are screaming about it all. Particularly the bbc situation. It’s very very odd……something smells……..
Vote for BNP!!!!!