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
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DELANEYS DUNKY
FFS,you not in bed yet?
Just off the phone to the two pacesetters.
Reckon they had a good night!
meansong
01:20 on 14 February, 2015
gerryfaethebrig
Brilliant…. Big Roy was a modern day Keane, Wanyama or the new boy Pogba, big Roy would have had them for breakfast (all 3)
eddiegreenhillsbhoy,
Last verse is dead right.
We are the Glasgow Celtic.
Frantic
I am sure you will make a game at Paradise and a wee swally after with me soon.
GNGB
delaneys dunky
01:30 on 14 February, 2015
Gerry
Football wise what did you think of him ????
I am 44 so in my mind he was around McStay in hero mode !
That hurts me o type
If Maurice Hun signed for Sevco in July….it wouldn’t get anywhere near the publicity it did in 1989?
Rangers are dead and Scotland has moved on?
Gerryfaethebrig…..
Don’t think anyone would have Pogba for breakfast at the minute mate
The guy is a colossus of a player
rudicantfail,
He was nowt but a mercenary.
As was his mentor soooness
don’t gie him another thought.
He isnae worth it,the tosspot.
BMCUW
Cannae sleep. Feel like a wean on Christmas Eve. Oh the Sevco are deid was being belted out when I was on the phone to the two mad good guys. Will it be all good guys tomorrow? Hope there’s no w#nks! ;))
Timbhoy in spain
Don’t want to b pedantic but we are CELTIC ,not Glasgow celtic.sorry on the tonic.hic ktf.
timbhoy2
01:14 on 14 February, 2015
It’s them cleaners that makes us….A mother is mother !
delaneys dunky
01:30 on 14 February, 2015
Dd
Go over and have a ball
Only wccks are up in the shankhill.ktf.TAL.
eddiegreenhillsbhoy,
Whit are ye oan aboot ?
If we’re no the GLASGOW Celtic well I guess we might as well delete the song.
What should we sing?
Aye aye aye we are the London Celtic or similar.
Don’t be a puddock aw yer life.
That was meant too say I agree with Maurice being a plastic…. but what about the daft wee footballer fae Partici Thistle ? He could move, he was brave, he could leap like a salmon, did you think he could “kick a ba”
Timbhoy in Spain….
I agree that he is insignificant enough, in his football life, to not give him another thought…
Like most Huns ……he achieved very little but money.
I just will always intensely dislike the bassa for what he did to Billy McNeill……..The big man was never the same manager after that scumbag duped him.
Gerry
I am 49. I loved Mojo like I loved Danny McGrain, Paul McStay and Henrik Larsson. My 3 favourite Celts who I watched every week. Mojo is like my ex wife in the used to love category. :)
gerryfaethebrig
01:41 on 14 February, 2015
timbhoy2
01:14 on 14 February, 2015
It’s them cleaners that makes us….A mother is mother !
My wee mam had a spell cleaning at a school (not mine). 05:30 rise then home to send four kids to school. Remember the fuel strikes a few years ago.? It was the lack of cleaners at hospitals rather than surgeons that was going to break the country. Hail Hail to all the mammys. Give them flowers tomorrow too.
My only son was shot in Dublin,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3M68rxEaUE
Daily Record….I know….I know…….
Check out the Celtic Skiffle Bhoys from Airdrie………Hilarious video after we skelped the Huns…
Funniest video of 2015 so far….,
Google …..Celtic Skiffle
Interesting article paul67
If you take a step back and look at it from two views
1. Peter lawell. Great news the the PL pension fund More cash from sales mean max bonus and no need to fill seats with pesky fans
2. The fans. Means more chance that the best players will be sold with no investment
Tim bhoy
Our name is CELTIC
Not GLASGOW CELTIC.
Ya puddock .whatever that is
rudicantfail,
Agree with you there mi amigo.
definately an insignificant irrelevant piece of shite.
TIS
Your good lady would love Benicassim. Like T in the Park in 35 degrees heat by a beach, wi nae wee neds. Mainly European Hippies. Peace & Love Festival.
eddiegreenhillsbhoy,
Aye aye aye ,we are the Glasgow Celtic,
Wherever we go we fear no foe,
for we are the Glasgow Celtic.
Ach well ah suppose in your heid wur somethin else,especially when ye don’t even know whit a puddock is.
Ye sure you’re Scottish?
delaneys dunky
01:30 on 14 February, 2015
Paul McStay for me then a toss of a coin between Neil & Tommy Burns with Henrik a definite 4th…… Kenny D broke my heart but I was only 7, in 1977, Champagne Charlie is just sitting threre, still thinking, MacAvennie 88/89… He thought more of Jenny Bylth than us, Cadette, Di Canios, Van H and whoever else…..now that I am older and less wiser Scott Brown will do for me, and without going too mental Stuart Armstrong could be better than the lot of them
Ronny keep doing what you are doing !
Sydney Tim
3. Gives you more things to complain about.
;-)
In the football community I think Celtic and our fans are ‘different’…..I’m glad to be different….
It depends on what the perception of ‘different ‘ is as to where our future lies.
Please God let it not be in Scotland ……..we are the life sucked out of us there.
Delaneys Dunky,
Do you know Alco ?
Alec Mc culloch from Knightswood ,
Or his pal Terry Smith or his bruv Michael
all good Tims fae your side o the watter ?t
Timbhoy
Brother walfrid named our team celtic
Away ye go ya toad lol
Rudicanfail
Hail Hail
Rudiecantfail….
Imposter…..
Rudi is ruder than the rudest rude boy from Rudetown….
The Clash – Rudie Can’t Fail [Single] – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YVZt0LB4ZE
Gerry
What I love about Stuart Armstrong is his ambition. He told my nephew on leaving DU, that he was wanting to become a Celtic hero. That will do for me.
eddiegreenhillsbhoy,sing the song puddock if yae don’t know it I can send the words if you’re no sure o’ them.
I went tae St Mungo’s by the way.
A different take from Paul’s
Alex Massie: Scottish football is relegated
Celtic crowds have dwindled as fans have been less than gripped by the quality of football. Picture: SNS
Celtic crowds have dwindled as fans have been less than gripped by the quality of football. Picture: SNS
by ALEX MASSIE
Updated on the
13 February
2015
23:01
Published 13/02/2015 22:50
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2 comments
Have your say!
The vast sums being paid to English football clubs in new TV deals highlights the gulf that separates Scottish clubs from their neighbours, and betrays our lack of star quality, writes Alex Massie
THE north-south divide has never been starker. For once all the talk about Scotland and England being sharply different places has some merit. And the sorry truth is that Scotland has been left behind.
Size matters, you see. Size sells. The diverging paths of English and Scottish football can teach us something about capitalism and markets.
In England, the latest sale of television rights to broadcast Premiership football demonstrated the vigour and success of the free market; in Scotland the impoverished state of our national game – on and off the field – is a reminder that competition can fail too. What works in England does not work in Scotland.
When international television rights are added to the pot the new deal for English football is likely to be worth as much as £2.6 billion a year. It is a mind-warping sum. As a result of this deal, the 20th best side in England can expect to receive £100 million a year from the television companies. No wonder Burnley are now worth more than Ajax and other giants of the European game; no wonder the world’s plutocrats see English football clubs as an investment as well as a rich man’s toy. English football is being flooded by such a torrent of cash that some clubs might even struggle to spend their new-found riches.
Is this, as some suggest, a mad and obscene amount of money? Perhaps so. Could the English Premier League do more to reduce ticket prices and invest in grass-roots football facilities? Certainly. Is it also a thrilling confirmation of the power of the market? Undoubtedly.
Granted, Sky are paying more than £10m for every match it broadcasts and if this seems a steep bill for the privilege of televising Stoke City versus West Bromwich Albion it might also be thought a bargain price for broadcasting Manchester United versus Chelsea. But competition – on the field between clubs and off it between broadcasters – has raised the game in every sense since the days, as recent as the 1980s, when English football was condemned as a “slum game”.
Meanwhile, famished Scottish football can only imagine such a feast. The Scottish Premier League’s television contracts are worth less than a handful of English games. The league’s lack of a sponsor is indicative of a wider malaise.
It’s all about the product, you see. And the product depends upon the competition. Previous television deals were essentially sold on the basis of four Old Firm games a season with fixtures involving other clubs being little more than a means of filling television schedules. There is little desire in Scotland for live coverage of, say, St Johnstone versus St Mirren, and no desire at all for such coverage outside Scotland.
The figures do not lie. Motherwell versus Aberdeen, broadcast on Sky Sports 1 – that is, on pay-TVs flagship channel – attracted fewer than 100,000 viewers earlier this season. Other fixtures on less popular channels have been watched by less than half that number.
The Scottish league might seem more competitive this year but its eventual outcome does not remain in doubt. Almost everyone agrees that even an underwhelming Celtic will win another title. The remarkable thing about Scottish football is not that so few people watch it but that so many still do.
Healthy markets require competition. Judged by that standard, Scottish football has been sick for years. A duopoly might be marginally better than a monopoly but it’s still unhealthy. Within its own sphere, Rangers’ collapse was just as great – and as significant – as that of RBS. Like Fred Goodwin’s show, Rangers succumbed to hubristic folly.
Falling attendances tell their own story. It is nearly 30 years since someone other than Celtic or Rangers won the Scottish championship. Scottish football might “need” a revived Rangers but it needs much more than that alone. Who can truly be interested in a league in which the eventual result is known before a ball is kicked?
A gap between the haves and the have-nots in English football still exists but even the poorest members of the league can field a useful side for £100m. Even new entrants have a chance. Thanks to Sky and BT Sport, there has been a levelling-up in England.
By contrast, Scotland would need a levelling-down if something like an equal playing-field were to be created. American sport understands that, in the long-term, the strongest are weakened unless the weak are stronger. That is, it is in everyone’s interests that as many franchises as possible have a shot at success. The New York Yankees will always, thanks to their financial muscle, enjoy an advantage but smaller-market teams in places such as Milwaukee and Pittsburgh need to be more than mere cannon fodder if the league is to thrive and public interest be maintained. In the longer-run, everyone benefits.
Accordingly, US sport – run as a series of cartels – eschews the ruthlessness of European soccer. Revenue-sharing, scary caps and a player draft gives smaller-market teams at least the notional chance of competing with their larger, wealthier competitors. Scottish football probably needs something similar. Not just the pooling of meagre TV revenues but a wider redistribution of the sport’s income.
The days when the best Scottish clubs could challenge the top English teams are gone and never likely to return. But interest in the domestic game can still be revived if, that is, the product is made more appealing. That means the rich helping the poor and recognising that doing so is an act of enlightened self-interest. It means fostering – and regulating – a real sense of competition. If that were to happen, broadcasters might once again see Scottish football as an attractive investment. Which in turn would help raise standards.
Most markets, even free ones, are still usually regulated. But efficient markets offer something to all parties in a transaction. Judged on this basis, English football shows what the market can achieve even as Scottish football demonstrates what happens when markets are so lopsided consumers begin to appreciate that the game is rigged. The lessons of this, it should be obvious, go some way beyond the football field.
TIS
3 of my best pals. Still see Michael cleaning windies. We were all Kirkton Bhoys.
skyisalandfill
02:18 on 14 February, 2015
Can’t argue against most of that…….
Celtic have to radically rethink where we will be even 5 years from now…..
Delaneys Dunky, F*ck that’ brilliant mate, I love them all tae death.
Tell them ye were talkin tae big Brian.
Ran aboot wi them doon in England fur years,well Terry & Alco,( fu*kin hard man Alco.
A’hm still in touch wi him.
All good Bhoys.
Hail hail nDD.