As part of their ambitious aspirations to increase the amount of coverage of the English Football League, Sky Sports, the league’s primary broadcaster, has announced the creation of a new channel, Sky Sports+.
Sky Sports paid the EFL £935 million this year to broadcast their games over five years, plus an additional £40 million in marketing benefits. As a result, there will be significant adjustments to the times and methods of game viewing in the near future.
Customers will be able to watch live feeds through a mobile app and a new channel devoted to the introduction of the Sky Sports+ platform. Best of all, for those who already subscribe to Sky Sports, there is currently no additional cost.
With four times as many EFL matches this year and a guarantee that all 72 teams will be featured more than 20 times, fans can expect to enjoy almost 50% more live sport. Sky Sports Plus is able to broadcast up to 100 events at once.
In August, the app will launch in anticipation of the 2024–2025 season. Every League One, League Two, and Championship team will have their games broadcast more than 1,000 times a season, with at least 24 times for the former. It will take the place of iFollow, a streaming service that most EFL clubs used when the COVID-19 outbreak prevented fans from attending games.
On Saturday, August 10, Birmingham City will kick off their 2024–2025 League One campaign.If West Brom does not advance through the play-offs, they will begin play on the same day.
“We are making a commitment to every club in the EFL and this is a huge step-change for League One and Two,” pledged Jonathan Licht, managing director of Sky Sports.Twenty of the 48 clubs in those divisions were not even covered live once this season.
However, we will also reveal in July every game that we will be live-streaming through the first week of January.
To provide fans with the most notice possible, the start of November will see an extension to the beginning of March.
The blackout rule—which has been in place since the 1960s—will not apply to any of the Championship, League One, or League Two opening games. It is feasible because it only takes effect when 50% of the Premier League and Championship games begin; however, the English football premier league doesn’t begin until one week later.
Ten games in each of the three categories will take place each weekend as part of the new agreement. Six of those will be available on the Sky Sports Plus App, where two games from each of League One and League Two will air at 12.30 p.m. on Saturdays in addition to three Championship games.
Easter, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day bank holidays will all include live coverage of midweek games and championship matchups. Birmingham’s fixtures in League One the next season, along with the Carabao Cup and Bristol Street Motors Trophy games, will be televised if they happen to be played during the international break.
The 2024–25 season’s fixture release date has been confirmed by the EFL as Wednesday, June 26 at 9.00 am.
