OTT Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 47 minutes ago, IveSeenTheLight said: I thought the reason reconstruction was inconceivable was that there was a split between permanent and temporary options, meaning neither garnered sufficient support to promote forward. No. Budge cited the primary bone of contention being around a lack of clarity around the impact reconstruction would have on the current TV deal. As this could have been solved with a phone call from Doncaster to his contact at Sky. I'm perplexed and annoyed at why this wasn't done. The split between permanent and temporary is ridiculous. I suspect some sort of compromise could have been made i.e 14-14-14 becomes permanent but we temporarily institue 14-14-16 to prevent the H/Lland league clubs missing out. Permanent with assurances from Sky on the deal would have saw most if not all clubs back it and would have saw it go to a vote. 14 teams is in everyones interest. - Hearts obviously dodge expulsion - Longer term this should secure more stability for Yo-yo clubs like Hamilton, St Mirren, Ross County etc. - More clubs in the league means more chance for young talent to get top flight game time. - Finances stay the same as split is based on 1-42, rather than 1-12. 1-10 etc. 13th and 14th would be taking the same prize money they currently already get (from 1st and 2nd in the championship). - Depending on how we split the league 7/7 OR 6/8 bottom 8 teams would get an extra game or two meaning they make up a fair bit of losing on the 4th round of games against the bigger clubs. There is no argument against a 14 league top flight except, yourselves and Hibs wanting rid of us for competition reasons which is ethically bankrupt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ribble Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 41 minutes ago, 3fingersreid said: Delighted to say I’ve never subscribed knowingly to anything that is or was owned by that parasite and union hating ******* Murdoch. If I did have something connected to him it was cancelled sharpish . Obviously it’s not just football in certain packages people have, but I’d be interested to see if there was a reaction to a sudden cancellation of subscribers , especially if when asked why , the reason was given from a Hearts point of view , even more so if it was the same answer given each time . Murdoch hasn't been involved in Sky for more than 2 years, Sky was bought by Comcast (who also own NBC Universal) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IveSeenTheLight Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 5 minutes ago, OTT said: The split between permanent and temporary is ridiculous. I suspect some sort of compromise could have been made i.e 14-14-14 becomes permanent but we temporarily institue 14-14-16 to prevent the H/Lland league clubs missing out. Permanent with assurances from Sky on the deal would have saw most if not all clubs back it and would have saw it go to a vote. 14 teams is in everyones interest. Was there sufficient support for a 14 team league permanently? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OTT Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 2 minutes ago, IveSeenTheLight said: Was there sufficient support for a 14 team league permanently? Its unclear because as I said the Sky issue meant clubs were unwilling to even consider it due to the uncertainty. If Doncaster would do his ****ing job and ask Sky we might get an answer to it. For the reasons I outlined there is no reason not to vote it through. No one loses out with it and actually, it helps more teams than just Hearts in the long term. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3fingersreid Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 29 minutes ago, Ribble said: Murdoch hasn't been involved in Sky for more than 2 years, Sky was bought by Comcast (who also own NBC Universal) Yeah I know . I just despise the guy for what he did to the print unions at Wapping (aided by thatcher 😡😡) Id hazard a guess that somewhere in the shareholding his fingers , or a family members fingers will still have a grasp of some shares . Id be interested in seeing what a mass cancellation did do though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoked-Glass Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 6 hours ago, soonbe110 said: It’s amazing how opinions differ. I stopped my BT because of Craigan, Stewart and Sutton. Correct. Sky pisses all over BT in terms of overall product. I hate Darrell currie Would rather have Andy walker and that's saying something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David McCaig Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 2 minutes ago, Smoked-Glass said: Correct. Sky pisses all over BT in terms of overall product. I hate Darrell currie Would rather have Andy walker and that's saying something. Personally, I think Darrell Currie is a superb presenter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoked-Glass Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 1 minute ago, David McCaig said: Personally, I think Darrell Currie is a superb presenter Each to their own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoked-Glass Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 14 hours ago, JJ93 said: To be fair to Sky Sports Soccer Sunday (why is it called Soccer?), Jeff Sterling is a great guy and always speaks fondly and knowledgeably about Hearts. That program is on sky sports NEWS and also standard sky one. Many people don't need to pay for those channels as they are usually included if you have basic sky or virgin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ribble Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 1 hour ago, 3fingersreid said: Yeah I know . I just despise the guy for what he did to the print unions at Wapping (aided by thatcher 😡😡) Id hazard a guess that somewhere in the shareholding his fingers , or a family members fingers will still have a grasp of some shares . Id be interested in seeing what a mass cancellation did do though 100% of the shares that the Murdoch family held have been sold to Comcast, it was a complete takeover to the extent that Sky is no longer listed on the stock exchange, even then in the 5 years I was at sky while he was still the majority shareholder I didn't see a single bit of his influence as their attentions had very much turned to Fox. What would you consider mass cancellation? Sky have 6m+ Sports Subscribers split across all the sports and those that pay for it for football, think how many clubs supporters it's split across. Realistically how many of them do you think are hearts fans? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3fingersreid Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 7 minutes ago, Ribble said: 100% of the shares that the Murdoch family held have been sold to Comcast, it was a complete takeover to the extent that Sky is no longer listed on the stock exchange, even then in the 5 years I was at sky while he was still the majority shareholder I didn't see a single bit of his influence as their attentions had very much turned to Fox. What would you consider mass cancellation? Sky have 6m+ Sports Subscribers split across all the sports and those that pay for it for football, think how many clubs supporters it's split across. Realistically how many of them do you think are hearts fans? I’m sure there must be a couple of thousand sky subscribers to sky that are Hearts fans ? Now in the grand scale of things that’s not a huge number but surely if that amount suddenly stopped ( and gave a uniformed answer) would someone not have to look at it ? pleas note my anger at sky/ murdoch is not at employees , just that shyster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ribble Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 1 minute ago, 3fingersreid said: I’m sure there must be a couple of thousand sky subscribers to sky that are Hearts fans ? Now in the grand scale of things that’s not a huge number but surely if that amount suddenly stopped ( and gave a uniformed answer) would someone not have to look at it ? pleas note my anger at sky/ murdoch is not at employees , just that shyster In the grand scale it's not even going to register as a blip i'm afraid, Sky loses subscribers to the tune of 100k+ every month, it's then offset by new customers that are more than that so each month Sky has more customers than the last. on the second point, no worries, id got that from your post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3fingersreid Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 13 minutes ago, Ribble said: In the grand scale it's not even going to register as a blip i'm afraid, Sky loses subscribers to the tune of 100k+ every month, it's then offset by new customers that are more than that so each month Sky has more customers than the last. on the second point, no worries, id got that from your post 100K a month 😱 I genuinely didn’t even think about that number , in which case , file my idea under “ dinnae bother” 😀 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoked-Glass Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 19 minutes ago, Ribble said: In the grand scale it's not even going to register as a blip i'm afraid, Sky loses subscribers to the tune of 100k+ every month, it's then offset by new customers that are more than that so each month Sky has more customers than the last. on the second point, no worries, id got that from your post as I said above, it's the whole product that subscribers want. The TV station has very little to do with Hearts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ93 Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 2 hours ago, Smoked-Glass said: That program is on sky sports NEWS and also standard sky one. Many people don't need to pay for those channels as they are usually included if you have basic sky or virgin. Oh yeah that's true. I think historically this was different and only changed in the last couple o' years? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoked-Glass Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 21 minutes ago, JJ93 said: Oh yeah that's true. I think historically this was different and only changed in the last couple o' years? No. It's been on sky sports news since about 2002. Sky one cud be a new thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyCant Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 Sky don’t really give a toss whether they cover Scottish football or not. They want it for 2 reasons. 1. To take it off their competitor BT and 2. To increase and retain Scottish subscribers. the biggest ever pay TV audience for an SPFL game is a recent OF derby which had 1.4 million viewers. A bog standard Super Sunday game gets way more than that and a top 4 game gets between 3 and 4 million. The Edinburgh derby usually less than 100,000 viewers. one recent derby was 58,000 viewers. These are UK figures. Only an OF game means anything to them. The rest are meaningless screentime fillers that they only take to get the OF derbies. They would barely raise an eyebrow if Scottish football died tomorrow and they are definitely not going to pay for it willy nilly if it’s not being played. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoked-Glass Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 2 hours ago, JimmyCant said: Sky don’t really give a toss whether they cover Scottish football or not. They want it for 2 reasons. 1. To take it off their competitor BT and 2. To increase and retain Scottish subscribers. the biggest ever pay TV audience for an SPFL game is a recent OF derby which had 1.4 million viewers. A bog standard Super Sunday game gets way more than that and a top 4 game gets between 3 and 4 million. The Edinburgh derby usually less than 100,000 viewers. one recent derby was 58,000 viewers. These are UK figures. Only an OF game means anything to them. The rest are meaningless screentime fillers that they only take to get the OF derbies. They would barely raise an eyebrow if Scottish football died tomorrow and they are definitely not going to pay for it willy nilly if it’s not being played. Sad but that's true. But that's consitant with the size of Scotland compared to England. Just look at the populations of the two countries. When you subscribe to Sky you get the lot. Go back to 2004 - 2007 format when SETANTA were only showing Scottish football. You would have had to pay twice for sky + setanta. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Canada Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 I highly doubt they'll get their four OF games next season and I can't see any games being played behind closed doors either due to the costs and lack of gate money. They can't just let two teams start the league and leave the rest in limbo. It's unbelievable that the SPFL don't seem to have communicated with SKY about reconstruction. It would be good to base decisions on facts, regardless of whether the outcome helped us or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schillaci Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 Going back to the OP statement: If I were in charge of Sky, I would buy the SPFL and run it like the American football system or F1 as a franchise system. I'd fund the clubs sufficiently well that they would all be able to compete, knowing that the OF would retain advantage over the rest, by dint of the other income but not so far ahead that others could not win. As it was in the 80's. £35-50M a year each for the top league, based upon league position. This would raise the standard of football, incentivise all clubs and leave the OF within reach. This would put real CL money within the grasp of the top 4 clubs each year. Two divisions of 14 team. The rest run by the SFA as grass roots. What could go wrong? And way cheaper that the EPF and Championship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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