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View Full Version : Television Income - Could we live without it?



Carheenlea
04-10-2011, 09:31 PM
Someone with greater knowledge of our financial situation will hopefully be able to say how much income we receive from SKY/ESPN, but I have been wondering how realistic it would be to suggest that the cash we receive in return for having attractive fixtures moved to duff KO times for the benefit of television could actually be made up by increased attendances if there was to be no live coverage of Scottish Football, with 3pm Saturday Kick-offs, and limited highlights only?

Now I`ve no idea how much money is involved, but it probably is not that great. Would we be any worse off without SKY/ESPN? Crowds are always way down when games are on TV, so would it be reasonable to suggest that we could see a marked increase in walk-ups, Season Ticket sales and travelling fans if we the only way to watch Hibs was in the flesh on Saturday afternoons? Could that offset TV money? Obviously the Old Firm, who are the only teams that the TV really wants anyway, could show all their derbys, but I`d like to think the rest of us would be just as well off, or near enough it without the help of SKY/ESPN. Unless of course we get offered a bumper package next time the contracts up for negotiation, which would probably be unlikely.

Am I miles off the mark or could this be feasable?

Albion Hibs
04-10-2011, 09:58 PM
I am sure I worked this out before. The pot is split in an unfair way i.e. to the top two, given where we finished last year we wont have even recieved £1m. On that basis could we sell 2500 extra season tickets per year to make up for the loss, I would think so. On that basis we could dictate that all games are saturday 3pm kick offs which would not only assist in achieving the 2500 extra sales but possible help exceed it.

I am not too sure how it would affect what sponsors pay, but surely there is a balance between what people see on TV and actually seeing advertising at the game. In addition the club would benefit from additional revenue from kiosk sales and behind the goals, even match programmes. The major down fall will be the certainty of income and when it is paid. Not too sure how that works.

I think this season more than any we have seen the effect of TV on attendances. Granted performancs will have had something to do with it, but it is certainly something we could afford to live without, could other clubs, perhaps not. I would think the likes of Dunfermline, Killie, St J, Dundee Utd would all struggle to get 2500 punters to a game and the old firm are pretty much sold out anyway and they get a far greater sum so I think others would oppose it.

When you think about sky chucking the spl teams not even £1m and the EPL team probably get that 10's of times over I would be willing to tell them to shove it. Lets be honest if we had to go back to them it is not like they could make the sums any less.

scoopyboy
04-10-2011, 10:07 PM
I am sure I worked this out before. The pot is split in an unfair way i.e. to the top two, given where we finished last year we wont have even recieved £1m. On that basis could we sell 2500 extra season tickets per year to make up for the loss, I would think so. On that basis we could dictate that all games are saturday 3pm kick offs which would not only assist in achieving the 2500 extra sales but possible help exceed it.

I am not too sure how it would affect what sponsors pay, but surely there is a balance between what people see on TV and actually seeing advertising at the game. In addition the club would benefit from additional revenue from kiosk sales and behind the goals, even match programmes. The major down fall will be the certainty of income and when it is paid. Not too sure how that works.

I think this season more than any we have seen the effect of TV on attendances. Granted performancs will have had something to do with it, but it is certainly something we could afford to live without, could other clubs, perhaps not. I would think the likes of Dunfermline, Killie, St J, Dundee Utd would all struggle to get 2500 punters to a game and the old firm are pretty much sold out anyway and they get a far greater sum so I think others would oppose it.

When you think about sky chucking the spl teams not even £1m and the EPL team probably get that 10's of times over I would be willing to tell them to shove it. Lets be honest if we had to go back to them it is not like they could make the sums any less.

I would agree with this.

The game is going down the plughole with all this mucking about with kick off times.

Every weekend game would be Saturday at 3pm and if you wanted to see a derby then you would have to get off your butt and go to it. Atmosphere would be much better and just might get 20,000 crowds for Cat A matches.

The Tubs
04-10-2011, 11:19 PM
It would just mean that players would have to receive less. If there continued to be the wage gap between Scottish and English clubs, the better players would leave Scotland even sooner.

Hibs existed for over one-hundred years without tv money.

Heedersnvolleys
05-10-2011, 07:02 AM
You have to remember it us not just TV money you loose. What about all the sponsorship money lost
as because you are not on the telly?

hibsbollah
05-10-2011, 07:17 AM
For clubs like Hibs, the largest proportion of our income by far comes from attendances. TV money is small beer by comparison (sub 1million is a figure i remember). We will be financially stable by ensuring the maximum number of people keep coming through the turnstiles. This should be the boards priority, and hopefully it is.

The main thing of course isnt the TV money itself, its the conditions that are attached. Unfortunately, our representatives bent over backwards in this respect, so we get a relative pittance and do whatever were told re-fixtures as a result.

greenginger
05-10-2011, 07:33 AM
A fair deal from the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation for a Saturday night highlights package something similar to what they pay for the English Chamionship coverage would be a start.
No more crazy K O times or live games to decimate attendances and football might become enjoyable again.
Does anyone have a clue as to how much our National broadcaster pays "English" football compared to the buttons that's paid to the Scottish game ?

Caversham Green
05-10-2011, 07:37 AM
Hibs don't publish the TV income separately, but Aberdeen's 2010 accounts showed just over £1m for a ninth place finish while Hearts showed £1.5m for their sixth place, although that was probably boosted by their European tie with Dinamo Zagreb. I did a rough calculation that suggested that total TV income excluding Euro ties was about £18m and Hibs in fourth place would have got about £1.5m of that. That's about 20% of total turnover.

I don't know how reliable these calculations are but they do seem to tie in with what I've read here and elsewhere.

Hainan Hibs
05-10-2011, 07:54 AM
There would be an argument that less money means less "quality", but personally if no tv money meant teams relied on youth instead of League 1 reject donkeys I'd be all for it.

greenginger
05-10-2011, 08:07 AM
Hibs don't publish the TV income separately, but Aberdeen's 2010 accounts showed just over £1m for a ninth place finish while Hearts showed £1.5m for their sixth place, although that was probably boosted by their European tie with Dinamo Zagreb. I did a rough calculation that suggested that total TV income excluding Euro ties was about £18m and Hibs in fourth place would have got about £1.5m of that. That's about 20% of total turnover.

I don't know how reliable these calculations are but they do seem to tie in with what I've read here and elsewhere.


Is there no info on how much the BBC puts into OUR game ie our License Fee money ?

smurf
05-10-2011, 08:19 AM
It amazes me the tv companies want to show the product.... armchair fans say to me all the time 'Can't believe you pay good money to watch that....'.

Caversham Green
05-10-2011, 08:22 AM
Is there no info on how much the BBC puts into OUR game ie our License Fee money ?

I haven't found anything - the £18m is total broadcasting income, so will include the BBC's contribution. It strikes me as minimal based on what people like Doncaster have said though.

Golden Bear
05-10-2011, 08:28 AM
Hibs don't publish the TV income separately, but Aberdeen's 2010 accounts showed just over £1m for a ninth place finish while Hearts showed £1.5m for their sixth place, although that was probably boosted by their European tie with Dinamo Zagreb. I did a rough calculation that suggested that total TV income excluding Euro ties was about £18m and Hibs in fourth place would have got about £1.5m of that. That's about 20% of total turnover.

I don't know how reliable these calculations are but they do seem to tie in with what I've read here and elsewhere.

So roughly that would equate to the Club having to sell between 3,500 and 4000 extra season tickets. That's a tall order these days especially when the quality on the park is so poor at present.

Stevie Reid
05-10-2011, 08:44 AM
When I was at the final fans forum at ER in 2003, the club stated that it was their goal to have the club run entirely on gate receipts, with any tv money a bonus. The minimum attendance required at the time for us to break even was 11,000 per home game, and this is what lead to the Stand Up and Be Counted campaign to keep us at ER.

Andy74
05-10-2011, 08:45 AM
Its not as if just Hibs would lose it. All our competitors would also lode put, some of them more considerably. it would all even out and it would be a more realistic level. I don't see the problem and it would force people along of they wanted to see football.

JimBHibees
05-10-2011, 09:07 AM
Personally would like to see it happening but cant really see it as Sky will always want to show the OF game. As has been stated though it isnt just the tv money it is the increased advertising and also assuming increased hospitality. It would also affect strip sponsorship as I would imagine that firms would be wanting to pay less iof their product wasnt getting as much tv time.

The way to go IMO is no live games, an SPL highlights programme which knocks MOTD off the Saturday night slot and much more Saturday 3pm kick offs.

hibsbollah
05-10-2011, 09:13 AM
So roughly that would equate to the Club having to sell between 3,500 and 4000 extra season tickets. That's a tall order these days especially when the quality on the park is so poor at present.

Not a tall order at all. Not with a capacity like ours. We were averaging 12k, 13k against st mirren, motherwell, dunfermline etc in Mowbrays time. You would make up a £1million TV shortfall in half a season with an extra 5000 through the gate each week.

Kaiser1962
05-10-2011, 09:55 AM
Not a tall order at all. Not with a capacity like ours. We were averaging 12k, 13k against st mirren, motherwell, dunfermline etc in Mowbrays time. You would make up a £1million TV shortfall in half a season with an extra 5000 through the gate each week.

Historically it is for Hibs to increase and sustain that increase in attendances. We are better positioned than most to manage without TV money but I think the lack of exposure would only further diminish and marginalise our game here.

Golden Bear
05-10-2011, 10:28 AM
Not a tall order at all. Not with a capacity like ours. We were averaging 12k, 13k against st mirren, motherwell, dunfermline etc in Mowbrays time. You would make up a £1million TV shortfall in half a season with an extra 5000 through the gate each week.

Times have changed since the halcyon days under Tony Mowbray.

For a start we've had a recession and not so many punters have the cash to spend on leisure activities that they once had. Secondly the product on the park is undoubtedly inferior and sadly I just can't see an avalanche of fans returning to ER.

Beefster
05-10-2011, 10:30 AM
I am sure I worked this out before. The pot is split in an unfair way i.e. to the top two, given where we finished last year we wont have even recieved £1m. On that basis could we sell 2500 extra season tickets per year to make up for the loss, I would think so. On that basis we could dictate that all games are saturday 3pm kick offs which would not only assist in achieving the 2500 extra sales but possible help exceed it.

£1m is about 14% of the club's current turnover. An amount not to be sniffed at.

I'm fairly sure that the average price paid for an ST is less than £200 so it would probably need closer to 5000 extra STs to be sold.

Franck is God
05-10-2011, 11:41 AM
I've always thought that if the OF were to bugger off and leave us with a 10 team league or even expanded league to 16 then we would have the most competetive league in Europe when realistically every team in the division would have a chance of winning it if they are able to put a good team together. That kind of competition would bring the fans along every week and eventually the TV companies would want in on the act too.

The biggest turn off to Scottish football is the predictability, it doesn't bother me too much but I grew up without the distraction of the internet, sky, xbox etc so I was already hooked by the time I had a choice of things to do on a Saturday afternoon or Wednesday night. Whether I'd be hooked so easily now as a ten year old I'm not so sure.

While to OF are in Scotland we need the money, if they were gone I think the majority of teams would manage better than you might think.

patlowe
05-10-2011, 11:55 AM
I would love to see a time when the non-OF teams were not embarrassingly held over a barrel by the TV companies and the Old Firm. Let's completely reboot Scottish football:

Scrap the current setup of 12
Scrap the split
Scrap the ridiculous 11-1 voting system
Scrap the TV deal which hampers crowds and only serves to make the rich richer
Scrap giving a toss about a coefficient that only helps to make the OF bigger and less respectful of their peers


Now obviously this is pie in the sky stuff but it's high time we forgot about TV money/European football etc and concentrated solely on creating an entertaining, youthful, competitive league AT OUR NATURAL LEVEL. Be brave, go back to square one and develop Scottish football in a way which is sensible and sustainable. I'm willing to accept a few years of pain over decades of gradual, desperate decline.

DC_Hibs
05-10-2011, 12:04 PM
Every single game in top two German leagues is televised live yet it doesnt seem to affect attendances.

A few potential reasons:
Ticket prices are cheaper
Matchday is a better spectacle so most would prefer to attend than watch on TV
Kick off times aren't all early afternoon
The Gerries are too tight to splash out extra for Sky TV to stay in and watch it
Weather is better (clutching at straws!!) - winter break for 5-6 weeks when its absolutely baltic here

So maybe there's a few other things to address before doing away with live games (and income for clubs already struggling)

allezsauzee
05-10-2011, 12:05 PM
Crowds are going down because Scottish football is awful at the moment not because some of the games are on tv. If Scottish football isn't on the tv, armchair fans will watch English football rather than go to a Scottish game. No TV money will mean less revenue to pay players which will result in us being less able to pay the decent ones and they will then go to other countries to ply their trade. If anything we should be looking to do something more radical to make our product more appealing to TV companies. For example moving our season to the summer. We would not be completing with English football during the summer months for viewers and the game might actually improve if it's not being played on pitches that are like ploughed fields.

3pm
05-10-2011, 12:10 PM
I'd start every game @ 3 then put the 'Match of the Day' on a delayed transmission similar to what SKY do with Match choice. Score can be withheld and replay the match @ 5.30 or something. Failing that, you can always put Rangers and Celtic on a delayed programme and let the masses watch it and we all still get a wee bit money.

Albion Hibs
05-10-2011, 12:11 PM
Every single game in top two German leagues is televised live yet it doesnt seem to affect attendances.

A few potential reasons:
Ticket prices are cheaper
Matchday is a better spectacle so most would prefer to attend than watch on TV
Kick off times aren't all early afternoon
The Gerries are too tight to splash out extra for Sky TV to stay in and watch it
Weather is better (clutching at straws!!) - winter break for 5-6 weeks when its absolutely baltic here

So maybe there's a few other things to address before doing away with live games (and income for clubs already struggling)

I agree with some of that, but the population of the home town of most clubs is also far bigger than here, out with Glasgow we are the biggest, and as a nation they are far more into their football and supporting than we are.

hibsbollah
05-10-2011, 12:37 PM
Times have changed since the halcyon days under Tony Mowbray.

For a start we've had a recession and not so many punters have the cash to spend on leisure activities that they once had. Secondly the product on the park is undoubtedly inferior and sadly I just can't see an avalanche of fans returning to ER.

I agree with you about the economic situation...the reality of the next 5 years being fairly grim for most people is still getting through to folk.

We're not going to make a fortune from merchandising, sponsorship or TV rights in the current climate...Which is exactly why imaginative boardroom policies designed to increase footfall is the only answer. It wwont be easy but its better than the alternative.

Kaiser1962
05-10-2011, 12:46 PM
I agree with you about the economic situation...the reality of the next 5 years being fairly grim for most people is still getting through to folk.

We're not going to make a fortune from merchandising, sponsorship or TV rights in the current climate...Which is exactly why imaginative boardroom policies designed to increase footfall is the only answer. It wwont be easy but its better than the alternative.


To get a sense of perspective on this, and the magnitude of the task in hand, 20k season tickets sold @ £400 would bring in £8m in revenue with little scope to increase this through the season as you would have already sold out your stadium.

The lowest income from broadcasting in the EPL season before last was £38m.

HiBremian
05-10-2011, 12:50 PM
Every single game in top two German leagues is televised live yet it doesnt seem to affect attendances.

A few potential reasons:
Ticket prices are cheaper
Matchday is a better spectacle so most would prefer to attend than watch on TV
Kick off times aren't all early afternoon
The Gerries are too tight to splash out extra for Sky TV to stay in and watch it
Weather is better (clutching at straws!!) - winter break for 5-6 weeks when its absolutely baltic here

So maybe there's a few other things to address before doing away with live games (and income for clubs already struggling)

AFAIK there are only a few games on live TV in Germany. The big TV coup in recent years was the 1st Programme (public Telly) getting their "Match of the Day" type slot back at 6pm on Saturday. It makes matchday, with KO at 3.30pm a whole experience - boozer at lunchtime, live match (with booze served at your seat:greengrin), and all the other matches straight afterwards on the telly. I guess we've got the BBC Alba match, but as greenginger says, if the BBC pulled their fingers out and brought back full match highlights on Saturday evenings, we'd have a nice Sky-free package there.


I agree with some of that, but the population of the home town of most clubs is also far bigger than here, out with Glasgow we are the biggest, and as a nation they are far more into their football and supporting than we are.

Wasn't there a recent post that showed that Scotland had the highest % of population in Europe attending matches?

Keith_M
05-10-2011, 12:54 PM
Every single game in top two German leagues is televised live yet it doesnt seem to affect attendances.

.....

So maybe there's a few other things to address before doing away with live games (and income for clubs already struggling)


Population of Germany: 80M

Population of Scotland: 5M


Not exactly a fair comparison.

TheEastTerrace
05-10-2011, 01:09 PM
This is a non starter I'm afraid. The SPL clubs are not going to look at scenario where they would lose a guarateed income generator for their business by taking the risk of trying to raise the level of income from sources where demand can fluctuate heavily i.e. ticket sales. No business in a recession would do this.

They are not stupid, they know the SPL product is pap. TV is not the sole cause of falling attendances in this country. The quality of football, the increasing ticket costs, the falling disposable incomes, alternative leisure persuits, easy access to European leagues of higher quality, etc, etc.

This is not my argument, it's the bare faced reality guys. TV is king.

lEXO
05-10-2011, 01:22 PM
I would love us to be in the position to tell sky and espn to shove it. Our clubs are not thinking of the fans, they are chasing and grabbing money.
The kick off times are rotten for our live games, First game of the season 12.15 against Celtic, 3.45 for a derby on a sunday, 12.15 for the new year derby.
The only people scoring out of this are the people who dont go to games and dont invest in the club. Aye the cost is high and who is going to pay £28 for a game they can watch in the pub for nowt but their beer money? And why are they still charging £28 when it is obvious that most home fans wont pay it?
Those of us who buy season tickets arent getting much benefit from the tv deal, our big games are moved to early kick offs and sundays.
We need to get back to saturdays at 3pm encourage people with good ticket deals and start looking out for supporters.Dont hold out much hope though.

Stevie Reid
05-10-2011, 01:31 PM
Ten years ago I had a job with a company who had been employed by Hibs to contact lapsed ST holders and find out why they had stopped going, with the ultimate aim of offering incentivised tickets to try and entice supporters back. Without a shadow of a doubt, the clearest and most common message from those who had stopped going was that the OF had to go, and the league had to be competitive - until that day, they wouldn't come back.

Although crowds did increase significantly under Mowbray and Collins, I'd imagine that the last ten years of OF dominance has done little to change the views of those who still have yet to return.

DC_Hibs
05-10-2011, 01:43 PM
Population of Germany: 80M

Population of Scotland: 5M


Not exactly a fair comparison.

I'm talking about the mentality of those who chose not to go to a game as its live on TV and the reasoning behind that.
Population doesnt come into as its been pointed out before that Scotland's crowds per head of population are good.

hibsbollah
05-10-2011, 02:57 PM
To get a sense of perspective on this, and the magnitude of the task in hand, 20k season tickets sold @ £400 would bring in £8m in revenue with little scope to increase this through the season as you would have already sold out your stadium.

The lowest income from broadcasting in the EPL season before last was £38m.

You've chucked some numbers in there that dont really relate to each other or the question at hand. £38million would be relevant if we were in the EPL. But we're not so it isn't.

Kaiser1962
05-10-2011, 03:34 PM
You've chucked some numbers in there that dont really relate to each other or the question at hand. £38million would be relevant if we were in the EPL. But we're not so it isn't.


But we are in competition with them as potential employers. If we are to improve the team we have to increase the quality of the individual we employ.

I was pointing out that if we were to completely sell out our stadium, in the absence of broadcasting revenue, our income would remain pretty similar to what it is just now so, in reality, what has this changed?

hibsbollah
05-10-2011, 04:07 PM
But we are in competition with them as potential employers. If we are to improve the team we have to increase the quality of the individual we employ. I was pointing out that if we were to completely sell out our stadium, in the absence of broadcasting revenue, our income would remain pretty similar to what it is just now so, in reality, what has this changed?Seriously, you think we're in competition with Blackburn, Everton and Spurs for players? I dont know how to respond to that :greengrinAnd the maths, although based on a few assumptions, are fairly clear; an increase in average attendances of 4000, assuming a mix of walk ups and season tickets and some concessions over (say) 24 league and cup games over the course of a season equals an extra income of between £1.5 and £2million, depending on a few variables.You wouldnt have to sell out a 21,000 capacity stadium to make up the TV shortfall. Just make it a bit less echo-ey :flag:

Hibbyradge
05-10-2011, 04:25 PM
Without the TV we would have a fraction of the income we currently toil to get by with.

As well as providing the SPL with millions every year, the TV exposure also attracts the majority of a club's sponsorship.

The Clydesdale Bank pay around £2m a year. That would go or at least be vastly reduced.

Short sponsors would be hard to find and they wouldn't pay a fraction of what they do now.

Same applies to trackside advertising etc etc etc.

Less money = less quality.

Less quality = smaller attendances = less money and so on.

heidtheba
05-10-2011, 04:30 PM
I'll chuck my tuppence worth in here.
I've always thought that SPL clubs dont do anything to get people through the doors. I honestly cant think of anything done by Hibs (or the 'big' team for that matter) which actually targets new people to come through the door. I'd love to know how much effort, and actually how successful, a campaign would be to get people who havent been to a football match to come to ER and watch one.
It seems as if football is something you either like or hate, and if you like it you already support a team and, like many religions, you might not necessarily have had any choice in the team you end up supporting.
My wife is from New Zealand and I've gone with her to see the All Blacks play Scotland - all the time far more excited about seeing the ABs than my own lot. There was a sense of spectacle in that match that I rarely got at a football one, and I much prefer watching football to rugby.
I'm really struggling to think of reasons to give someone who has never been to an SPL match to turn up for one...and sadly there are a few 'downers'
1 - Rangers/Celtic - over an hour of abuse from them is a virtual guarantee and then there's that mob from the PBS
2 - We won't necessarily win
3 - No real sense of spectacle
4 - You get in to see the game and generally thats it - one match, one score, like it or lump it. There wasn't really a support programme at any of the matches I went to.
5 - it costs a lot and when I went that was the main thing you did on a Saturday, one of your days off. That must be a hard one for families.

There's also not much of a real 'i did it cos i was there' type of thing. I imagine you get non football types visiting Barcelona and deciding to go and see a match at the Nou Camp just because it is almost a tourist attraction in its own right...don't think you'd get that at ER (although I liked the Festival Cup idea at first) and I'd be interested to know how many casual and neutral types would wander up to a Old Firm game.

I'm interested in what ideas people would have to persuade nonfootball fans to give an SPL match a try...

Kaiser1962
05-10-2011, 05:08 PM
Seriously, you think we're in competition with Blackburn, Everton and Spurs for players? I dont know how to respond to that :greengrinAnd the maths, although based on a few assumptions, are fairly clear; an increase in average attendances of 4000, assuming a mix of walk ups and season tickets and some concessions over (say) 24 league and cup games over the course of a season equals an extra income of between £1.5 and £2million, depending on a few variables.You wouldnt have to sell out a 21,000 capacity stadium to make up the TV shortfall. Just make it a bit less echo-ey

I dont. We're not even close but for only one reason. Broadcasting income. Ok maybe not Everton or Spurs but certainly Wigan, Stoke, Blackburn, Birmingham, Wolves, Bolton and the like.

When we got relegated 97-98 our average attendance was just over 12k and that rose to over 14k with Mowbray which represented an increase of less that 2.5k over seven seasons. Even at that we couldnt afford the players we had on the wages they were on. Attendance figures for Hibs go up and down but the increases are not dramatic enough to nullify the loss of other income. I would suspect that Hibs income last season will be less than it was 10 years ago.

ancient hibee
05-10-2011, 05:37 PM
The SPL will be looking again at running their own TV channel -the aim will be to increase the present £13m approx a season from SKY and ESPN to £20m-a big ask.

WhileTheChief..
05-10-2011, 06:28 PM
Kick the TV deals into touch and move all games to Sat at 3pm.

Clubs can then broadcast games from their stadium online and charge whatever they want for folk to watch, ideally close to ticket prices. If we are charging £28 for a ticket, charge £20 for online viewing! Pubs have to pay a small fortune on a game by basis.

This way, fans have the choice of paying at the game or paying at home if they ever want to watch a live game. So if Hibs are playing Rangers in a match that could decide the title just think of all the extra cash we could bring in, not just 3500 paying customers, but loads from all over the country. Money directly to Hibs.

Imagine when Hearts visit ER, we'd get the 3500 punters at the gate and 396500 paying to watch online!!

Same would apply to any of the smaller clubs, they would take in much more cash than just the paying punter at the gate. Old firm fans would probably be happy too cause they'd have their away games at 3pm on a Saturday rather than practically all their away games on Sundays.

Armchair fans could then happily moan on messageboards safe in the knowledge that they have at least contributed financially to the club!

Oh, and secure Boozy on a long term contract doing the commentary and we would soon be able to compete with wages the old firm are paying!

Horse
05-10-2011, 06:30 PM
Someone with greater knowledge of our financial situation will hopefully be able to say how much income we receive from SKY/ESPN, but I have been wondering how realistic it would be to suggest that the cash we receive in return for having attractive fixtures moved to duff KO times for the benefit of television could actually be made up by increased attendances if there was to be no live coverage of Scottish Football, with 3pm Saturday Kick-offs, and limited highlights only?

Now I`ve no idea how much money is involved, but it probably is not that great. Would we be any worse off without SKY/ESPN? Crowds are always way down when games are on TV, so would it be reasonable to suggest that we could see a marked increase in walk-ups, Season Ticket sales and travelling fans if we the only way to watch Hibs was in the flesh on Saturday afternoons? Could that offset TV money? Obviously the Old Firm, who are the only teams that the TV really wants anyway, could show all their derbys, but I`d like to think the rest of us would be just as well off, or near enough it without the help of SKY/ESPN. Unless of course we get offered a bumper package next time the contracts up for negotiation, which would probably be unlikely.

Am I miles off the mark or could this be feasable?

I have thought about this myself but it's not just as simple as TV money V Extra gate money when games are not shown on T.V. You also have to consider things like sponsorship - Shirt sponsors won't pay as much if they are not going to get the publicity from live SKY games. It's a bit of a catch 22, what we'd gain from additional income from increased gates may well be cancelled out and more from loss of tv money and sponsorship.

I'd love things to go back to 3pm kick offs and highlights on TV but it won't happen until the revenue generated from TV coverage is so low that the clubs have nothing to lose from refusing live TV deals.