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Will fans and brands kick off over football deal?

Posted in Media, Oliver Milman, Latest reporters' blogs November 6th, 2007 by Oliver Milman

In the saturated, cash-drenched world of football, even the record £264 million shelled out by Sky and BBC today for Football League coverage fails to raise an eyebrow. But is it a good deal for football fans and the brands that back the sport?

From a fan perspective, it will be nice to see live non-Premier League football on terrestrial TV for the first time in eons, although the BBC has been restricted to a measly 10 matches a season.

In the Sky era, which has given us 24-hour, live feeds of every player, their families and their orifices, this seems rather meagre. But it may bring back some of the anticipation and excitement that surrounded live TV games back in the days when they were rarer than a Rupert Murdoch interview.

ITV, which has been kicked off the highlights beat by the BBC’s bank-breaking deal, is thankfully relegated to non-football affairs. The broadcaster’s coverage has been so lamentably half-arsed of late that even the smugness of Gary Lineker over on the Beeb is preferable.

The poor sod who presents ITV’s Football League highlights probably has to present with  pyjamas under his suit, given that it takes place around the time the milkman’s alarm clock goes off. To further the viewer’s, and advertisers, depression, the highlights show is staged within a studio that compensates for its laughable cheapness by stuffing it full of eye-bulging neon.

To be fair, you can’t blame ITV for feeling morose. Until just three years ago, ITV had Premier League and Football League coverage firmly within its grasp. Des Lynam joshed merrily with the likes of Andy Townsend and Ally McCoist, as if the good days would never end.

Where are these people now? Trying to somehow eke out a living on the scraps thrown to them by ITV’s under-worked sports department. I fully expect to see an unshaven, wild-eyed Lynam to stagger onto the live studio set of ITV’s Formula 1 coverage, shouting incoherently about how he was once a housewives’ favourite.

All of this isn’t great news for Michael Grade, who not only has to frame his ‘brave new dawn’ within a company that has indulged in semi-fraudulent activity, but has now been stripped of the nation’s favourite game. Expect some frantic bidding for everything from boxing to badminton coverage in the near future.

And what of Coca-Cola? As sponsor of the Football League, the soft drinks giant will have looked upon the TV deal with interest. Although it will be pleased to be backing games that are now on live terrestrial TV, the branding opportunities will be far less on the ad-free BBC than ITV or Sky. This mixed bag may prompt the company to review its position as sponsor.

To read the news story related to this blog, go to mad.co.uk