Blues CEO Mark Ashton says he’s up for a debate on whether the EFL should scrap UEFA Article 48, which prevents the broadcast of matches kicking off at 3pm on a Saturday.
Article 48 of the UEFA Statutes, which dates from the 1960s, allows countries to block out periods of two-and-a-half hours during which time games cannot be screened live, in England’s case 2.45pm to 5.15pm on a Saturday.
The rule was relaxed during Covid with fans unable to get to games and it’s been reported that the EFL is considering dropping it completely as part of their next TV deal.
Ashton says he’s currently undecided on the matter but would be in favour of the issue being discussed.
"I would be fully behind the debate, and it is a debate,” he considered. "It’s a really interesting question. I think part of it is that I get torn. I’ve been in this game a long time and I am a traditionalist but I also see the need to adapt and change, and we want new revenue streams and we want to broaden the audience.
"I love three o’clock on a Saturday, for me I’m all about that, I love that. But I think there’s a commercial debate.
"There were a lot of negatives in Covid but there were positives in Covid. I think the nervousness pre-Covid was the concern that if we stream games, fans weren’t going to turn up.
"I think coming out of Covid when we continued to stream games, if you look at Ipswich Town, if you market your club correctly and you build your club correctly, we have grown tickets and we’ve grown iFollow subscriptions at the same time, so I’m less worried about fans falling away when we stream games than I was then.
"I think the other thing we have to look at is, and I don’t see this, people tell me this all the time, but if you really want to find Ipswich Town’s game on a Saturday at three o’clock there are enough moody feeds around the world that you can go and chase down and find it somewhere, which is frustrating, using a VPN etc.
"So I think we’re at the point where we need the debate. We mustn’t lose the magic that is our game, I really believe that. We have something special in England, in Britain about our game of football.
"The family of football, the pyramid of football, three o’clock on a Saturday is magical and I wouldn’t want us to lose that.”
Meanwhile, the Blues are in the final year of their iFollow contract with the club set to introduce its new Town TV service in the summer, Ashton having previously set-up Robins TV during his time at Bristol City.
"I think it’s interesting because when I’m in the States I get to watch iFollow, it’s the only time I’m not at the games, so I don’t get to see it,” Ashton said.
"Town TV’s really important to a club like this because we do have a large overseas following and that’s their view to the club.
"This also means that we have the ability to put our own app in, we’re taking control of the website, we’re taking control of Town TV and, be under no illusion, I’m sure there will be glitches on the way through as we build this, but I want us to build it internally.
"We’re looking at the camera feeds, he’s looking at how it’s going to be presented, we’ve got a meeting tomorrow morning [last Friday] to go through all the IT and integration, it’s a big investment for us. But I do think it’s important.
"I’m fairly comfortable that one, there will be a show that leads into it, and two, we can improve the camera positions at Portman Road.
"I think if you’re in the Championship, those camera positions if you’re going away to Middlesbrough etc, you know they’re going to be good, probably most of them are on four-camera feeds from IMG already, so it’s going to be good.
"If we’re in this division, we’re somewhat still governed at an away game by their feed, but we’ve got to go on this journey.
"[Director of media & communications] Marcus [Nash] is leading on it, the tech team’s in tomorrow, we’ve got a preferred technology partner to come in and work with us and we’ve got to be up and running because we’ll be out of iFollow by the start of the season.”