The EFL has announced a new broadcasting rights deal with Sky Sports worth £600 million which will run for five years from the start of the 2019/20 campaign.

The new deal - financially a 36 per cent year-on-year increase on the current agreement - will see Sky cover up to 183 matches a season - a 26 per cent increase - in the Championship, League One, League Two, the play-offs, the Carabao Cup and the Checkatrade Trophy.

Among the new developments will be Sky showing 16 Championship matches on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings each season.

The new arrangement will also see clubs offered the chance to live-stream games which aren’t being shown live by Sky via iFollow in the UK and Ireland as long as they don’t take place in the 2.45pm to 5.15pm blocked Saturday period. Sky will also stream those matches via their interactive and digital services.

EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey said: “Sky Sports has for many years been a hugely important and valued partner of the EFL and we are delighted to extend our relationship by a further five years.

“I would like to thank all those who submitted bids and we now look forward to working with the Sky Sports team as they cement their position as the broadcast home of live EFL matches.

“These negotiations came at what was an incredibly challenging period in the sale and acquisition of sports rights in the UK and, having fully tested the market, we believe that not only has a significant increase in value for our clubs been achieved, but also the very best deal, with the best partner has been delivered.

“In agreeing a deal over five seasons, it delivers a guaranteed increase in the level of income distributed to EFL clubs from 2019/20 and long-term financial certainty was an absolute priority throughout this process.

“It is a partnership that as well as having mutual tangible benefits, allows the EFL to maximise reach and exposure for its competitions, alongside providing further opportunities for clubs to generate additional incremental revenues through iFollow.

“The new opportunity for EFL clubs to live-stream their matches through a direct to consumer service in the UK is a revolutionary and exciting step forward for football broadcasting rights in the UK and we will monitor its progress closely to determine how this model can be considered for future EFL rights cycles.”"

"Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports, added: “This is great news for EFL fans and our viewers, with more live games than ever before and more opportunities for fans to watch their teams live.

“With a new dedicated football channel, newly-enhanced digital platforms, adding more games means Sky Sports is getting even better for football fans.

“Securing the EFL strengthens the Sky Sports service even further with the rights that matter most to our customers.

"“Viewing of live EFL games grew by 12 per cent year-on-year last season, and is up a further seven per cent so far this season. Fans value our live EFL coverage and we are delighted to be able to offer even more in the coming years.”

Photo: TWTD

BrettenhamBlue added 01:25 - Sep 13 What does this mean for the future of I-follow? Can't imagine it's great news for them. Even the QPR fans thought Bart was outstanding. Bizarre comments. They voted him MOTM, even thought he was better than Luongo. 8.8 Bartosz Bialkowski 3.0 Callum Connolly 7.8 Jordan Spence 3.6 Dominic Iorfa 5.0 Jonas Knudsen 4.6 Grant Ward 2.7 Cole Skuse 4.4 Flynn Downes 3.0 Martyn Waghorn 4.6 David McGoldrick 3.1 Joe Garner 6.1 Bersant Celina 4.6 Tom Adeyemi 3.6 Freddie Sears

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Norwichbeater added 10:02 - Sep 13 Correct guentchev. However regardless of saves made he let in 2 goals that most keepers would have saved.
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GiveusaWave added 10:18 - Sep 13 It's clear that hundreds if not thousands of Ipswich and QPR fans disagree with you Norwichbeater. QPR even gave him Man of the Match, unheard of for an opposition team to do that. I stand with Bart on this, I think he works his socks off for the team. If you are forced to work that hard, you are bound to make mistakes.
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thundercat600 added 11:04 - Sep 13 So there you have it, if you are not able to cough up hundreds of quid a year to subscribe to sky, tough. Typical, do the powers to be really care about the fans that cant get to live matches for whatever reason. After all why should there as there are plenty of people who don't mind giving nearly 40 quid a week to the football clubs to watch in some cases rubbish. If you paid that sort of money to watch a 3 hour show in London and it was rubbish people would give it a miss, so why don't the people do the same to football clubs

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Pessimistic added 18:59 - Sep 13 Well algarvefan i follow is a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, it is wonderful to see the Town live every week but they have staffing issues and that is why they could not stream any pre-season friendlies as they had promised when I subscribed. As other contributors have pointed out there is no commentary but you can get the Radio Suffolk commentary still if you open up in another window but they are not in sync with what is going on and that is why I knew that QPr had scored a second even before I watched it on screen! It has a lot of teething problems and is far from perfect and overpriced for what you get but I am hoping that in time they will smooth out the rough edges - which includes the pic freezing on a fairly regular basis unfortunately.

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Currie10 added 23:50 - Sep 13 On the surface - appears good. More $$$ for the lower leagues, extra games for people to watch at home, what's not to like? The reality = * Players will demand more $$$ * Agents.... * Clubs will get lower gates for televised games. * Bad for away fans with moved fixture times.
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Blue041273 added 16:05 - Sep 14 This is a terrible deal. The EFL have sold their soul to the devil. £600 million over 5 years equates to £120 m per year. This is to be split between 72 EFL clubs. Ok Championship clubs will get the lion's share but even if they were to get the lot it works out at as an average of £5m per year. Ok better than nothing but hardly competitive. Set that against the downsides and the EFL will be seen to have screwed EFL clubs and more importantly their supporters again.

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