Sky Sports have secured a record TV deal for the 2024/25 campaign and it involves Derby County.
Derby are at the height of their popularity, certainly compared to previous years as the Rams suffered relegation and battled administration.
The Rams’ saviour David Clowes has injected fresh belief into the football club and having earned promotion back to the Championship this season, supporters are dreaming about the prospect of Premier League football in the future.
Paul Warne’s men achieved second position in League One and the Derby boss is now preparing for life in the second tier.
While he has 12 players contracts to resolve in the coming weeks and a pool of transfer targets to contact, the Rams have been hit with a boost off the pitch as the EFL’s record TV deal impacts Derby.
How the record TV deal impacts Derby County
EFL clubs have unanimously approved a record domestic rights deal with Sky over a five-year period with over 1000 matches to be broadcast each season.
It runs from the 2024/25 to 2028/29 season and the arrangement will be made up of guaranteed payments of £895 million and £40 million in marketing benefits, as per Sky Sports.
In total, 1,059 EFL matches are set to be broadcast across existing Sky Sports channels, with Derby set to be shown live on Sky at least 24 times across the season.
If the Rams remained in League One, the number of games shown on TV is slightly reduced, with third and fourth-tier clubs only guaranteed to be shown 20 times.
Unlike previously where the Championship was guaranteed to be broadcast just twice on a weekend, now 10 live EFL fixtures will be shown, which significantly boosts the competitions popularity.
EFL deal will impact match-going Derby supporters
The purpose of this deal is to attract more overseas viewers and maximise the EFL’s potential for the brand.
While that is great for the businesses and clubs involved, it isn’t good news for match-going supporters, who will likely be impacted by kick-off times.
It’s a well-known fact that Sky doesn’t have any contempt for the match-going fans when selecting certain kick-off times, such as long trips on a midweek or Sunday afternoon.
The likelihood of this happening more frequently is highly likely as Sky looks to pencil in more fixtures than ever.
Many also believe that broadcasting more matches on TV will decrease the number of fans attending matches in person, which can negatively impact the club differently.