CELTIC have opted out of an SPFL contract granting subscription channel Premier Sports the rights to 20 live games from the Scottish Premiership.
And the move has put paid to any prospect of the top of the table clash against Aberdeen at Parkhead a week on Saturday being shown live on television.
Sky Sports secured the rights to 60 live games per season from Scotland’s top flight until 2029.
Limited to five visits per season to each ground, Sky have already been to Parkhead twice and selected their upcoming fixtures in early September — before Aberdeen’s 13-game winning run gathered pace.
Celtic have opted out of the SPFL’s TV deal to allow Premier Sports to show 20 matches
Premier Sports will show 20 SPFL Premiership matches this season – but none from Celtic Park
An agreement to sell a secondary package to Premier gave the Irish broadcaster the right to show a maximum of two additional games from any Premiership stadium. And raised hopes of more showpiece fixtures in the SPFL being shown live.
Offered £75,000 for every additional home game — and a maximum payment of £150,000 for two — Celtic were reluctant to inconvenience season-ticket holders and home fans travelling from further afield by shifting more 3pm Saturday kick-offs to a later time. Last night the club declined to comment.
As part of their agreed deal until 2029, Sky retained first option of two further bundles of 10 SPFL games at a cost of £4million apiece from this season. When Sky declined to take up the option they were thrown open to the market. And while the deal with Premier falls well short of the figures agreed with Sky, eleven of the 12 clubs voted to take the cash in any case, league sources citing a desire to grow the audience and beam more live games, such as the Dundee and Edinburgh derbies, than last season.
Celtic’s decision marks the second time that one of the biggest clubs has turned their back on a collective commercial agreement, a long running dispute between the SPFL, Rangers and Park’s Motor Group over a title sponsorship finally resolved last year after an apology and the payment of compensation to the Ibrox club.
The impact of later kick-off times for live broadcast fixtures was witnessed when Premier Sports carried coverage of Rangers’ 2-0 win over St Johnstone at Ibrox on Sunday night, with the 44,744 attendance around 7,000 short of capacity.
Pushed back to accommodate the Great Scottish Run earlier in the day, the Glasgow Underground system closed for the night at 6pm. Supporters also struggled to find public transport links late on a Sunday night.
Keen to strike a balance between broadcasting more live games and preserving the highest per capita attendance figures in Europe, league chief executive Neil Doncaster described the Premier deal as ‘tremendous news for SPFL clubs and supporters alike’.
‘Up to 80 Premiership matches will be broadcast live next season across Sky Sports and Premier Sports. This will be the highest number of live matches ever broadcast from the Scottish Premiership,’ he added.
Talks between broadcasters and Viaplay over live coverage of Scotland’s Nations League double header against Croatia and Portugal, meanwhile, rumble on.
The Scandinavian subscription channel currently hold the rights to broadcast all international qualifiers involving Steve Clarke’s team until 2028.
Despite pulling out of the UK market last year, however, negotiations to sub-licence the rights to the upcoming double header with Premier Sports, BBC Scotland and ITV have so far failed to reach an agreement.