June 3 – The English Football league (EFL) has reported a record level of subscribers to its iFollow streaming services that was launched in 2017.
Fans in the Championship, League 1 and League 2 can watch their teams via subscribing to their club’s channel which costs £140 for a season pass, £20 for a monthly pass or £7 per match. The services also offer audio only subscription services starting at about £45.
For the 2020/21 season the EFL is reporting 360,000 fans watched their team through the official club service, in 175 different countries (there is no geo-blocking of broadcast). Of those that watched, 160,000 of them were season ticket holders unable to take their seats physically while coronavirus had the country locked down and stadiums closed to spectators.
Across all 72 EFL Club streaming services, more than £42 million of revenue was generated.
The scale of iFollow is impressive, with 1,659 games made available over the season. The EFL said that most watched teams in the Championship were Norwich, Nottingham Forest and Luton Town were most watched. Ipswich, Portsmouth and Plymouth were the most watched in League 1, while Tranmere, Bolton and Bradford City were the most watched in League 2.
Looking at the split on how matches were viewed, the EFL reports that 600 minutes of live streams were watched on desktop, while 205 million minutes were watched on mobile devices and tablets.
EFL cash crisis
The £42 million from its streaming service is starting to become significant revenue for the EFL which in 2018 agreed a record £595m five-year TV deal with Sky Sports for its domestic TV rights – a 35% increase on the previous contract but which has seen the EFL have to agree a rebate with Sky over unfulfilled fixtures during the early part of the pandemic lockdown in 2020.
The deal allows Sky Sports to show 138 EFL games, every play-off match, 15 games in the EFL Cup and the semi-finals and final of the EFL Trophy.
At the end of April the ERL secured a £117.5 million loan from MetLife Investment Management to help the 24 clubs in the Championship survive the pandemic and meet their PAYE liabilities.
The Premier League has pledged U£15 million that will go towards set-up costs and interest, following on from its £50 million grant for League One and League Two clubs in December.
The trending increase in iFollow revenue is starting to look like it could become significant as clubs battle to stay afloat.
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