EFL and Sky Sports decision that impacts Birmingham City, Cardiff and QPR

Birmingham City supporters based in the United Kingdom and abroad face major changes to how they can follow and support their club next season.

The EFL announced earlier this year a new five-year broadcasting deal with Sky Sports which will be worth £895m. Birmingham are fighting for their lives at the minute to avoid relegation to League One, and there’s a lot to think about.

Blues are currently being bankrolled by Knighthead with Tom Wagner and Tom Brady fronting things. Sponsorship deals such as the renaming of the stadium has taken place most recently and another way of revenue is TV deals.

Fans are the heartbeat of their clubs, and next season they face changes as to how they can support their club. Here we explain what’s to come.

What's going to change for Birmingham City?

The biggest change is how many games will be streamed and that will mean major changes to the scheduling of fixtures. Sky Sports have delivered a promise of broadcasting 10 EFL games a week with five being the Championship and the other being League One and League Two.

As to how these fixtures will be scheduled is still yet to be decided. Sky Sports and BT Sport agreed on a £6.7bn deal to show the Premier League for four more years, and so the top-flight of English football will take priority.

Currently, Championship games are shown on Friday night’s, Saturday afternoon and Sunday lunch time. Midweek fixtures are shown, as well as Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and games over the Easter period. As the race for promotion and the battle to avoid the drop heats up, there were some games over Easter played at 8.00 pm on a Monday.

Sky Sports say they will show all of the opening day fixtures of the EFL, and that means that the usual kick off time at 3.00 pm on a Saturday won’t be how Birmingham and their 23 rivals start their 2024/25 campaign.

Around 56% of EFL fixtures will be shown over the course of next season which is around 13% on the current deal. To put it bluntly, there will be a lot of changes to how fixtures are scheduled. Sky Sports and the EFL have pledged however to provide earlier notice for fixtures. The broadcaster will also guarantee a 'fair share' of TV games across the division so it isn't the same team every week.

How will Birmingham City benefit?

According to our friends at the Sunderland Echo, the EFL pays out around £8.5m to clubs in the second tier over the course of the campaign. £5.2m of it is made up of solidarity payments and £3.2m is a basic award payment. The basic award payment will increase as a result of the new deal which will be 46% more lucrative to Birmingham and their rivals should they stay up.

For each game that is chosen to be broadcast on Sky Sports, a facility fee will be received. The overall look of the Championship product will be improved with a minimum of four cameras used for every broadcast.

What does this mean for streaming platforms?

Supporters outside of the United Kingdom will be able to watch games on Blues TV/iFollow. Fans in the UK can still purchase audio passes should they wish to listen to commentary but watching games on anything other than Sky Sports will be a thing of the past.