@Ryan Streaming - my pet subject !Its a very complex situation which is based all around (unsurpisingly) money, fear and the international nature of the game.
I have done a massive amount of work on streaming as I may have bored you with before and was responsible for the idea and launch of the National Leagues platform which the EFL have largely copied.
Because the idea of streaming is relatively new - basically Covid saw the opportunity open up to clubs individually at all levels and clubs sold subscriptions to season ticket holders (who also still bought season tickets to help the clubs) .. clubs fell in love with the idea of being able to stream direct and hammered the governing body for the right to stream games - the governing bodies of course were in the middle of long term rights deals with TV Companies who didn't want it turning into the Wild West.
At the National League we got agreement from what was BT Sport and created something which the only restrictions were 3pm on a Saturday - an FA Rule which will probably go at some point means you still can't televise at that time other than in the international break, protecting crowd numbers is the principle behind it but from the due diligence I did in Rugby and other sport crowds actually grew with streaming.
Anyway the money part is that worldwide there is a race for "Content" with all of the new channels and the likes of DAZN, Apple TV, Amazon - they need content to populate their platforms and are throwing crazy money at it to secure rights - I am 100% convinced that in the next ten years some of these will disappear because the money is mad and some of the content football wise won't sustain them -
Anyway the point is this has the Premier League and EFL 1) Giddy with the money they can get and 2) Scared
Giddy because there are so many companies offering cash, scared because increasingly the clubs like the idea of owning their own rights... Liverpool for example could turn themselves into a broadcaster and guarantee millions of streams .. the difficulty for clubs would be the away team and away games ... anyway thats for the future but I can tell you the discussion at the National League was we could probably long term broadcast ourselves and especially when they lift the 3pm Saturday restrictions.
But for the Sunday 2pms thats all about satisfying international rights - the schedule yesterday on Canal Plus here in France was they streamed all 3 2pm games on different channels - pick your game , and then the main event for the was the City game on the 5.30 slot (4.30 UK) - when you talk to TV Companies (Sky included) they had a very set schedule they want to fill and get first pick plus agreements between each other not to compete - so the lunchtime and late afternoon slots on a Saturday, the early and afternoon kickoffs on a Sunday etc etc..
Anyway I'm rambling but maybe that explains a bit
