I’ve made a decision.
I’m going to cancel Sky Sports.
And I’m going to tell them why.
Firstly, because I can think of better things to spend forty seven quid a month on.
Secondly, because the money isn’t going to Celtic. Or even to Scottish football.
And finally, because on the occasions that I can get to the game, they’ve moved the kick off time around so they can fit the English games in.
Thats the English Premiership. The one that just got £5 billion from sky, which in turn has forced them to put the prices up,
Which is why Southampton, Norwich and Swansea could offer better contracts to Celtic’s best players.
Which is also why the other clubs in Scotland cannot compete with second tier English clubs when it comes to wages.
Celtic are a big club. But we are not a novelty act for a television station.
I don’t want the occasional nod of the head to our special atmosphere.
I’m sick of the “how would they get on in England with a support like that ?”,
You know something ? They know exactly what would happen if a “support like that ” was in the Premiership.
It would tip the balance of power.
It would destroy the status quo.
And its’s something that won’t happen because turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.
With Sky money, and a worldwide support, the balance of power would shift north.
They don’t want that.
But they will keep taking our money.
And giving it to someone else. Swansea. Southampton, Norwich.
So, you would think they would offer suitable recompense.
Er, no.
Celtic get around £1m a year.
The rest get sweetie money.
They take a little short of fifty quid a month from our bank accounts, cleverly disguised as part of a package, where we can also watch the same film at the same time every night of the week.
I pay for Sky because I can’t make every game.
So do you.
And almost every penny goes to the English clubs who take away our players every time we think we are building a team capable of competing in Europe. Instead of a squad of players hungry for success, and its consequent rewards, we end up with players who believe the rewards are purely financial.
Scottish football is very much the poor relation of its bigger , more lucrative neighbor , and we are contributing to it.
It’s time to put a stop to it.
It’s time for every single supporter of Scottish football to cancel their subscription, because out of that forty seven pounds a month, most of it is financing the move of your favourite player away from your club.
Worse than that, its paying Neil McCanns wage.
Don’t put it off.
Cancel Sky, and stop paying towards the death of Scottish football.
Enough is enough.
I cancelled my Sky sports last year, for those reasons!!
Not to appear too smug, but I was determined never to subscribe to that ghastly organisation – for exactly those same reasons!
Two words:
Rupert. Murdoch.
Need I say more?
I was listening to a radio phonein, and one of the callers said that the BBC give the English FA £400 million a year for the privilege of showing highlights on a Saturday and Sunday evening. I don’t think Scottish football get 1/100th (£4 million) of that money; it certainly isn’t a 1/10th (£40 million). It not just SKY that is killing off Scottish football, it’s the BBC too…
I was paying £77 a month, had the lot. I cancelled last month after they announced the new deal and told the lass on the phone that I was cancelling because I believed their new deal was obscene.
She didn’t even try to talk me out of it bless her. Any proper fan in this country would do the same. Sky dont give a shit for us otherwise there would be a good package on the table for Scotland too instead of taking our money and giving it to the grotesquely over paid twats down south.
told my children Sky’s going at the end of the month.
I don’t do sky…. I do Celtic TV.
Granted here in Scotland we don’t get the games live but I can watch them after midnight or when is convenient.
It’s a pity they could figure out a system where if you buy a season ticket they could stream a live feed to your house if you can’t make a game, you could alert them in advance to your not making it so they could resell your seat. I could live with a faint code over the middle of the screen so they could know if your marketing your stream and ban you.
Here’s hoping, one day…
Good call.
I actually sent an e:mail to Celtic a few years ago suggesting this exact same thing. I’ll have to check to see if I’ve still got the response but basically I was told no.
If you have a celtic tv subscription you can pay for a vpn( about £50 a year) set your IP address as outside of uk and you can watch celtic tv live in UK. Bobs your uncle no need for Sky and EVERY celtic game live.
It’s time for Scottish football fans to organise a boycott of Sky.
Good call ralph. You’ve prompted me ( and hopefully many others) to follow suit, thank you!
I cancelled sky way back in 2002 or thereabouts when they first left Scottish game & never been back & never will.
I cancelled my subscription after the last deal, not been back!
Just thinking, should cancel BT sports too for same reason and redirect a tenner to Celtic tv. I already subscribe to Celtic tv and while you don’t get the games till after midnight it’s far better to hear commentary from Tom Boyd than it is to hear McCann, bitter and twisted, etc
Rather then take out a months sky, go to one home game a month have a pie and a few pints, still got change for the bus.
Hail hail
I have been saying this for two years now if every scottish football fan said no to sky sports it would hit them hard in the pocket. They would take notice.
i have never taken a subscription as the distribution is a nonsense and they (SKY) are a monopoly. When are people going to realise that there is a knock on effect for EVERYONE as Sky make their money through advertising, therefore to finance the EPL deal, advertising costs more. Ergo the increase in advertising placement is passed on to the consumer of all products. SKY are having an influence on inflation. I can watch almost any game either online or at the pub with friends.
Would get it on for Champions League games,but not anymore, enough is enough, in our case not enough(money).
Great post and certainly hits the spot.
That’s how a always want to avoid English teams in Europe and all off the battle of Britain stuff sky finance them to the tune off about 100 million to our 1 million
It is time to get a petition going to get this raised in parliament. The Sky deal is systematically destroying football north of the border and it is time something was done!!
Can anyone come up with why they got a 80% increase in there deal they would have jumped at the same deal as the last one
I posted a very legitimate reply about 20 mins ago. Why is this not posted?
First one goes to moderators. Then we ask for your pin number, account number and mothers maiden name. no real reason. honest.
Couldn’t agree more. Been advocating exactly that for years.
Furthermore in this day and age of high speed Internet, Scottish football clubs should not allow sky, bbc, itv, stv or any company to televise their games.
They create their own in house small independent filming companies to record and and provide a delayed stream the game on the Internet, charging fans to view it.
Each viewer should be able to log in as a fan of their club and their fee (or a large portion of it) made payable direcly to their club, thus allowing clubs to directly recieve financial support from their own fans.
While their will no doubt be folks with lots of smart reasons why this can not work I’m certain where there’s a will there’ll be a way.
Just imagine how much money the non attending away fans could pay into their club every 2nd Saturday for starters without going into the thousands of supporters that simply can not nake to either a home ir away game.
e, g. 12, 000 plus Aberdeen fans paying a fiver per game, pumping £60, 000 into their club per fortnight, £1.2million a year into their club.
Not to mention 50, 000 celtic fans doing the same and providing and extra £5million.
Like I said, folks will pick holes and poke fun but when fans understand that their £5 is going straight into our coffers and not some tv company’s then they’ll see it as investment and worthwhile.
The tv company’s can always bid for rights to show highlights or the full game if they wish.
I know celtic tv have this available for overseas but not for the UK.
Oh and if anyone has any influence /connections regarding this please urge celtic tv to make it available on Android, I’ve been waiting years to subscribe.
Sorry about the rant…I just want to see my money going to celtic and also get to see more games than at present
I have Celtic TV on Android. Replays are fine but live games dont stream. But if you download photon (for free) and open the website with that, you just click on the lightning icon and you get the commentary or video for those games that are shown live in the UK.
They show the e p l on the station and give them billions to put a show on then put our game on and give us penny’s then ask us to put a show on . Then tell us that was a bad game might have to look at the contracts again
organised boycott needed i think. I havent had sky from the 90s and wouldnt take it for free.
Not IT savvy enough but could someone set up a way of registering when you cancel the Sky package so that you can see the numbers dropping out. Celtic Fans first then campaign for others to follow. I am going to sign up for Celtic T.V.
I have Sky Sports, BT Sports all movies, docs and whatever else tripe they have on that subscription channel for £100 per year and Zionist apologist Murdoch doesn’t get a single penny from me.
Card sharing lads / Skybox f5 / Dreambox / VU SOLO
Don’t have sky, but I do have celtic tv, can watch most games live in the uk via celtic tv just have to use a workaround.
Another point that seems to get overlooked is that domestically we must be just about the most televised team shown on Sky and BT.
Every away league game , along with at least four home games and most of our cup games if away from home.
Maybe only the top four EPL teams come close, deidco not far behind too.
Going to swim against the tide here.
SKY is absolutely the wrong place to be venting our frustrations. The SPFL who negotiate this pitiful deal are really the ones to blame. Yes, SKY pay under the odds for our game, but is that their fault? They’d have to be idiots to pay any more than they have to.
I’m with Virgin Media
And every other month I get a special so called offer to add Sky Sports to my package! I in my own polite manner Tell them To Fuck Off
CELTIC FOREVER. HAIL HAIL
Fans TV (Scottish clubs in charge of world-wide Scottish football TV rights) was championed, and failed, in Scotland, largely being pushed (originally with Celtic PLC support) by Rod Petrie of Hibs.
The financial collapse of the huns was a game-changer, around October 2011 when Doncaster knew, but didn’t tell, the truth.
A ‘new’, unnecessary ‘deal’ was struck with Sky.
All done, to try to save an extinct club from extinction.
Fuck them. They failed.
Celtic directors were involved in this attempted scam, and since, to their eternal shame still are. PL and ER are two, but, surely, it is no secret at CP.
My view : Get them all TF and do a Barcelona, where it’s an official social club and decisions are taken democratically across the full membership of around 150,000 people.
Word-wide we’d have 10 times that plus.
I got Sky many, many years ago, for my son.
I later binned it as I knew, from the start, it was a money-spinner, robbing the poor to pay the rich. I’ve never relented on my action of binning it
Where TF is Robin Hood when you need him ?
I had Setanta until it went bust.
My only option now is to cleverly manipulate my Computers and watch live streaming free. Thank you Sky and fuck you too.
I like Short and Curlys suggestion. I would be much happier paying Celtic Directly.
I have not had a subscription channel since Setanta went bust. At the time the papers were all about what a tragedy for the clubs, no word about the fans who got ripped off.
I will sign up for Celtic TV.
Summer football is the only way the Scottish game will survive. With an attractive tv package to go along with it.
Don’t let doncaster or reagean near the negotiations.
The only way Sky will listen is due to loss of revenue. I cancelled my Sky tv, broadband and phone contract last November. Mostly for the reasons stated above and I let them know why. I was not prepared to pay £105 per month to be fobbed off with 2nd Best.
The Scottish game have merrily gone into the abyss over the years chasing pennies. They would be better off with free to air tv and starting to build up th esupport.
Sky don’t give a stuff about Scottish football. All they need is the revenue from Scottish subscribers to fund their flagship English Premier League coverage.
I now live in Engalnd and cam only make maybe 6 games a season but have watched the growing trend of wearing English club fitba tops. Brought about by the fact that their fitba is on the telly all the time whist Scottish fitba cant even get a decent slot on the BBS for a decent highlights package. I cancelled Sky after the deal.
We really need to get fans of other clubs on side too.
Been saying for about 10 years scottish football should go back to 3pm on Saturday and tell sky, bt and bbc where to go. Problem is, scottish people are subjugated to thevenglish in more than just football and think its s grey league and keep talking about how bad our league is. Cancelled sky once the season finished last year because it was £47 to them and £43 to bt but they gave me sports for free. Sky phoned and offered it half price and £100 credit do ended up free for six months. As soon as it goes back to full price it’s getting cancelled again.
I only have it for celtic games and scottish football. I always watch the scottish game ahead of the crap the epl serves up.
Lawwel has finally said what I’ve been saying for a decade, about going back to 3pm. Problem is, the other clubs will happily drop their drawers and bend over for s few extra pennies from Sky.
I know that this is a feed for the Celtic minded but as a life long rangers supporter l couldn’t agree more –sky is a virus which is destroying Scottish football and reducing the football to dross –the attempts made to “save ” rangers were incomprehensible to me and only encouraged an endless line of barrow boys milking everybody
I’m hoping this is one topic when everyone can put aside club differences and see the benefits of binning SKY.
SKY take an absolute fortune from Scottish subscribers and give a pittance back in return. All they care about is promoting the EPL around the globe and the Champions League. With the CL gone, my only reason for SKY Sports, I will also be cancelling as I very rarely watch the EPL.
If Scottish football could do a crazy thing and come together for once, clubs, football bodies and most importantly the supporters, every team could benefit.
Go back to Saturday 3pm kick offs with the highlights package sold to BBC and / or STV and watch the crowds increase and / or create our own subscription football channel and do it ourselves. The Dutch have done this and doubled their money.
There’s many options available other than getting the toal pish ripped out of us by SKY.
I don’t have sky, never had.
I do however watch on Android apps, that are free, it makes me smile everytime that Murdoch and the EPL are not getting a penny.
The real money for Sky comes from the selling of TV rights globally. We need the SFA to understand the brand we have and get the value it deserves.
HH
What is the alternatives?
Unless you have a very good broadband service there is none unfortunately
Do what i do then, watch a free stream!
I got rid of sky late last year. Don’t miss it one bit. Load of rubbish.
Fuck Them
HH
I have had 4 calls from the Sky customer service department in as many months asking why I left and if they could tempt me back. They tried to point out that I was missing some good football etc and th erep was unimpressed when I said that if I wanted to see it I could stream it from an online site. He tried to tell me it was illegal etc and I hung up
Done Sky cancelled fuck em, fuck em all.
Bravo
HH
Never had SKY never will.
I moved to BT Broadband in January as my old provider was shite and was paying £40 a month for my Phone and Internet.
Moved to BT for under £30 a month and get BT Sports and ESPN for free.
BT by the way have just secured the rights to next years CL Games so this was also a bonus.
If I had to pay for BT Sport I would simply not have bothered and went for another supplier elsewhere.
I did consider going with CTV but I simply don’t have the cash to do both any more.
I would urge ALL FANS of Scottish Football to fuck SKY off.
Whilst our own FA have undersold our product SKY have never given a fuck about promoting our game or Investing any real significant amount of cash to help it grow.
Sure they wanted THE O/F Games but the rest? get real.
And that is just not right.
How can they justify handing Teams £74m for abject failure in their beloved Premierhype whilst offering our entire game up the road a 10th of that is beyond a fucking joke.
Scottish Subscriptions of SKY make up for roughly 10% of their business yet the TV Deal we recieved was less than the Rugby League package in England.
Seriously folks If you are thinking of doing this then don’t go with a clear conscience and do the right thing here because if you don’t they will continue to undervalue and under fund our game.
Cancel tonight and tell them why.
Good article. Also cancelled for the same reasons. Rather put my money directly into CFC.