Celtic are helping set new heights in the TV viewing figures landscape this season after it was revealed that a record amount of people tuned into the recent clash between Neil Lennon’s side and Rangers, The Scottish Sun report.
Over 1.4m people tuned into the derby match on Sky Sports, a record amount for a league game in the modern era. The number includes those watching on TV, legally online via Sky Go and other subscription services that offer Sky coverage.
The paper states that football fans in over 120 countries were also able to watch the match live or in highlights.
The good news doesn’t end there either, with Head of Football at Sky Sports Gary Hughes divulging that compared to the last two seasons in Scottish football, viewing figures have soared on their channels.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, he said: “Sky Sports is delighted that over 1.4m viewers watched one of world football’s greatest rivalries between Celtic and Rangers.
“Viewing of the SPFL has risen 8 per cent on last season, and 47 per cent on the 2017/18 campaign, showing the appetite our customers have for Scottish football.”
Great news for value of Scottish football
For me, the game here is massively undervalued compared to some other leagues around Europe and anything that helps its reputation is a winner.
Although the Scottish Premiership is only about to embark on a new long-term TV deal, the fact that numbers are rising is great news as it will only make the product more valuable to broadcasters and ultimately some of that cash is fed back to Celtic.
When negotiations come back around, if the SPFL can demonstrate that Scottish football is viable TV entertainment with real value then hopefully clubs in this country can start to earn more.
If channels in other countries also see bigger TV audiences in the UK it could convince them to pay more attention.
Sponsors are obviously likely to take notice too.
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