#AgainstModernFootball - UEFA's television blackout on Champions League nights
Over 20,000 fans will pack a sold out Easter Road tonight for one of the most eagerly anticipated fixtures of the Scottish football season so far. Hibernian host Edinburgh rivals Hearts, but only those at the game will be able to actually watch it. It clashes with tonight’s Champions League matches and so UEFA have decided that nobody must watch anything else but their own competitions tonight. Hibs v Hearts falls victim to the blackout.
The Spanish Liga fixture between Valencia and Real Madrid would have suffered the same fate had it not been scheduled for 5.45pm. Showing the match so early that it will clash with Pointless is the only way they have been able to get around the blackout. Any earlier and it would clash with Homes Under The Hammer.
But no such solution has been found for fans of Hibs and Hearts. Instead, they will have to listen on the radio, a medium which can make even the most insipid goalless draw sound like an epic for the ages, or watch on a grainy Periscope stream. Modern technology can only go so far, though… usually only as far as the halfway line, with any play beyond that almost indecipherable on a Periscope stream.
UEFA are only one step away from refusing the use of non-Champions League club names when Champions League gams are being played. Radio reporters at Easter Road tonight are close to having to refer to Hibs and Hearts as ‘Edinburgh Greens’ and ‘Edinburgh Maroons,’ like they are commentating on a game of Pro Evo.
Of course, UEFA aren’t the only footballing authority to impose a television blackout. The Premier League, The FA and the Football League impose a television blackout every weekend, between the hours of 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturdays. It means that while the rest of the world tunes in at that time to watch action from The Best League In The World, we have to make do with watching former players banter with each other while complaining about the influx of foreign managers. Paul Merson still wants to know why Gary Rowett didn’t get the Hull City job.
These bodies are supposed to be the gatekeepers of the sport, yet when it comes to broadcast rights they are dictators. UEFA in particular are guilty of moulding football for its own gain rather than for the good of the game, with the television blackout of matches played at the same time as Champions League matches only preserving UEFA’s revenue streams.
Blackouts are outdated concepts that exist only as a relic of a bygone age. Their implementation demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the way broadcasting works in the age of social media. Viewing figures are declining for the first time in a generation as younger fans watch football through the prism of moments rather than matches in full. That’s why you have watched so many goals as Vines.
Besides UEFA pretty much imposed a blackout on the Champions League by handing exclusive rights to BT Sport anyway. Tuesday night’s last 16 clash between Manchester City and Monaco was one of the best matches played in the competition for years, being on BT Sport it likely drew lower viewing figures than whatever was on Channel 5 at the same time. The sight of empty seats at the Etihad was the perfect metaphor for who was watching the game at home.
Fundamentally, the argument behind UEFA’s blackout regulations doesn’t line up. Are they really saying that their coverage of the Champions League would be deprived of viewers if the Edinburgh derby between Hibs and Hearts was permitted to be broadcast tonight?
There is a disconnect between the purpose of UEFA’s blackout and the blackout English football imposes every Saturday. The FA says that by blocking broadcasts of high-profile matches at certain times they are preserving the number of eyes on lesser matches, yet UEFA do the complete opposite by making the Champions League the only show in town. Certainly the only show on TV.
