SKY TV Game Listings (Fulham H now Sun 4th Oct)

Anyway, here's a couple of my e-mails to Sky and their bullshit response.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Can you explain to me why Leeds Utd are being shown live four times in August, when five other championship clubs are not scheduled to be shown at all?

One of the ostracised five being my club, Charlton Athletic, as usual; who, despite being just outside the thirty best supported clubs in the country and finishing reasonably well have been on a total of about five times in four years. Now I appreciate that little old Charlton might not be much of a draw, but you can always show our games against teams that are – e.g. Derby, Leeds, Forest. But you choose not to, showing, for example our game against Ipswich last year, and then probably using the unsurprising low audience figure as a reason to ignore us again…

Of course this apparent bias also helps swell Leeds coffers with their facility fee as well as the extra advertising revenue they can gain from shirt sponsorship and ground boards, most unfair.

I wouldn’t mind if they were good to watch or riding high, but last season you showed them 9 times (including the Capital 1 cup), even their own fans admitted their football was poor and they even finished below us!

I can understand why their game at Donny is a good one to cover, likewise the derby with that “massive” club from Sheffield, but I am not buying that their game against Burnley is any more of interest to the public at large than Charlton v QPR…

Please take this as a complaint about your scheduling, and I look forward to hearing your opinion on the subject.

Best Regards

Perry



Dear Perry

Thank for your email about Sky's coverage of Leeds United.
I can assure you that programmes planners affiliation with any club does not come into question when fixtures are arranged for live coverage on Sky Sports.
We try to be fair when making our television selections. Usually we achieve this at the end of almost every season, with the team at the top of their respective league having most appearances and the teams at the bottom having fewest.
We always welcome customers’ comments and actively encourage viewers’ feedback which, again, has been passed to Sky Sports for their information.
Thank you for taking time to contact Sky.
Kind Regards
Marion
Viewer Relations



Dear Marion,

Thank you for taking the time to write back to me.

The problem is that the reply given simply does not ring true in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, please see below a list of the final positions of Championship clubs last season, and how many live league games Sky showed of each club:


Team Appearances
Bournemouth 8
Watford 7
Norwich 5
Middlesbrough 8
Brentford 3
Ipswich 8
Wolves 8
Derby 11
Blackburn 1
Birmingham 3
Cardiff 4
Charlton 2
Sheff Weds 4
Forest 7
Leeds 8
Huddersfield 1
Fulham 5
Bolton 3
Reading 2
Brighton 5
Rotherham 1
Millwall 2
Wigan 2
Blackpool 1

Brighton, 5th from bottom on five times, Brentford 5th from top on 3 times? Leeds – as previously stated, 8 times (that’s the same number of times as the champions – 14 places above them) . Blackburn, 5 places above Leeds, only one game? The 3 teams that finished immediately below dear old Charlton had a total of 19 appearances between them. I understand Derby, the wheels fell off when it looked like they were a cert for promotion, no one could odds that.

So last season was a one off maybe? – I don’t think so, check out the championship stats from the previous season:


Team Appearances
Leicester 10
Burnley 8
Derby 7
QPR 11
Wigan 2
Brighton 4
Reading 4
Blackburn 3
Ipswich 2
Bournemouth 1
Forest 7
Middlesbrough 3
Watford 4
Bolton 3
Leeds 12
Sheff Weds 5
Huddersfield 2
Charlton 1
Millwall 2
Blackpool 6
Birmingham 2
Doncaster 3
Barnsley 2
Yeovil 4

Look there’s bottom of the pile Yeovil on four times more than Charlton, meanwhile in 16th place, there’s our old chums from Yorkshire, with 12 appearances. A place lower than last year, but with even more appearances… Fifth placed Wigan on just twice, Forest in 11th on seven times again.

I am hoping you can see why I am a bit miffed Marion?

Since December 31st, 2011, my club have featured a grand total of four times on Sky TV’s Championship coverage, once each in 2012/13 and 2013/14 and twice last term. That’s as many times as Yeovil, in a season where they couldn’t win a one ticket raffle. I don’t know the figures for 12/13 for Leeds, but let’s go for the average of the past two years and say 10 times? Yes? So in the same period Charlton have been on four times, Leeds have (probably) been on thirty times.

And of course, having released the second batch of live League games since my original e-mail, the poor old Addicks remain one of only three teams not scheduled to feature – another one of the missing sides being last season’s fifth placed side, Brentford. Surely at least they deserve a better crack of the whip?

Leeds, naturally have had yet another game added making it five including the capital one cup (let me remind you one more time, that’s Leeds on one more times in the first two months of the coming season than Charlton have will have been on in three years and nine months… ) by the end of September.

Now even Inspector Clouseau would be raising an eyebrow in suspicion confronted with that evidence – n’est-ce pas?

I would very much appreciate it if you might share these thoughts with some of the programming team, and see if they can’t start to make it a bit fairer on some clubs, particularly my beloved Charlton. In light of the evidence presented, I don’t think I am being unreasonable in thinking Sky unreasonable, do you?

Best Regards