Yeovil Town’s home match against Scunthorpe United this weekend will be streamed live on a new service offered by the National League.
nationalleaguetv.com launches on Saturday with matches available at a cut price £4.75 per match for the opening two weeks before rising to £9.50 per match from Boxing Day.
In a statement, the National League said: “The National League will be using the first two-week trial period, to launch further platform functionalities ahead of its full launch.”
Basically, if the streaming service turns out to be s***, then you can’t complain too much because you are getting it half-price.
However, providing you declare the fact you are a Yeovil Town supporter when registering on the National League website – see here – then 60% of your fee will go in to the Huish Park coffers. A further 25% goes in to a pot which is distributed among the other 71 teams in the National League pyramid – yes, that means W*ymouth do get a bit of your money.
The other 15% goes in to another pot which the League says will be “retained by the league for reinvestment.”
We obviously look forward to hearing what that reinvestment looks like – we’re sure it will not be long before they tell us.
The National League has previously said the service would screen “non-televised matches” whilst “also respecting the need to comply with Article 48 restrictions.”
Article 48 is a UEFA regulation which prevents matches being televised in England and Scotland between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on a Saturday, which presumably means the new streaming service will only cover midweek, bank holiday fixtures and any rescheduled kick-off times.
However, Article 48.2 (are you still awake?) states that there is no blackout between November 12 and January 14 – presumably to enable matches to be streamed during the World Cup – and therefore the visit by Scunthorpe to Somerset is available.