Overseas fans can watch all games live next season (1 Viewer)

EalingSB

Well-Known Member
Evening. This arrived as a press release earlier. Those of us living abroad can watch all matches live for £110 per season. Currently paying four quid a month for SkyBluesPlayer so not bad at all.



The EFL has today unveiled iFollow, an innovative digital live streaming and content platform that will revolutionise the way football fans overseas can follow their EFL teams.

iFollow will, for the first time in English football, enable EFL fans based outside the UK and Ireland to watch their team during the regular EFL season. With an estimated 270,000 EFL fans based outside the UK, iFollow will allow clubs to enable their supporters to follow the action wherever they are in the world.

Kicking off at the start of the 2017/18 EFL season, overseas subscribers will pay the equivalent of £110 per season for the service which will provide coverage of up to 46 live games per club. More than 1,500 matches will be available in HD quality, with iFollow showing every EFL league match live unless that match has been selected by the EFL’s overseas broadcast partners.

Fans based in the UK and Ireland will still also have access to live audio commentary, highlights packages and exclusive content as part of the new offering, rebranded to replace the EFL’s existing PlayerHD platform.

At launch, the vast majority of EFL clubs have opted in to utilise the iFollow platform and those who have not will have access to the same live streaming opportunity and will provide their fans with access through their own club digital services.

Research commissioned by the EFL suggests that there is significant demand for a service like iFollow amongst fans based overseas. A survey of over 1,600 such fans showed that 73% would be very likely or quite likely to subscribe to a live match streaming service and almost half would be happy to pay an annual subscription fee to do so. The findings suggest over 55% of the EFL’s fans are located in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand where the potential audience for the iFollow platform could reach into the hundreds of thousands.

The live streaming of matches will be available from the start of the 2017/18 season in conjunction with a brand new digital presence for clubs via official websites and apps, together creating the largest sporting digital network in the world. US-based company NeuLion, a market leader in online video delivery, whose clients include the NFL, NBA and the Premier League, have developed the integrated streaming service alongside UK company Realise who have built the club websites. The two suppliers were appointed by the EFL in July 2016 following a competitive procurement process.
 

Winny the Bish

Well-Known Member
Interesting. I live in London and don't get to go to many games, wonder if I could use a VPN like Hola! to watch the games.
 

mark82

Moderator
I have NFL gamepass which utilises the same technology (according to the above). Works pretty well, quality is very good.
 

Nick

Administrator
Hopefully they won't need a foreign address for payment.and just go by geo location
 

EalingSB

Well-Known Member
**Shocking typo in headline corrected, sorry**

I have Dazn, an OTT service offering PL games in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and needed an address and registered credit card in one of those countries to sign up, and to be on the app store from that country.
 

covcity4life

Well-Known Member
Wow this is a gamechanger

Wonder if a simple vpn will work. I doubt it. They must be aware that loads of English fans will try it on
 

robbiekeane

Well-Known Member
There's no way they'll be able to stop people getting their hands on this either via a VPN and some dodgy addresses, or iptv services will start offering it.

Excellent...but will it be bad for crowds
 

covcity4life

Well-Known Member
There's no way they'll be able to stop people getting their hands on this either via a VPN and some dodgy addresses, or iptv services will start offering it.

Excellent...but will it be bad for crowds

Iptv services? You mean like.kodi or modbro?

Dunno how wud get around neededing a foreign credit card. Not sure i wud go that far.

Maybe family in america could sign up for me? And i just bank transfer um the money.

Thrn just.vpn change needed?

Agree on the crowds though if everyday fan manages to get access. Its something done in usa tho and ttheir crowds dont really get damaged by it. Local networks show every single game over there of nhl nba etc

Would be great for away games though.
 

Gazolba

Well-Known Member
Evening. This arrived as a press release earlier. Those of us living abroad can watch all matches live for £110 per season. Currently paying four quid a month for SkyBluesPlayer so not bad at all.



<snip>.
Unfortunately, it only works if you have a really fast internet connection. The speed of the internet connection where I am varies considerably from day to day. It's often too slow to even watch a movie in low-def.
 

Gazolba

Well-Known Member
<snip>

Excellent...but will it be bad for crowds
Yes, all those people travelling from the USA and Australia for every home game wont need to do it any more.

It's easy to block UK users just like the BBC blocks non-UK users, they do it via IP address. I can't watch anything on the BBC, even free clips.
 

Paxman II

Well-Known Member
Yes, all those people travelling from the USA and Australia for every home game wont need to do it any more.

It's easy to block UK users just like the BBC blocks non-UK users, they do it via IP address. I can't watch anything on the BBC, even free clips.

Zenmate
 

singers_pore

Well-Known Member
This is really great news for me. I know someone was joking that overseas fans would now not have to travel half way across the world to watch games but I have been coming over for precisely that reason. This will save me loads!!

The only sticking point is that live games start at silly o'clock here in California so I am hoping it's the kind of service where you can watch at any time.

I've already sent an email to [email protected] to find out about this. I'll post an update if I hear anything.

Pretty sure that you won't be able to access this through VPN. I bet it will be more like PlayerHD where you have to login with a password every time you want to watch some highlights or listen to the audio.
 

singers_pore

Well-Known Member
The thing is, who wants to watch us in the fourth division anyway?

You'd be surprised. I bet we will get about 300-500 overseas fans who sign up. If we start to do well in L2, that number will increase even more. I've lived in many countries around the world and I am always amazed how many Cov fans I get to meet.
 

Earlsdon_Skyblue1

Well-Known Member
People aren't stupid these days. A VPN or IP throwaround isn't so difficult.

Wonder if this will cause an impact in attendances. I mean, I imagine people that travel in the UK will be more inclined just to watch it online if the option was there...
 

robbiekeane

Well-Known Member
Iptv services? You mean like.kodi or modbro?

Dunno how wud get around neededing a foreign credit card. Not sure i wud go that far.

Maybe family in america could sign up for me? And i just bank transfer um the money.

Thrn just.vpn change needed?

Agree on the crowds though if everyday fan manages to get access. Its something done in usa tho and ttheir crowds dont really get damaged by it. Local networks show every single game over there of nhl nba etc

Would be great for away games though.
More like paid services like Bulky or Sportsnationhd (prefer the second).

Around £17 for 3 months not bad at all for every premier league game and other sports in HD with no buffering. I'm sure they will get hold of this
 

CovisGod

Well-Known Member
All it would take is for one of our lovely oversees fans to stream the content they are watching via Facebook or something and we're all quids in ;)
 

robbiekeane

Well-Known Member
This is really great news for me. I know someone was joking that overseas fans would now not have to travel half way across the world to watch games but I have been coming over for precisely that reason. This will save me loads!!

The only sticking point is that live games start at silly o'clock here in California so I am hoping it's the kind of service where you can watch at any time.

I've already sent an email to [email protected] to find out about this. I'll post an update if I hear anything.

Pretty sure that you won't be able to access this through VPN. I bet it will be more like PlayerHD where you have to login with a password every time you want to watch some highlights or listen to the audio.
I would feel sorry for you if you weren't living in bloody California ;)

What you doing out there? Where abouts you living?
 

Sky Blue Harry H

Well-Known Member
'm getting a season ticket, but the odd away game where we are sold out (or midweek away at Carlisle etc) and this may be a godsend. Will any of the cash get redirected to the clubs (apologies if it's in the original post)?
 

Nick

Administrator
'm getting a season ticket, but the odd away game where we are sold out (or midweek away at Carlisle etc) and this may be a godsend. Will any of the cash get redirected to the clubs (apologies if it's in the original post)?

You would have thought it would have to, like Sky Blues Player.
 

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