Kings Lynn chairman Stephen Cleeve has written an article for the Eastern Daily Press in which he asks if the new National League streaming deal cash is being shared out fairly.
'With King’s Lynn Town having their first Saturday game today - against Peterborough Sports - since the visit of Hereford in early December, we are hoping for a bumper crowd as we enter the business end of the season.
I think it is worth looking at the streaming deal that the National League launched recently which, in my opinion, is the ultimate in curate’s eggs.
I understand that the Football League has a similar service which is called iFollow and is optional, so clubs can agree to opt out, which seems very fair. The National League insists that all clubs participate, which does not sit that easily with me as smaller clubs may well be better off with their own streaming deal and keeping all the revenue after costs.
As I understand it, fans cannot stream matches at 3pm on a Saturday, although this is being looked at by Uefa. However, many fans can purchase a VPN and be virtually anywhere and so can stream the game easily in the UK. That small issue aside, the cost to stream National League games is £9.50 per matchday or £7.92 after deducting VAT.
The National League splits the revenue with the National League North and South on a 70:30 basis – this is a model that has always existed and so sticking to it seems a natural fit and 25pc of the revenue is shared this way, which gives every National League club less than 6p per stream and every National League North and South club less than a penny per stream.
This figure will probably in reality be even less as the league only share net revenue and whilst I have deducted VAT, I have not deducted credit card fees, streaming charges and other ancillary costs. It will be interesting to see when the NLN and the NLS come online if they will share the revenue in a 70:30 split in their favour.
The remaining 60pc is paid to the club that you support when you sign up for the stream, which is around £4.76 and is, in my opinion, not fair. If Wealdstone play Wrexham at Grosvenor Vale and 400 Wrexham fans decide to watch the game from the comfort of their drawing rooms, Wrexham receive £1,904 whilst Wealdstone would get the same as every other club in the National League, just £24 or, looking at it another way, not even the admission price for two adults.
In my view there should be more money for the home club as it is unfair for the bigger clubs to have all the revenue for their home games and then a large percentage of their smaller opponents' revenue when they visit their stadium. I would much prefer a model like the Premier League Sky TV deal, where everyone receives a fixed amount and then a bonus for more appearances – surely a deal with everyone receiving the same until certain mileposts are hit and then a revenue split would be fairer. After all, the big clubs still need to play the smaller clubs or there is no league.
There have been no official figures released by the National League but unofficially I understand that there has been income generated of around £200,000 for the first six games, which is quite impressive. There was a discounted introductory rate of £4.75 a game for the first two games so it is a pure guess as to how many streams per game that equates to.
I understand that international take-up has not been as big as perhaps predicted, but I understand that Wrexham have accounted for around 80pc of all streams which, if confirmed, could generate the club around £100,000 in revenue.
With their Hollywood films stars in situ, I understand that they will
be box office, but whether the revenue distribution model is fair is
certainly open to debate.'