Confirming that no away fans would be in attendance at top flight matches between Celtic and Rangers this season, to give one example, provoked a far stronger reaction from most Scottish football supporters.

But could the governing body’s decision have far-reaching ramifications for the game in this country in the years to come and ultimately improve the financial situation of all 42 of their member clubs considerably amid a challenging economic climate?

The SPFL were heavily criticised back in 2022 – including by Rangers, who argued they were underselling their product and had potentially left “£20m on the table” - when they extended their existing deal with Sky Sports without an open tender.

The current four year agreement, which started in the 2024/25 season and will run to the end of the 2028/29 campaign, is worth around £150m and allows Sky to screen 60 top flight matches each term and Premier Sports to show 22 league fixtures.

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster yesterday admitted his organisation was “flexible” about the number of games which can be shown live during the course of a season and stated there was “strong interest from broadcasters in what is widely recognised as one of Europe's most exciting national league competitions".

So can Premiership clubs expect - as well as their Championship, League One and League Two counterparts, who all benefit financially from the deal - to receive substantially increased annual payments going forward?

One industry insider – who has provided legal advice on the sale of television rights to both major sporting organisations as well as satellite broadcasters in the past and who requested anonymity – believes the surprise move proves there is more than one interested party.

“The SPFL have gone to tender in the past,” he said. “But it's been a long time since it has happened. Historically, it has not borne much fruit for them. But that is not at all uncommon.

Neil Doncaster, SPFL chief executive, presents Callum McGregor, the Celtic captain, with his William Hill Premiership medal at Parkhead back in May (Image: Andrew Milligan)

“Sometimes tenders come off and sometimes tenders don't come off. Sometimes rights holders like the SPFL end up negotiating a deal directly with their broadcaster of choice when going to auction has not had the desired outcome. In the case of the SPFL, that has almost always been Sky.

“I wasn't aware that they were going to market. But, as somebody who has advised rights holders such as the SPFL in the past, I would suggest they have only done so because they have received solid interest from more than one broadcaster. It would be a totally pointless exercise otherwise.

“You don't issue a tender and go through the process of putting together the specific packages within that tender unless you're pretty sure you're going to have multiple bidders for multiple packages. It is crucial to know there is more than one potential bidder.

“The SPFL are going very early on this, with three seasons still remaining to run on the existing agreements. There are a couple of reasons for that. Rights holders are always mindful of the next Premier League auction. There is some talk of that happening at the end of next year at some point. So some rights holders like to get in ahead of that process.”

BT Sport, ESPN and Setanta Sports have all held the rights to show Scottish top flight matches in the UK in the past - but Sky Sports have been the sole domestic partner since back in 2020.

Could going to tender mean a new company comes on the scene? The broadcasting expert, whose specialism is advising rights holders on complex intellectual property licensing agreements, believes there is every possibility that could happen.   

“It's an interesting moment in sports broadcasting actually,” he said. “For key rights, such as the Premier League, the English Football League, even the Women’s Super League, you have had emerging platforms coming in.

“For example, Netflix are getting heavily involved in sports, in football in particular, now. They tend to focus on one-off events. They just acquired the rights for the World Cup which is being held in Spain, Portugal and Morocco in 2030. But they've also got multiple territories' rights for the next two editions of the Women's World Cup.

“The really interesting thing in the market at the moment for me is the Warner Brothers’ deal with Paramount+ which has just been closed. Before that happened at the start of this month, you had two potential bidders for rights. The Champions League benefitted from that very significantly.

“Paramount + has the Champions League rights for the next four years in the United Kingdom. They will share them with Amazon, who have the first pick on the Tuesday night match. They outbid, quite significantly I understand, TNT Sports to win those rights. But now TNT and Paramount + are one and the same.

UEFA Champions League and TNT Sports branding (Image: Nick Potts/PA Wire)

“So that takes out one potential bidder for a rights holder like the SPFL. Having said that, I'm not convinced that TNT Sports or Paramount+ would necessarily be that interested in the Premiership. But I could be proved to be wrong.

“Paramount+ doesn't have a particularly great roster of rights at the moment. They may be looking, without being disrespectful to the SPFL, for some filler. But the point is it is an interesting market now and there are options available which probably didn't exist the last time the Premiership rights were sold.”

So will armchair fans of clubs like Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Dundee United, Falkirk Hearts, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Rangers, St Johnstone and St Mirren have to take out a subscription to Netflix to see their heroes in action on television in future?  

“Everyone is very excited about Netflix,” said the industry insider. “I've seen them in the bidding process for league competitions before. But they haven't got to the stage of actually acquiring those rights. They were dipping their toe in the water, but they didn't seem that enthused. To date, they have gone for one-off competitions like the World Cup or Women's World Cup.

“But things can change. Netflix are under serious pressure at the moment on various fronts, particularly their share price. Who knows? They may be looking to do something different going forward. But would the Premiership do much for them as their first league format? I don’t think so.

“Paramount+ and TNT Sports are now owned by the same company after a €110bn takeover, a new entity called Skydance Corporation. Could Paramount+ get involved in the Premiership? Possibly. You might find they blow Sky out of the water just to make a bit of a splash."

He added, “The other avenue which is open to the SPFL to explore - and they may even have mentioned this to potential bidders - is launching their own direct-to-consumer television channel.

“But that's always a huge risk and it's never come to fruition with any rights holder in the UK, even though many have threatened it, in the past. The Premier League threatened to launch their own service in Singapore in the past and that brought the incumbent broadcaster back to the negotiating table and led to them upping their bid.”

Premiership clubs have struggled to compete with their counterparts in larger and wealthier leagues across Europe for players in modern times due to the value of their current broadcasting deal.

They will not, regardless of how much the new agreement is worth and who it is with, be able to pay the same transfer fees or offer the same wages as their rivals in the Bundesliga, Eredivisie, La Liga, Ligue 1, Premiership, Primeira Liga or Serie A any time soon. Still, can the SPFL get a vastly-improved deal this time around?

A Sky Sports camera at an English match (Image: Jacob King)

“There is no way of knowing,” said the insider. “I imagine the SPFL will either have done their own homework in-house or will have appointed external consultants. They will have had valuation work carried out based on the market today and will have looked at similar types of rights which have either gone to or are going to market. It isn't rocket science.

“The intention with a tender process is always to get initial bids and then drive them further. I’ve advised bidders as well as rights holders previously. If you're in a blind auction there is always the fear of the unknown. It puts pressure on when there's more demand than supply.

“Whether the value of the rights go up or down really depends on the property. The SPFL is obviously a hugely important, valuable set of rights. But if you're a sports broadcaster, it doesn't have the value which the supporters in the stands feel it should have. I don’t wish to disparage the importance of Scottish football, but certainly in the UK market it has very, very limited value.

“There is no way of knowing how much they can get. If I was acting for them I would speak to broadcasters and try to get some form of scientific independent valuation. But that can all fall by the wayside. It depends on what Sky's budget is like and what the new vision at TNT Sports and Paramount+ looks like.

“It could actually be that the market has deteriorated since the last deal was struck. Sometimes, Sky Sports, TNT Sports, Amazon, whoever else is in the mix, will have used up their budget.

“That is why the timing seems a little bit unusual to me. They have gone three seasons early, normally it is 18 months. The market is fast moving. But I suspect they must have had feedback from on one, two or more bidders and felt that it was better to get this process moving sooner rather than later.”

The broadcasting expert dismissed the suggestion the SPFL have issued an Invitation to Tender for the live UK rights to Premiership matches to ensure they are not subjected to criticism from clubs or fans like they were last time around.  

“From my experience, that's not a driver for a rights holder to go into market,” he said. "I have never advised any rights holder to go to the market for that reason. I’d be very surprised if they were doing this to silence anyone.

“They need to have an anticipation of a market. It is pointless to go to market if you know you're not going to get any bids. At the same time, just because you've tested the market and you go to market doesn't mean you're going to get the bids you want.

“There have been multiple auctions over the years where the auction failed spectacularly and a deal was then struck later. A good example the Six Nations a few cycles ago. They ran a high-profile auction, nothing came of it and then there was six months of silence before they struck a deal with the BBC and ITV and BBC. So running an auction doesn't guarantee anything."