TV deal

Anyone seen this? Seems spfl pays tv companies to broadcast our games. All about the Rangers??

The Scottish Professional Football League is contractually bound to pay BT Sport up to £250,000 per season in return for the broadcaster airing Rangers matches.

STV understands that under the terms of a renegotiated TV deal following the removal of Rangers from the top flight in 2012, a clause was inserted making the league liable to additional production costs incurred setting up at lower league grounds.

It is understood the league agreed to the insertion of the clause in order to guarantee broadcast contracts which were essentially null and void after Rangers were expelled from the then-Scottish Premier League and were subsequently admitted to the bottom tier of the Scottish Football League.

The SPL paid the Scottish Football League £800,000 for one season's worth of rights to show Rangers games but that deal was absorbed when the league bodies merged in 2013.

It is not known how much has been paid out to BT Sport and ESPN, who were the holders of the contract for the 2012/13 season, to date. The overall payment is capped at £250,000 per season.

In a statement to STV, SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said: "The support given to Scottish football by our broadcast partners, in 2012 and since, has been fundamental to the ongoing health of the game in this country."

It is understood the league thought it necessary to agree to the deal in order to protect revenue from broadcast contracts.

Nevertheless, the revelations in short mean the SPFL pays a broadcaster in order for Rangers games to be shown on television.

BT Sport said in a statement: “[We] were delighted to inherit the SPFL rights from ESPN at the beginning of this season, however we cannot comment on contractual details."