Sheffield United and Wednesday could be set for huge TV shake up in £200m+ deal

Every single league game played by Sheffield United and Wednesday whilever they are in the EFL could be shown live in the UK and worldwide, if an audacious bid from streaming platform DAZN is successful in ditching the current Saturday 3pm blackout.

If the prospective deal beats off strong competition from rivals, including Sky Sports, The Times report that all 1,656 league games a season in the Championship and Leagues One and Two could be screened live - signalling the end of the current blackout.

Under the existing deal, the EFL makes 138 regular season games, plus the play-offs, available to broadcast on Sky. The next set of broadcast rights begin in 2014, with DAZN understood to be competing against Sky and Viaplay, whose recent screening of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Euro 2024 qualifiers was met with issues and complaints in some quarters.

The times report that the auction is set to conclude this summer, with EFL clubs facing a choice between the extra income and a potential loss of revenue from fans who will watch games at home rather than travel to see them live.

The Sky deal is worth £119m a year but the EFL are hoping that will rise to more than £200m in the next auction. The Premier League earns £1.33billion each year from domestic rights.

Accrington Stanley chairman Andy Holt told The Times: “The value of the deal is all important as of course we don’t want to lose out.

“Generally I prefer to see fans in the grounds but if we are all going to get an extra £3 million or whatever then of course we would look at it.”

DAZN has previously specialised in boxing before acquiring the domestic rights in Italy for Serie A football in a £747million a year move.

Chief executive Shay Segev told The Times: “Football is obviously very big in the UK and EPL is an option on our menu. If the question is do we have any ambition to go to this market, the answer is of course yes. And it’s not only ambition, it’s a high priority on my list.”