STV WILL seek to share the rights to two decisive games for the Scottish men’s national football team next year, the channel’s chief executive, Simon Pitts, has said.
It comes as Scotland fans have expressed anger as STV is set to broadcast England's game against San Marino while their team plays Denmark. The game will be shown on Sky Sports.
This year, Channel 4 took the decision to buy the live Amazon Prime feed of the US Open after Emma Radacanu won her semi final clash. The channel then brought the final, and Radacanu’s victory, to British viewers on terrestrial television.
Pitts told a Westminster committee that STV had previously tried to do the same with Scotland's national men's football team, and would consider a similar move in the future if a deal was forthcoming.
READ MORE: Scotland v Denmark channel: Kick off time and how to watch live on TV tonight
“Absolutely, we’d be open to having those discussions,” Pitts said at the Scottish Affairs Committee. “Those discussions have taken place in the past and haven’t led to us showing those games.
“Those are deals that have to work for both parties.”
Pitts went on to say that Channel 4 gave up a significant amount of promotion to Amazon Prime to carry the final, including the streaming giant’s branding on almost constant display and no advertising breaks throughout the broadcast.
“We are very open to having those discussions with the holders of the rights, absolutely,” he added.
Pitts told the committee it would simply be too expensive to buy the rights to Scotland games, which are currently held by Sky, despite the relative financial health of STV.
In response to a question from the Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, about what games they had looked to acquire in the past, Pitts said: “It’s not, in my mind, that realistic to expect that suddenly a pay TV operator, that’s spent millions of pounds building up its rights to the culmination of Scotland potentially qualifying for a major tournament, (would) then be open to sharing those rights.
“We’ll keep trying, but there are no guarantees, I’m just trying to be honest with you.”
With the national team set for two playoff games in the spring that will decide if they are to go onto the World Cup in Qatar next winter, Ross pressed for an assurance that the channel would seek to share the rights to these games.
“We will have a conversation with Sky, absolutely,” he said.
“I’m not making any sort of guarantee that we’ll get the rights, but we will have a conversation just as we do most weeks with Sky about one issue or another.”
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