{"id":258498,"date":"2026-01-22T19:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/258498\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T19:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:34:11","slug":"league-of-ireland-clubs-losing-total-of-e1m-revenue-because-of-dodgy-boxes-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/258498\/","title":{"rendered":"League of Ireland clubs losing total of \u20ac1m revenue because of dodgy boxes \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOITV, the FAI<\/a> streaming service for domestic football, is losing almost \u20ac1 million in potential revenue from the widespread use of \u201cdodgy boxes<\/a>\u201d, League of Ireland<\/a> director Mark Scanlon says.<\/p>\n

The service generated revenue of more than \u20ac1 million from subscriptions last year, an increase of 128 per cent since LOITV was first made available in 2021.<\/p>\n

This guaranteed every club in the men\u2019s Premier Division \u20ac13,000 at the start of the season, \u20ac7,000 for the First Division clubs and \u20ac5,000 for the women\u2019s Premier Division teams, with a further profit-share distributed after the 593 live matches that were shown. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always estimated that somewhere [about] 50 per cent of the people who are watching are watching illegally,\u201d Scanlon said. \u201cIf we were able to double that revenue it would significantly increase what we can give the clubs.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Between the Stripes podcast produced a poll last year from 1,300 participants, with 47 per cent of them admitting they watched games on dodgy boxes. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0The cost of dodgy boxes: \u2018It\u2019s local people they\u2019re hitting, I hope everyone sees that\u2019<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t take a penny from LOITV,\u201d Scanlon said. \u201cBroadcast revenue is a key part of most leagues\u2019 distribution to their clubs. LOITV is a sustainable business now that makes a profit for the clubs, so we hope to move away from piracy and get more people signed up to the platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, LOITV provides access to almost 600 games with a fee of \u20ac99 for an annual pass, \u20ac9.99 a month on a 12-month contract or \u20ac14.99 monthly with the option to cancel at any time. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe told an Oireachtas hearing a couple of months back that piracy and illegal streaming are issues for us. Other platforms like GAA+ and Clubber have also been vocal on this, but the revenue is moving in the right direction,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is primarily down to our partnership with Premier Sports, which has been really good by helping us upgrade the platform to get us on smart TVs like LG, Fire TV, and we move on to Samsung<\/a> in the next couple of weeks. And Apple<\/a> and Android, to watch on the app on the phone. We are also in talks to move on to the Sky<\/a> platforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe budget for planned distribution this year to the clubs, between grants, prize money and broadcast revenue is \u20ac3.1 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

The total prize money for the Premier Division is \u20ac455,000, with \u20ac125,000 for the champions and \u20ac70,000 for the runners-up, with the First Division champions receiving \u20ac38,000 from a pot of \u20ac200,000, while the women\u2019s champions get \u20ac15,000 from a pot of \u20ac115,000. <\/p>\n

Virgin Media are entering year two of a four-year deal with 10 games to be shown in the opening nine weeks, starting with champions Shamrock Rovers<\/a> hosting First Division champions Dundalk<\/a> on Friday, February 6th, before Bohemians<\/a> play St Patrick\u2019s Athletic<\/a> at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday, February 8th. <\/p>\n

The most-viewed game last season was Shelbourne\u2019s<\/a> 1-1 draw with Shamrock Rovers at Tolka Park in March, when 105,000 tuned in. <\/p>\n

Scanlon also outlined details for the distribution of the new \u20ac3 million Government grant<\/a> to professionalise League of Ireland academies in 2026. <\/p>\n

Applications for club academy directors with a minimum salary of \u20ac43,500, and head of academy coaching roles with a salary of at least \u20ac38,500, close on Friday. Both jobs start on a three-year contract. <\/p>\n

The Football Association of Ireland<\/a> (FAI) has received more than 220 applications across both positions, with Scanlon keen to stress that the academy director position is more of a leadership and administrative job, with little on-pitch, day-to-day coaching. <\/p>\n

The plan is being rolled out with Sport Ireland<\/a>, which sees the potential for it to become a \u201cblueprint for other sports\u201d to follow, Scanlon said.<\/p>\n

Each applicant must list the clubs they are willing to work at, before the League of Ireland department of the FAI sends a list of interview candidates to each club. <\/p>\n

There is a strict provision in the grant process that prohibits an academy director or head of coaching to be directly linked to a first-team position. <\/p>\n

For the likes of St Pat\u2019s, Cork City<\/a>, Sligo Rovers<\/a>, Shelbourne, Galway United<\/a>, Bohemians, Bray Wanderers and Shamrock Rovers, where a director of academy position previously existed, the grant money cannot be rerouted to a different area of the club. <\/p>\n

On the distribution of the Uefa solidarity fund of \u20ac3.06 million, eight of the men\u2019s Premier Division clubs will receive \u20ac325,000 each in March. Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers are excluded as they earned combined prize money of at least \u20ac8 million for reaching the Conference League group stages in 2025. First Division clubs only receive \u20ac45,000 each. <\/p>\n

Scanlon also confirmed that the league has begun a renegotiation process with sponsors Airtricity with its long-standing arrangement due for renewal in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOITV, the FAI streaming service for domestic football, is losing almost \u20ac1 million in potential revenue from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[936,13446,61,60,2539,43,573,11113,90444,15640,96346],"class_list":["post-258498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-apple","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-news","tag-samsung","tag-shamrock-rovers","tag-shelbourne-fc","tag-sky","tag-sport-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}