What Sky Sports deal means as Portsmouth land multi-million pound cash boost along with Sunderland, Sheff Wed, QPR, Cardiff City & Co in Championship

More Pompey games on TV - and crucially a massive cash boost for the club.

But also more lunchtime kick-offs and the fear of long treks up the country at ungodly hours to back the Blues in the Championship.

That’s some of the headline news, as Sky Sports announce the launch of the service at the heart of their £935m TV deal with the EFL.

The centrepiece to how fans will be able to watch on TV or stream the Blues in action launches this August, in the shape of Sky Sports+

That has generated plenty of talk over the amount of second-tier football to be shown moving forward, with every Championship side guaranteed to be shown on at least 24 occasions.

That will arrive as part of over 1,000 EFL games being screened each campaign - with Sky Sports going big on the opening weekend of the 2024-25 season.

They have announced every game in the EFL is going to be shown as the campaign gets underway - a broadcasting first.

It’s the boost to Pompey’s coffers which will catch the eyes of fans, however, after the announcement of new domestic and international rights this year.

The £935m TV deal is stretched across five years - with the distribution heavily weighted in favour of Championship sides.

The new deal represents a £300m uplift on the previous agreement, which was split approximately Championship 70 per cent, League One 18 per cent and League Two 12 per cent.

The uplifted element’s split between the divisions will be 80 per cent to the Championship, 12 per cent to League One and eight per cent League Two, according to the EFL.

That means each Championship club will receive around £5.7m per year under the new domestic deal.

Meanwhile, the EFL announced this year Pitch International and Relevant Sports will distribute internationally, in a deal worth £147.7m over four years.

If that is a massive cash fillip for Pompey as they make their return to the Championship after four years, there’s concern it will be at the expense of travel pain for supporters.

Sky Sports managing director, Jonathan Licht, is adamant fans are considered, however, when it comes to what time games get underway.

He said: ‘Despite what some think, we take the responsibility seriously.

‘We would ­confidently say that we select matches in a timely way, and that there is something of a black hole where we don’t see the discussion with safety officials, police and other competitions. That is getting more complicated and is taking more time. We will work to give as much notice as possible to fans.’