'A complete digital revolution': How Portsmouth's ambitious vision will impact the Fratton faithful

Andy Cullen has promised supporters a ‘digital revolution’ as Pompey prepare to transform their broadcast coverage.

Sky Sports’ new five-year deal with the Football League dictates iFollow will no longer be available domestically from the 2024-25 season - although is to remain in place internationally.

In the case of Championship clubs, which now includes Pompey, Sky Sports are to show five league matches every weekend, as well as all midweek games, opening and final day fixtures, and Easter, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day matches.

Keeping apace with the changes, Pompey are to launch their own subscription service, overseen by a ‘top professional partner’, according to Cullen.

Promising fresh behind-the-scenes content, pre-match and half-time shows, and potential live streaming of Pompey Women and Academy fixtures, the Blues aim to follow Ipswich, Charlton and Sheffield United into a new market.

And with a fresh website and app in the pipeline, their chief executive is excited over the opportunities now available.

Cullen told The News: ‘We are a long way down the line on this. Over the course of the summer, we will have a new website and a new app, which will be ready for the new season.

‘Although we obviously cannot show our matches, we will be launching a subscription channel, like a lot of other clubs who have come away from the EFL collective.

‘We’ll have a mix of really strong free-to-air content, some will be more in-depth on a subscription basis, while we’re exploring whether we can supplement that with some Pompey Women games and maybe one or two Academy matches.

‘It’s a complete digital revolution in terms of what our fans have been used to and what we will be doing going forward.

‘This is something which will evolve, we’ll be seeking feedback once the service is launched to make continuous improvements as we are going it alone.

‘I say going it alone, we’ll be working with a very reputable company who will manage the website and collect any revenues both internationally and domestically for us.

‘It is a top professional partner, I cannot say who they are yet because they want to do their own release, but they’re very keen to work with us and have a really good pedigree in this area.’

For international subscribers, iFollow remains, while the EFL have employed Relevant Sports to distribute broadcast rights in North, Central and South America to boost revenue.

Cullen added: ‘iFollow was a lifeline to Football League clubs and supporters during Lockdown, really coming into its own when you couldn’t attend matches.

‘If you had tried to launch the service at the start of Lockdown it would have failed, but the fact it had been going prior to that was really, really helpful.

‘Financially, as a football club Pompey have done really, really well from iFollow. That’s both domestically with the midweek games we were able to show and also internationally.’