The cost of iFollow - Portsmouth chief Mark Catlin admits financial concerns about streaming service

The streaming service earns the Blues a five-figure sum per game.

However, Catlin insists that financial influence is ‘tiny’ when compared to missed gate receipts and mothballed corporate facilities.

Nonetheless, iFollow, along with sponsorship, and sales of flexible season tickets, represent the club’s only income streams during times without supporters.

Yet, according to Pompey’s chief executive, the live streaming platform and present distribution model is falling short financially.

Catlin told The News: ‘In light of the distribution model that has been agreed with the EFL, iFollow isn’t bringing in the money which we initially budgeted for.

‘We receive a five-figure sum per game. As a percentage of gate receipts, that is relatively tiny.

‘Included in the £10 price is the cost involved putting on the event, while VAT is included in that, and you get multiple people in the household sharing one stream.

‘So the money we currently receive from iFollow is, in the scheme of things, relatively small to our season tickets and normal match-day revenue – and there is no secondary spend.

‘iFollow uses quite a complex formula to calculate distribution. Whereas, pre-Covid, if we sold the feeds we kept the money, that’s now not the case.

‘How it works is you get to keep the home revenue and then the average of what the visiting team would have taken to Fratton Park as their away following.

‘However, it impacts against us because of the size of our away following.

‘So should Shrewsbury visit and average, as a round figure, 200 away. We keep that and then they have the rest on top.

‘If you go to Rochdale, though, the first however many thousands of fans the EFL deem would have travelled to that game are taken away and that money is given to the home team – not us.

‘Considering the size of our away following, that impacts on us quite severely.’

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iFollow launched for the 2017-18 season, initially for overseas users.

However, it has evolved into a service enabling all supporters to watch their side during a time when fixtures are played behind closed doors.

Catlin added: ‘In the self interest for Portsmouth, we want to keep all of our own feed money because we have a huge iFollow following and huge away following.

‘But I perfectly understand smaller clubs are reliant on any revenue keeping them propped up and having an argument that there would have been a percentage of away fans going to that particular fixture.

‘It is a difficult situation, but this isn’t just about Pompey it’s about football as a whole.

‘While we didn’t believe that to be right, we accept the decision of the majority of the clubs and the decision of the EFL.’

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