By Adam Williams, Finance & Governance Correspondent

13th May, 2023 | 8:00am

Sources: Sunderland to bank £13m as crackdown revealed

One of the driving forces behind the new EFL TV deal that could see the likes of Sunderland appear far more often on our TV screens from 2024 is the campaign against broadcast piracy, Football Insider has learned.

The Black Cats hope to be in the top flight in 2023-24 having qualified for this season’s Championship play-offs, where they host Luton in the semi-final first leg on Saturday (13 May).

However, their supporters could see them play on TV nearly every week under the terms of the new deal if they remain in the EFL in the next few seasons.

The new £935million agreement with Sky Sports – which is worth almost twice the value of the previous deal – will see over 1,000 EFL matches broadcast every season, with exactly half of those in the Championship.

Beginning at the start of 2024-25, the five-year partnership will increase second-tier clubs’ media revenue by 46 per cent, meaning the likes of Sunderland will bank around £13m per season.

It is understood that one of the reasons that Sky has decided to dramatically broaden its coverage is to combat the rise in media piracy by supporters of EFL clubs.

Sources have previously told this site that broadcaster estimates that it loses around 10-15 per cent of its domestic viewership to those accessing content via illegal streams.

Every EFL match is currently streamed via the iFollow service but only to overseas viewers, primarily because of the UK’s Saturday 3pm blackout.

It is hoped that a huge upswing in the number of matches broadcast domestically will see droves swap illegal streaming sites for a Sky subscription.

In other news, Sunderland have lost £252m as paperwork uncovered.