Saturday blackouts over the bank holiday period have been lifted to allow live broadcasts of Scottish matches, but the Premier League and others are yet to follow suit.
Armchair viewers are potentially experiencing the future of live football matches. TV blackouts at 3pm on consecutive Saturdays have been lifted to allow Scottish matches to be broadcast over the bank holiday period.
Celtic’s thrilling 4-2 win over Livingston was broadcast on Sky last Saturday and the broadcaster will broadcast the same in the lead-up to the Dundee derby at Tannadice this weekend. This is not the first time this has happened this season, as the Scottish Football Federation has applied to UEFA to allow Motherwell’s 1-0 win over Aberdeen in the League Cup in September to be broadcast live.
Premier Sports also reported that Real Madrid beat Espanyol 2-0 on the same weekend when an exception was granted to the traditional 3pm Saturday TV blackout dating back to the 1960s.
read more: TV executives who supported the 3pm football blackout now say it needs to be scrappedread more: Football TV blackout could be scrapped after £6.7bn deal as fans get glimpse of the future
However, Mirror Sports understands that the Premier League has no immediate plans to push ahead with something similar. There is growing belief in the industry that this could be triggered after the current £6.7bn TV deal ends in 2029.
But the current record-breaking deal, which allows Sky and TNT to broadcast up to 270 live games a season, is still in its infancy, and it’s hard to imagine it being renegotiated this early.
The EFL also explored this possibility when it put its final set of rights up for tender in November 2022. The EFL ultimately did not go that route as they signed a five-year mega-deal with Sky worth £935m. This was a game-changer for the league and its clubs.
But the reason industry players believe it is inevitable that the blackout will be lifted in the future is because more games need to be aired and bring in more revenue to stop the ever-growing threat of piracy from reducing the value of TV deals.
There is a strong theory that future television deals could provide for every match, with the latest significantly expanded £6.7bn deal providing a guide for the future. Sky is already able to show every match on Sunday, and fans are enjoying the coverage.
The Premier League has a strong anti-piracy policy that details the threat of illegal streaming, along with piracy, theft and fraud. Lawyers have aggressively pursued pirate gangs, successfully increasing prison sentences and identifying perpetrators who used illegal “firesticks.”
We have also partnered with overseas broadcast partners to launch a ‘Cut Piracy’ campaign, resulting in criminal convictions and prison sentences as far away as Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore. Concerns are growing in Britain’s high streets as cafes and barbershops are flooded with illegal streaming of Premier League matches.
The 3pm power outage was originally intended to prevent fans from staying home instead of attending live soccer matches, and was only regularly lifted during the coronavirus pandemic.
The blackout relates to Article 48 of the UEFA Statutes and will come into effect when 50% of matches in the top two divisions are scheduled to kick-off at 3pm. However, each FA must apply to UEFA for cancellation.
Games from overseas leagues such as La Liga and Serie A cannot be broadcast live on Saturdays between 2:45pm and 5:15pm.
However, the Scottish club said UEFA had relaxed rules during the festival period, allowing the Celtic game and the Dundee derby to be shown. Dundee United vs Dundee will be shown on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football with kick-off from 2.45pm to 3pm.
Last weekend’s full Premier League fixture list prevented a similar situation in England, but the EFL was able to host a number of live games over the holiday period.
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive Mirror Football content every day. Community members also receive special offers, promotions, and advertisements from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check it out whenever you like. If you are interested, please read our privacy notice.
Sky Sports Premier League and EFL package discounts
£43
£35
sky
Get the deal here
Sky has reduced the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £192 on their bill and offering more than 1,400 live matches from the Premier League, EFL and more.
Sky will broadcast at least 215 live Premier League matches next season, with an increase of up to 100 more.
