Premier League and EFL to consider ending 3pm Saturday football blackout
The Premier League and the English Football League (EFL) will hold talks early next year about the possibility of combining efforts to permit the live broadcast of 3pm Saturday kick-offs across the UK for the first time. Currently, the UK is the last country in Europe to maintain a blackout on live football broadcasts at 3pm on Saturdays. Lifting this blackout would allow matches at that time to be shown UK-wide.
The leagues aim to sell the rights to every game to domestic broadcasters in the next rights cycle. The EFL plans to go to market in early 2027, while the Premier League auction is expected later the same year. The EFL's current deal with Sky Sports is worth £935 million over five years and covers 1,059 games per season, including fixtures from the Championship, League One, League Two, the Carabao Cup, and the EFL Trophy. If the blackout were removed, this would allow all 1,891 EFL matches to be made available for live broadcast.
The Premier League's domestic deal with Sky Sports and TNT Sports is worth £6.7 billion over four years for 270 games per season; however, the real-terms value has declined by about 23% from the previous cycle (2022-25).
Article 48 of UEFA statutes currently governs the blackout, prohibiting live transmissions on Saturdays when 50% of Premier League and Championship matches kick off at 3pm. Removing the blackout would mean that 3pm Premier League matches could be broadcast across the UK, potentially impacting match attendances.
The Football Association would likely not object to dropping the blackout, but there are legal complexities. These include potential compensation demands from Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales if Article 48 no longer applies in these regions. There have also been discussions about exempting the Women's Super League from the blackout, but legal concerns remain.
