Scottish Premiership logo / © SPFL
The Scottish Premiership has made all of its games available for live broadcast for the first time, including 3pm Saturday kickoffs.
Under a rule dating back to 1964, live football is not allowed to be broadcast between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturdays in the UK during the regular season, with exceptions for international breaks, the Christmas period and other special occasions.
The practice means that with the Premier League, for example, all 380 games per season can be broadcast worldwide except domestically in the UK, forcing thousands of fans into watching free illegal streams online.
Over recent years, the number of games made available in the UK has gradually crept up by rearranging fixtures away from Saturday 3pm – and at present, up to 270 of the 380 Premier League games are shown live, while 1,059 of the EFL’s 1,891 games are shown live.
In Scotland, the figure currently stands at up to 82 games, from a total of 228 – around a third – comprising up to 60 on Sky Sports and up to 22 on Premier Sports.
According to Sport Business, the SPFL has made all 228 games available in the next rights cycle, which begins with the 2029-30 season.
The publication says that should the SPFL succeed in selling the 3pm Saturday games, then the three football associations currently imposing the blackout rule – The FA, The Scottish FA and The Irish FA – would be extremely likely to drop the blackout in its entirety.
Such a move would then pave the way for the Premier League, EFL and foreign leagues such as La Liga to sell off the complete rights to their games for UK broadcast.
The current Premier League deal involving Sky Sports and TNT Sports runs until 2028-29, with rights for the 2029-30 season onwards not likely to be brought to market until next Summer at the earliest.
