Premier League 3pm blackout 'highly likely to be scrapped' as ban lifting date emerges

The Premier League's 3pm blackout could be scrapped in the next round of broadcast details.

Currently, football fans in the UK cannot watch matches that kick off at 3pm on Saturdays.

This is due to UEFA Article 48 which allows member countries to establish a period during which football broadcasts over a two-and-a-half hour window on weekends can be “prohibited”.

The United Kingdom is the only country in Europe to apply such a rule, fearing that live broadcasts of matches played at 3 p.m. could impact attendance at clubs at the bottom of the pyramid, thereby limiting the amount liquidity that they are able to generate.

However, according to a report in The Times, when the next tender for Premier League television rights takes place before the 2029/30 season, the 3pm blackout is unlikely to survive the outage.

This would have huge ramifications up and down the pyramid, as well as impacting women's football too.

It is claimed the FA had attempted to exempt the Women's Super League from the 3pm blackout – something it objected to on legal grounds.

As research claims removing the 3pm blackout could leave EFL clubs short of £37m in matchday revenue – figures which may need to be taken into account in future TV deals.

There are also suggestions that any changes to broadcast rules for Saturday matches could increase the likelihood of the Premier League implementing a “direct-to-viewer streaming system”.

The league announced last month that it was making the decision to produce and distribute its own live match coverage, after ending its two-decade partnership with IMG's Premier League Productions.

From next season there will be changes to the format of Premier League weekends, with every match not played during the 3pm blackout window expected to be available on television for UK viewers.

Previously, only matches specifically pre-selected for coverage by broadcasters were shown on television, meaning that on weeks where several Premier League teams were involved in Thursday night European matches, their subsequent Sunday matches were not broadcast on television.

This is to be inaugurated as part of the new broadcast deal, which will see up to 270 of the 380 Premier League matches per year shown on television and continue until the end of the 2028/29 season.