Saturday 3pm football blackout could be scrapped due to next TV broadcast deal

The blackout is seen as increasingly out of date.

The Saturday 3pm football blackout could be scrapped after the next Premier League and EFL broadcast deals expire.

The United Kingdom remains the only country where 3pm games are not broadcasted during the window of Saturday afternoon.

However, senior figures have told The Times in a breaking report that the blackout may not survive beyond the 2028-29 season.

Due to an increase of live matches already on television, it is seen as an out-of-date method.

Also, the blackout is seen to prompt fans that do not attend the games to illegally stream matches, despite large efforts to stop this.

As soon as next season, every Premier League game not played at 3pm on Saturday will be shown live on TV.

The new EFL deal also means that over 1,000 games are shown live on Sky Sports, with many new games on Friday night or Saturday at 12:30pm.

Through EFL analysis though, it is understood that the increase in TV broadcasting is not detrimental to league attendance figures.