Football on UK TV at 3pm? Never!
February 15, 2020It seems perverse to me that in today’s technology and media landscape, with multi-billion pound fees paid for the rights to broadcast live football (soccer, for my transatlantic readers), it’s impossible to watch a live football match on a Saturday at 3pm in the UK unless you’re actually there in the ground, or have privileged access to a TV studio.
Why is there no live football on TV on Saturday afternoons?
The reason is that in the 1960s then Burnley FC chairman Bob Lord convinced other Football League clubs that if live football were available on TV at 3pm on a Saturday – the kick-off time of most football matches at that time – then their fans would stay at home and watch a higher league team on the telly rather than go to the live game. So a law was enacted that prevented the broadcast of any live match between 2:45 and 5:15 on a Saturday. This law is still in place and still observed, even for games being played outside the UK. Pubs in the UK are also unable to stream live matches between those times.
What’s the impact?
This is the reason so many matches are played on Sunday, Monday nights, Tuesday nights, Friday nights and why one Premier League match each Saturday kicks off at 12:30 (currently broadcast live on BT Sport) and another after the blackout at 5:30 (live on Sky Sports).
It’s also the reason that both the BBC and Sky have prime-time TV slots on a Saturday afternoon broadcasting a studio of football pundits all actually watching the live streams of the matches and then recounting to us mortals, who aren’t allowed to see the live action, what’s going on.
I believe the one thing it does achieve is a substantial audience for the BBC’s Premier League highlights show, Match of the Day, and to a lesser extent the English Football League (EFL) highlights show currently on Quest.
Could it be fixed?
Of course it could. A simple change of the law to repeal this ludicrous rule would enable broadcasters to carry live football on a Saturday afternoon. Would it do what Bob Lord originally suggested and massively reduce attendance at lower league clubs? I don’t believe so, after all when lower league clubs get their matches broadcast live as part of FA Cup coverage, people still go to the games.
Perhaps we could try it as an experiment and revert if Bob Lord’s apocalyptic prediction comes true? But we’ll never know if we don’t try, because this has never been allowed in the UK – the home of football.
Perverse or what?
Mike's Blog 
Update: Interestingly, as a result of Covid19, football in the UK is having to be played behind closed doors. So the issue of whether broadcasting a match will reduce the crowd is irrelevant. So the authorities have encouraged the broadcast of elite sport, and particularly football. They’ve also suspended the rules about 3pm Saturday kick-offs, so for some weeks we’ve been able to watch live football almost continuously.
But without a crowd in the stadium, it’s not the same; I find it less engaging – more like watching a practice match.