The Premier League are set to announce that all Sunday games from the 2024/25 Premier League season and beyond will be broadcast live on TV.
Games have regularly been altered throughout the weekend since Sky won the rights to broadcast the league. A number of games regularly move to Sunday - regularly in the 2pm and 4:30pm slots, whilst other matches have to be moved to make room for midweek European fixtures.
Fans are sometimes left scratching their heads with some games not selected for live coverage despite them being outside of the 3pm blackout. However, the Premier League appears set to change that.
According to MailOnline, they will offer live television coverage of every Sunday game in what is a major alteration to their previous strategy. It is suggested that from the start of the 2024/25 season, there will be an increase to the amount of games televised.
As it stands, 200 games per season are broadcast and that total is set to increase to around 270. This will include all Sunday games in what will be a major boost to clubs in the Europa League, who will net payments of around £1million-per-match in a Premier League facilities fee.
It is also reported that an increase in the amount of Friday and Monday evening TV slots will also be implemented. The reason for this is that the league is hoping to attract higher offers as an auction for TV rights takes place in the autumn.
The current package is worth around £5billion over three years. That was an extension of the previous contract that was agreed in 2018 with there being no auction due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The Premier League hope to receive even higher offers this time around as Sky Sports and TNT Sport battle it out, whilst Amazon, Apple TV and Disney are all also thought to be interested. The amount of TV packages is expected to decrease in a year’s time but more games will be available in each of them.
Whilst the rearrangement of the broadcast schedule is hoped to attract higher offers, fans are concerned over the developments.
Some are concerned that they will be subjected to 7pm kick-offs on Sunday evenings. One fan wrote: "Fans don’t want 7pm. This country can’t accommodate (the) travel."
Meanwhile, another also suggested for the 3pm blackout to be abolished as part of the plans. They wrote: "We don’t want changes to the times, just put them all on the TV. Simple."
Whilst fans have to wait for those changes to be made official, the early TV fixtures for the forthcoming campaign have been announced. A total of six fixtures are set to be broadcast over the opening weekend of the 2023/24 campaign, starting with champions Manchester City ’s clash against Burnley at Turf Moor on Friday August 11.
