The Saturday 3pm blackout: Why aren't all Premier Leagues games broadcast on television in the UK?

Upset that you aren't able to watch any live football at 3pm on a Saturday? You have a Burnley chairman from the 1960s to thank for that... sort of.

This season games such as Nottingham Forest's shock win over Liverpool, Leicester City's dramatic comeback at Southampton, and Brentford's thrilling 3-2 win over Bournemouth have all taken place at 3pm on a Saturday. However, the UK's blackout rule meant that none of these games could be be shown live on television in this country.

For decades now, it's been enshrined in British law that no football played between the hours of 2:45pm and 5:15pm on a Saturday can be broadcast live on television.

The idea behind the blackout was that of Burnley's Bob Lord, who lobbied support from his fellow Football League chairmen 60 years ago that televised matches on a Saturday afternoon would negatively impact football attendances - the primary source of income for clubs at the time. The only time since that this sanctity has been breached was during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which fans couldn't get to games.

In the modern day, the thinking is that even the broadcasting of big matches played on a Saturday during this slot could deter fans from going to their local club. In recent times, even El Clasico has fallen foul of the blackout, with British viewers missing the 15 minutes of action of several iterations when Spain's biggest game has kicked-off at 5pm Saturday UK time.

The blackout is not without its criticism. There are those that claim that it's an archaic law that they'd like to see the back of.

Given how expensive ticket prices are, many fans argue it's unfair not to provide a more reasonable alternative to watch the game, in an era in which most games are on TV. Clubs have more fans spread across the country these days and not just the thousands who would have been to the ground every week in the 1960s and '70s, after all.

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And then there's the argument that all of these 3pm matches are available anyway: just via illegal streaming sites or overseas television sets.

If the Premier League were to make these games readily available to fans, they could not only ensure better control of their product, but demand more money for it if they pleased.

Ultimately, there are no plans to boycott the blackout from the FA, the Premier League and the Football League. Even Cristiano Ronaldo's return to the Premier League with Manchester United in September 2021 - in a 3 o'clock kick-off slot on a Saturday afternoon - was only available (at least in theory) to those inside Old Trafford.

If you're going to a 3pm game this weekend, ah well, at least there's Match of the Day.