SPFL signals openness to ending Saturday 3pm blackout from 2029 in broadcast shake-up

The Scottish Professional Football League is open to ending the Saturday 3pm television blackout in Scotland from the 2029-30 season, in what would mark the most significant shift in UK football broadcasting since the restriction was introduced in the 1960s.

The SPFL has signalled flexibility to potential bidders for its next broadcast rights cycle, according to the Press Association. As part of that process, broadcasters have been invited to bid for more games than the current cycle contains — though the league is not seeking to sell all of its fixtures.

The Saturday 3pm blackout is a UK-wide restriction that has been in place for more than six decades, originally introduced to protect live attendances at grounds. Its survival has long depended on UEFA’s Article 48, which permits leagues to impose broadcasting restrictions when 50 per cent or more of professional matches are scheduled for that kick-off time.

The SPFL’s approach creates a potential route around that rule. Should the outcome of the rights sale result in fewer than half of fixtures kicking off at 3pm on a Saturday, UEFA’s Article 48 would no longer apply in Scotland — and the blackout could be lifted north of the border.

Such a development would carry implications well beyond Scotland. Other domestic competitions, including the Premier League and the EFL, could use a Scottish precedent to pursue a similar policy in their own broadcast negotiations.

The Premier League currently maintains the 3pm Saturday blackout but has expanded coverage across the rest of the weekend, with games shown on Friday evenings, Saturday mornings and afternoons outside the blackout window, and throughout Sunday. A full removal of the 3pm restriction in England would represent a far larger commercial and cultural shift, given the scale of Premier League broadcasting rights globally.