Premier League football supporters across the country will arguably waiting with baited breath to find out the detail behind the new TV deals, including a longed-for removal of the Saturday 3pm blackout.
Clubs in the English top-flight will also be keen to understand what slots will be available when the deals for 2025/26 to 2028/29 are struck.
According to BBC Sport’s Simon Stone, the packages are set to be agreed by the end of the calendar year, and supporters are set to be disappointed once more.
Premier League expect to have 2025-26-2028-29 TV packages agreed by end of year. Sat 3pm ‘closed period’ retained. All other games live, inc all Sun 2pm. 5 packages, all linked to current slot (Sat 1230 + 1730, Sun 1400 + 1630 and Mon/Fri). All packages bigger than 38 matchrounds
— Simon Stone (@sistoney67) October 18, 2023
The 3pm blackout will stay as part of all of the packages available, which will, apparently, be bigger than 38 match rounds.
There will be five packages on offer with every slot, including the 2pm Sunday kick-off’s, now having live matches.
Jurgen Klopp is unlikely to be happy about the Saturday lunchtime slot being kept, with all other ‘usual’ slots – Friday night, Saturday evening, Sunday afternoon and Monday night staying the same too.
In short, not an awful lot has changed and the vagaries of the fixture calendar will surely end up with supporters having to travel the length and breadth of the country at hours to suit the TV companies rather than those that the game supposedly can’t do without.