Kickoff Times
Each weekend as many as five Premier League games will be moved to be shown on Sky Sports or ESPN. The main kick-off times for TV games are 12:45 and 5:30pm on Saturdays, 1:30 and 4pm on Sundays, and 8pm on Mondays. Other games may also be moved to Sunday if one of the teams involved played in a UEFA Europa League fixture on a Thursday. This can result in 12pm, 2.05pm and 4.10pm Sunday kick-offs, Monday night football is most popular just before European competition games, mainly when Sky Sports want to broadcast three Championship games over the weekend.
Sky will almost always show a Saturday 12:45pm as well as a Sunday 4pm game, typically following a Sunday 1:30pm kick off as part of a Super Sunday. Sky aim to show their best game of the weekend in the 4pm slot, but police restrictions on local derbies mean this is not always possible. Premier League games scheduled for midweek may also be picked for live broadcast by Sky on Tuesday or Wednesday nights.
ESPN typically broadcast live Premier League games at 5:30pm on the Saturday, while Sky typically broadcast a live Football League game at the same time.
Each broadcaster is subjected to restrictions on the number of times they can show a team live per season to ensure fair distribution of TV revenue, after 1995–2000 saw 90 percent of Saturday games involving Manchester United.
Read more about this topic: English Football On Television
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