Scottish Premiership invites bids to televise all matches from 2029, signalling move to end Saturday 3pm blackout

The Scottish Premiership has invited bids to televise all of its matches in the next rights cycle from 2029, the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) issuing a tender last week that gives broadcasters the option to bid for live rights including games kicking off at 3pm on Saturdays.

The tender comes amid a UK-wide debate over the Saturday afternoon broadcast blackout governed by Article 48 of UEFA’s statutes, which currently prevents UK broadcasters from showing live football between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturdays when 50% of games in the top two divisions take place during that time period; that provision allows 3pm kickoffs to be broadcast on FA Cup weekends and on weekend bank holidays over Christmas. The UK is the last country in Europe to invoke Article 48, and the FA, Scottish FA, Welsh FA and Irish FA are responsible for applying blocked hours in their territories while being guided by the wishes of clubs.

The SPFL’s invitation to tender, first reported by Sports Business, is understood to include an option for bidders to assume the blocked hours are not in place and to bid on that basis. A source with knowledge of the tender told the Guardian it appeared increasingly unlikely that the four British football associations would apply blocked hours in their territories after 2029.

The Guardian revealed last year that the Premier League and English Football League were eager for the blackout to be lifted because they have concluded that selling more matches to broadcasters is the best way to raise revenues, a position that appears to have influenced thinking within Scotland. UK broadcasters currently can show up to 270 Premier League matches, 1,059 EFL games and 82 Scottish Premiership fixtures, amounting to 35% of fixtures across the season.

The tender’s structure is reported to give bidders flexibility over the blocked hours, signalling the SPFL is preparing commercially for a rights sale that would include previously prohibited time slots. The move has been described in the coverage as the first concrete step by a UK domestic league to test the market for live coverage of 3pm Saturday kickoffs from 2029.

Responsibility for continuing or removing the blocked hours rests with the FA, Scottish FA, Welsh FA and Irish FA, but the source cited by the Guardian suggested the associations’ decisions will be shaped by club preferences after the current rights cycle. The article states UK leagues are expected to coordinate their approach on whether to seek an end to the blackout, with the Scottish Premiership leading by opening its tender on that basis.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters addressed the issue in August, saying the subject of lifting Article 48 was a live discussion. “We’ve got to take that decision at some point in the future about whether things are going to change,” Masters told Talksport. “It’s not a decision for now. It’s a decision we’ve got to make before the next set of domestic processes that the EFL and the Premier League are going to do. I’d say in about 18 months’ time we’ll come back to that decision about whether Article 48 should remain or not.”

The SPFL tender sets a confirmed timetable aiming at the 2029 rights cycle and, according to the reporting, could prompt coordinated action across UK domestic leagues and the four British associations on the application of blocked hours after 2029.