Comments on: Premier League TV Schedule For US: December Matches Revealed

By: Tom Hingley

Tom Hingley — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:59:37 +0000

John, no local channels show any football. Also, non of the 3pm kick offs on a Saturday are televised. This is a very purposeful policy to promote attendance at grounds themselves. The great irony therefore is that a UK fan who cannot get a ticket to a certain (standard 3pm) game is unable to see it live at all, while hundreds of millions of people in other countries actually can.

It sounds strange but it works, I don’t think it would feel right having a televised Saturday 3pm slot.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:06:31 +0000

John, in england there are two channels in which you can watch live premier league football. That is Sky Sports and ESPN UK. But in England there is a late night show every saturday and sunday called Match of the Day on the BBC, which (despite the name of the show) shows the highlights of all the premier league matches. The BBC is free in the uk but you have to pay for the other two.

I assume that in america it is very difficult to watch the premier league due to the different time slots on different channels at weird hours. But in the uk it’s great because on staurday there are football games going on from half past 12 in the afternoon till about 7 in the evening.

BTW if there are some people who dont like soccer because it isnt very physical then watch stoke city the whole team has an average height of about 6ft 3 and they are so rough i’m suprised they don’t play rugby aswell.

By: Matilda

Matilda — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:58:42 +0000

Here is a good article from the BBC which explains the mystery of the fixture list: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/06/secrets_of_the_fixture_compute.html

By: John

John — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:47:32 +0000

Can anyone explain how football is watched in England? Are there multiple channels? Do they even have DirectTV or Cable as we know it? I’ve heard names like Sky and BBC but those are just two channels, right? Let’s say I lived in Liverpool (or pick a city), how many games would I see on TV each weekend? Which “local” channel would carry my home team?

Thanks in advance for any clarity. Great site, by the way, love it.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:00:51 +0000

Ed, it has to with how the Premier League sells TV packages domestically. The packages are sold in 23-game segments. The 7:45 AM ET kickoff is one of these. There are more than 23 weekends in the season, but only 23 7:45 games sold to Sky/ESPN. So, the other weekends have no 7;45 kickoff.

By: The Gaffer

The Gaffer — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:10:31 +0000

It all depends whether there are any Champions League or Europa League games the same week as the Premier League games. If there are, then the clubs involved usually don’t play until late Saturday or Sunday.

There’s always the chance that the Premier League may shift more games around and put some in to the 7:45am slot if there aren’t any there now (and if those clubs are not involved in Europe).

Cheers,
The Gaffer

By: The Gaffer

The Gaffer — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:27:25 +0000

Correct, but that was a 10am ET game on ESPN2, not a 7:45am kickoff.

Cheers,
The Gaffer

By: Brian Chicago

Brian Chicago — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:58:34 +0000

I believe Man Utd won 5-0 on ESPN at Wigan in August.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:44:17 +0000

Can anyone tell me why the Saturday schedule is so inconsistent? Why isn’t there a Saturday “Lunchtime” game (the early game ESPN has the rights to) every week? Why only some weeks? Why doesn’t the EPL be more consistent in their scheduling?