Scottish football has taken early steps toward removing the UK’s Saturday 3pm television blackout, with the Scottish Premiership seeking offers for the next broadcast rights cycle. The move involves inviting broadcasters to bid for live rights covering all top-flight matches, including those that currently start at 3pm.
The reports frame this as part of a wider, likely coordinated effort among UK domestic leagues to change how the 3pm restriction is handled as rights cycles move into 2029. They link the current limitation to Uefa rules that bar live coverage of matches beginning at 3pm on Saturdays.
Outlets differ in emphasis: BBC Sport focuses on the “first tentative steps” and the immediate process in Scotland, while The Guardian and the Daily Record highlight the idea of a broader UK-wide push and the prospect that the blackout could be scrapped. Across the coverage, the common theme is that tendering and bids are the mechanism being used to test a new approach for the next rights period.
