This isn't so much a blog as a response to this week's TheGame Podcast, the excellent weekly audio release from the football writers at The Times.
Much of this week's podcast was taken up by discussion of the 3pm television blackout, which operates to the effect that football cannot be shown live between 14:45 and 17:15 on Saturdays, except for the FA Cup and Scottish Cup Finals. The podcast host Gabriele Marcotti is clearly opposed to this rule, as I am, but for different reasons. His motivation seems to be one of libertarian principle, which I don't share; mine are practical.
My curiosity is always roused when this topic is raised – almost always by Marcotti, who appears to be the only football journalist in Britain who ever wants to discuss the subject – because I have always been convinced that no such rule exists. I have watched much live football during this period on normal British television – without fancy satellites and foreign cable connections, which Marcotti occasionally alludes to – in England.
In January, for example, ITV4 showed the opening match of the Africa Cup of Nations live on a Saturday with a 4pm kick-off (British time). Subsequent matches from the same tournament were similarly shown on British EuroSport – I recall flicking between Côte d'Ivoire vs Tunisia and the FA Cup 4th round updates on Final Score on BBC One. So the blackout is clearly not a hard-and-fast 'rule'.
It is also inconsistently adhered to. Sky Sports frequently show 5pm Spanish league matches but don't join the action until 15 minutes in, – on one occasion, this involved them joining a match between Real Sociedad and Barcelona only after Barça had taken a 2-0 lead – suggesting they regard the blackout as the law and the prophets. Yet Welsh matches appear on S4C on Saturday afternoons regularly.
If it is the case, as some forum contributors assert, that the blackout only applies to English and Scottish football, then why do Sky apply it to their La Liga coverage? This issue is particularly newsworthy this week as Saturday's Clásico between Real Madrid and Barcelona kicks off at 3pm (UK) but will only be shown 'as-live' at 8pm, by which time we'll probably all know the result.
Yet there are stories of EuroSport being fined for showing Ligue 1 or Serie B matches on a Saturday. Given that it is so difficult to pin down exactly what the rule is and to whom it applies, it seems strange that no broadcaster has challenged it. If ever there were a rule ripe for being overturned in the European courts, this would appear to be it. Perhaps Sky do not wish to rock the boat by giving football's governing bodies something to hold against them when it comes to future rights bidding.
It clearly isn't doing broadcasters much harm, as evidenced by the ever-soaring amounts of money being paid for Premier League rights in the UK. Further instances of it broken have hardly defied even my half-arsed research today – the FA Trophy Final in 2010 shown live on ITV4, the Olympic men's final between Brazil and Mexico on BBC One when there were SPL matches at the same time – so perhaps the question is not whether the rule should exist, but whether anybody cares.
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