Liverpool have been shown twice in Package E so Sky might want to avoid the Friday night. I think they might go Sunday 16:00 as neither Liverpool or Man City have been on that much in that slot.

I reckon Sky might opt to show Watford v Spurs on the Friday night. This would then allow the Spurs v Chelsea game to stay on Jan 2. However, they may opt to show Watford v Spurs in the Sunday 13:30 to fill Watford's Package C quota.

Are we to assume that Sky's BH slots will be:

Monday lunchtime
Monday evening (5.30)
Tuesday night
Wednesday night

Remembering that although there's no blackout, they will still have a 3pm game in Ireland so are unlikely to want to clash.

Which then raises the question of which slot is "best" for a game like Spurs v Chelsea - Monday evening, or one of Tuesday/Wednesday night?

It's also worth bearing in mind they might adopt a similar strategy for Boxing Day, which could impact on their Friday night pick.

Tuesday the 27th is a Holiday.

So they can show a 530 and an 800 double header ??

I'm not sure Sky do get an extra 3pm game in Ireland for the Bank Holiday rounds. But yes, Sky's view on what the best slot is for Spurs v Chelsea might make a difference. My prediction for Christmas is:

Boxing Day:

12:45 - Leicester v Everton
17:30 - Southampton v Tottenham

December 27:

13:30 - Hull City v Man City
16:00 - Man Utd v Sunderland

December 30:

20:00 - Arsenal v Crystal Palace

December 31:

12:30 - Man Utd v Middlesbrough (BT)

January 1:

13:30 - Watford v Spurs
16:00 - Liverpool v Man City

January 2:

12:30 - Bournemouth v Arsenal
17:30 - West Ham v Man Utd

January 3:

20:00 - Sunderland v Liverpool

January 4:

20:00 - Spurs v Chelsea

Of the games on January 2 I would say that Bournemouth v Arsenal is the weakest and is probably more suited to the 12:30 slot on January 2. So I would put that on the Friday night.

I reckon Sky will have two games on the afternoon of December 27 (rather than evening kick offs) to avoid a clash with the darts.

Good point, I was forgetting that.


The announcement of the rights said Sky would be showing 33 games at 3pm, which is 38-5 midweek rounds, so the two BHs must be included.

Even without Ireland, I'm not sure they'd want a 3pm game in any case. With a full card in England, they wouldn't want to drag viewers from Soccer Special (which will be Soccer Saturday in all but name, i.e. Jeff Stelling and the usual team).

There are only three midweek rounds so that sounds like the Bank Holidays are not included.

I could have sworn there were 5 midweek rounds, but you're right.

I was probably thinking of the previous rights where midweek and BH rounds were basically considered as one.

No worries, it probably makes sense not to include bank holidays as there will probably be one year where a 3pm kick off is needed.

I would agree with all that, apart from the line above, because if they're happy to have an 8pm kick-off on Friday 30th, when it will be up against the darts, I don't know why they'd try and avoid one on Tuesday 27th, which is obviously an earlier and less crucial stage of the competition. They also need to fit in some Football League games as well, presumably.

I'm thinking that Sky can avoid a clash on Tuesday 27 but not on Friday 30. I suppose Sky could insist upon using the Saturday 12:30 slot on the 31 but if BT can't use the 17:30 slot then the risk for Sky is that they end up with three teams playing on the Sunday who'd they'd like to show on the 2/3/4 January.

While I agree that Sky would obviously want to keep all options open for 2/3/4 January, one attraction of having a game on the 31st is the ability to trumpet 8 games in 6 days.

And we know how much Sky like their trumpet!

Why can't Sky show all their boxing day games on the same day 1230, 1500 (no blackout as BH), 1730 and 2000?

Of course they may prefer to spread them out but no reason why you can't show 4 on the same day, same for 2nd Jan.

While it's true for Boxing Day, for 2nd January there's likely to be some overlap between the teams Sky show on January 1st, and those they want to show from the BH.

But in any case, I think they'd prefer to spread the games around. Even Sky would struggle to keep people interested in the final game of a 4-game day.

Incidentally, what's likely to happen with the Christmas Eve fixtures with only three slots (Friday, 2x Saturday) available for four games? Thursday night?

Because no one is going to watch 4 in a day.
The neutral could easily watch 3 in 3 days

I agree with that. People might tune in for 2 or 3 of them (of course the issue with the 3pm game is people being at games themselves or just wanting to watch Soccer Saturday/Special) but you'd struggle to get people who aren't going to a game themselves to actually sit and watch what would, to all intents and purposes be 9 1/2hrs of live football in a row with only about 30mins gap between each one.

There's no Christmas Eve round of fixtures (same applies for the EFL).

I'm really not having a good day today!

I thought there was, and vaguely remembered a fuss about it at the time. Oh well! There's definitely Christmas Eve fixtures in Scotland, which is probably what was blurring my memory.

Keeping up with football on both sides of the border does that sometimes.

I suppose it's possible. It's also possible for Sky to spread them out across 26/27/28/29 December, which I wouldn't put past them doing if they're not worried about clashing with the darts.


There are no games on Christmas Eve. What I don't understand is why, unlike in 2011-12, the midweek round is not just before Christmas. Everyone has two home or two away games in Weeks 16 and 17 so it really wouldn't matter which order those fixtures were played with respect to maintaining the League's rules over consecutive home and away fixtures.

Because all the managers go on and on about too many games.

At least this year they cant complain at

Sat 17
Mon 26
Sat 31
Mon 02

Four games in 17 days.

Take September
Sat 10
Weds 14
Sat 17
Tues 20

Thats 4 in eleven days

No one complains then !!!

Well as a fan I'd far rather do Everton away on December 20/21/22 rather than the week before. Funnily enough, one of the only times I've had sympathy with a manager was at Christmas 2011-12. Man City played Liverpool on Tuesday 3 January and City's prior game was at Sunderland on 1 January while Liverpool got to play at home to Newcastle on Friday 30 December. That seemed a little unfair to me.

I think Sky will look at that and realise it would be a waste of at least 1 game if they did that. There are two main negatives IMO for doing 4 games back to back on Boxing Day.

1. It's Boxing Day! Alot of football fans are out watching games, which minimises how many of them can watch the games on TV. People are also out and about visiting families, etc, which also minimises the audience share. And, BBC and ITV usually have big shows on in the evening of Boxing Day which take away alot of viewers and lead to a lot of family households ignoring (or being forced to miss ) football on that day!
2. The set of fixtures on Boxing Day is pretty weak. There are no Big 6 games and if you looked at it now the most attractive fixtures for the neutral are probably Leicester v Everton and Southampton v Spurs. Man United v Sunderland has the Moyes factor, but even so, if that were a weekend round Sky would be offering up 1st pick to BT, and BT would be handing it right back!

If you had a real marquee game to build around then you may stick games either side of it in order for them to get a bit of attention and ratings, but with no real marquee game you are going to struggle to actually make one of them the 'game of the day' that people will plan around to make sure they can see it. By having 3 or 4 in a row you just blur everything into one very average day of football, whereas if you stick United on Boxing Day it will draw ratings because they are United, then you could put Leicester v Everton on the 27th and Southampton v Spurs on the 28th and get decent ratings for them as stand-alone games, for example.

I will already confidently state that it's already quite likely I'll skip the lot and watch MOTD on Boxing Day.

Bit of a change from 05/06 when there were games on the 26th, 28th, 31st AND 2nd !

Anyone who moans about Christmas fixtures this year needs to be told to shut up, firmly.

Yes, 05-06 was a bit of a squeeze.

They've allowed a Glasgow Derby to go ahead on new year's eve so I don't think a 5:30 premier league game would be a massive issue...