With crowds still locked out of football stadiums for the foreseeable future and pubs and bars forced to closed at 10pm, the Premier League has announced further changes to the televised match schedule and a powerplay which ensures every game over the weekend of 3rd to 5th October will now be shown live on Sky Sports or BT Sport. This means Leeds United’s mouth-watering match against Manchester City will now kick off at 5:30pm on Saturday 3rd October and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports. This follows this weekends game against Sheffield United which will kick off at 12:00pm on Sunday 27th October live on BT Sport 1.
The curfew on pubs and bars has also meant changes to the kick-off times of midweek games, with all midweek Premier League games to finish before 10pm. Both matches to be played on Monday 28th September have had their kick-off time brought forward by fifteen minutes with Fulham against Aston Villa now kicking off at 5:45pm and Liverpool's home match against Arsenal at Anfield now kicking off at 8:00pm. They are the last midweek fixtures in September, with none yet to be scheduled for October. Leeds United are not scheduled to play a midweek game until Tuesday 15th December when they will take on Newcastle United. As with every game that night it will be available on Amazon Prime Video.
The league will pause for an international break between 4th and 17th October as England take on Wales in an international friendly followed by Belgium and Denmark in the UEFA Nations League. The Premier League will discuss longer term solutions for broadcasting matches ahead of the fixtures on 17th October when Leeds take on Wolves, but they accept fans will need to be given access to games somehow. Whether this is via the right holding broadcasters including Sky, BT, Amazon and the BBC or via league wide or club owned streaming services is not yet clear. With clubs suffering the loss of matchday income, additional revenue from broadcasters or the ability to sell access to their own streaming services could be a vital income stream.
Leeds United’s Televised Games
27/09/2020 | Sheffield United v Leeds United | BT Sport 1
03/10/2020 | Leeds United v Manchester City | Sky Sports Premier League
15/12/2020 | Leeds United v Newcastle United | Amazon Prime
28/12/2020 | West Brom v Leeds United | Amazon Prime