TV exec behind football's 3pm blackout now insists it needs to be SCRAPPED

The 3pm Saturday blackout must be scrapped, according to the television executive who brought it in. Former ITV head of sport Trevor East brokered the first live TV deal in 1988 when the football blackout was first introduced into the English game.

But now East, who one of the most respected names in TV sport, says it must - and will be - abolished as he also warned piracy is the biggest single threat to the Premier League.

The Premier League’s latest four-year TV deal was worth £6.7bn with Sky and TNT which enables them to show up to 270 live games a season.

But it still includes the 3pm Saturday blackout which was waived last weekend so Premier Sports could show Real Madrid’s win over Espanyol and also Motherwell beating Aberdeen in the Scottish League Cup.

It is rarely lifted but East says it will inevitably change in 2029 because of the growing threat of piracy which he says is in serious danger of damaging the Premier League’s huge success.

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Former Sky executive East, who now works for Pitch International, said: “Piracy is the biggest single threat to the Premier League and indeed all sports because it damages the subscription model.

“Every illegal dodgy fire stick sold for £75 quid is a subscriber lost. It will damage the model, it is getting more difficult and the value of the rights will diminish. What happens next is obvious but it will mean the clubs will get less and the league suffers.

“Even the current deal was more money but it’s also more games and the value of each live game was less. They’ve done it this way to ensure the money goes up, but what can they do next time?

“They will have to show more games and scrap the blackout. It no longer works when so many people are watching illegal streams or you’ve got pubs and bars showing games illegally.

“People overseas can watch every game but we can’t. They have to find a way and that will start with scrapping the blackout to enable people to see every game if they want.”

East remembers how the blackout first started when he and Trevor Phillips - then FA and Football League commercial officer - brokered the landmark first live TV deal.

That seems a world away now but it started with 18 games shown live on Sundays through the season on the back of a UEFA directive when they asked for a two-hour window when matches could not be shown.

East added: “It was actually brought in for 1988. People keep saying the 1960s but that’s not right. We did it because we got a UEFA directive.

“I remember people being so nervous about football being shown live and asking: ‘will it kill the game at grassroots level?’ You had people like Brian Clough, and I was matey with him, saying: ‘Young man, it will kill our f***ing game.’

“Well, the fact is it didn’t. These days with so many games on TV, I don’t actually think the blackout has any effect whatsoever.”

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