The English Premier League has agreed to make all fixtures played in September available for live broadcast in the UK.
The league is scheduled to play 28 matches from the start of the new season on September 12 to the end of the month.
Incumbent pay-television broadcasters Sky and BT Sport were already due to show 17 of these matches. The remaining 11 will now be split among all four of the EPL’s domestic broadcasters: Sky (six), BT Sport (three), online retail giant Amazon (one) and public-service broadcaster the BBC (one).
The league is also in talks with BBC Radio 5 Live and Talksport to agree a similar solution for live radio broadcasts.
It said that it is in consultations with stakeholders to discuss the post-October 1 broadcast landscape.
The move extends, to an extent, the consensus reached by the Premier League and its domestic broadcasters during the ‘Project Restart’ initiative, which saw all 92 remaining matches last season broadcast domestically once football resumed after the Covid-19 lockdown.
The UK government had urged the Premier League to ensure all matches are televised during the 2020-21 season so long as fans remain unable to attend.
It is envisaged that a limited number of fans could return to matches from the start of October.
The English Football Association (FA) had paved the way for all matches to be shown by agreeing to retain the lifting of the ‘3pm blackout’ rule until fans are allowed back in stadiums.