Is there even a good reason for this and seems weird sticking two title rivals in that time. Can imagine it will also be very difficult for Liverpool fans travelling up from London so early to get to the game on time
Is there even a good reason for this and seems weird sticking two title rivals in that time. Can imagine it will also be very difficult for Liverpool fans travelling up from London so early to get to the game on time
The broadcast rights in the UK are split across Sky, Amazon & TNT (previously known as BT Sport). TNT show one game a week - 12:30 on Saturdays.
My guess would be that TNT have decided they’re going to get more subscribers if they focus on one particular team rather than spread their broadcasts around. You’re probably going to get a lot more subscribers from one team if they’ve got a game on that station every month then you would across the board if everyone was on that channel twice over the course of the season.
Obviously the two most suitable candidates for this were always going to be Liverpool & United. They’re the two clubs with the most fans dotted around the country. The further away the fans are, the more likely they’re going to watch their team on TV regularly. This probably applies more to United than Liverpool, but as far as I’m aware, Sky get to pick the first game of the weekend, TNT get the second and then Sky pick from the rest, so it could be a case that Sky are using their first pick to choose United games for the same reason.