Yahoo News When will Stoke City matches be selected for television as Sky Sports new deal kicks in
Stoke City's fixture list for 2024/25 in the Championship will be confirmed this morning and Sky Sports has pledged to quickly confirm dates and times for early season games.
The new campaign will be significantly different in the EFL due to a £935 million five-year deal agreed with Sky. Up to 24 Stoke league matches will be shown live, including opening and final days, all mid-week games and matches on bank holidays. League One and League Two clubs will be shown live about 20 times per season.
A blackout remains to prevent matches being shown live between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturdays - except on the opening day - so at least half the 46 fixtures will not be played at the traditional time.
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Sky has committed to giving supporters more advance warning about games moving than previously, going from five weeks' notice for the majority of the season to almost six months.
The game selections for August and September will be confirmed within the next seven days.
The selection of all matches up to the third round of the FA Cup, in January, will be confirmed before the start of the season. The selection of all matches up to the first weekend in March will be confirmed by November 1. The selection of matches after the first weekend in March will be made on a four-week rolling basis from February 1.
There will be seven Championship matches on each regular weekend which kick off at 3pm on a Saturday, plus 19 in League One and Two combined, that will not be shown live on TV.
The total number of matches to be broadcast is 1,059 compared to 243 in the current Sky deal. The EFL and Sky have insisted that there will be "greater parity" in the number of times that clubs are selected for coverage.
When will TV games be played?
There will be 10 EFL games shown on TV each weekend, including five in the Championship and five from the bottom two divisions.
There will normally be five which kick off at Saturday lunchtime (12.30pm) while there will also be what is described as "frequent slots" on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons (12.30pm).
There will be additional picks on Thursday and Monday nights.
