Sky Sports has announced its opening live televised matches for the 2020/21 Scottish Premiership season.
From August, Sky Sports will be the only broadcaster to show live Scottish Premiership games, with up to 48 games throughout the season.
A total of 13 live matches, covering all 12 top-flight clubs, will be screened in August, starting with Rangers’ trip to Aberdeen on August 1, followed by Celtic kicking off their Scottish Premiership title defence at home a day later, against Hamilton Academical.
Neil Lennon’s Celtic side, who were crowned champions for the ninth successive season in May after the SPFL opted to curtail the 2019/20 campaign, are looking for a tenth straight title, and will host the Accies at Celtic Park in a 4.30pm kick-off on the Sunday, while Steven Gerrard’s Rangers are at Pittodrie at 12.30pm on the Saturday.
Also on the opening weekend, Motherwell’s trip to Ross County on August 3 will be live on Sky Sports, while all 12 Scottish Premiership teams will be shown live on Sky Sports throughout the first month of the season.
Further fixtures to be broadcast live on Sky Sports will be announced in due course.
All Old Firm league fixtures will be broadcast live on Sky Sports, the first of which is scheduled for 17 October at Celtic Park, with a 2 January date for the first Ibrox clash, and another at Celtic Park on March 20 before the league split.
Commenting on the SPFL fixture announcement, Neil Doncaster, chief executive of the SPFL, said:
“The pre-season fixture announcement is always a key event in every football supporter’s calendar, but it feels particularly important this year, given the challenges caused by Covid-19.
“Football plays a unique role in the social, cultural and economic life of Scotland, and I’m sure the millions of passionate fans who follow our game will welcome this significant step towards the resumption of matches.
“We are also looking forward to the start of our new, exclusive broadcast deal with Sky Sports.
“Sky has been an extremely supportive partner throughout this process, not least in allowing our top-flight clubs to offer their season ticket holders a ‘virtual season ticket’ while matches have to be played behind closed doors and we are all excited about embarking on this new partnership.”
Sky Sports takes over as the exclusive live broadcaster of Scottish Premiership matches from 2020/21, having previously shared the rights to live matches with BT Sport, with its live match coverage brought to an end prematurely in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
BT Sport will no longer broadcast Scottish football, except for Champions League and Europa League matches, having also lost the rights to broadcast Scottish League Cup matches to Premier Sports, while BBC Scotland retains SPFL highlights rights, plus live rights to show selected matches from the Scottish Championship.
Speaking about the new TV deal on Sky Sports News, Doncaster added:
“We’ve looked forward very much to having an exclusive partnership with Sky Sports – that was the way the Scottish Premier League started in 1998 – and we’ve waited many years to get back to an exclusive relationship with Sky Sports.
“We’ve been starved of football for four months. We’re working closely with the Scottish government and our hope very much is to work with them on plans that will see friendlies returning very quickly, the game resuming competitively on August 1, and fans returning to stadia as soon as is safely possible.
Sky Sports has confirmed its presenting line-up for the new season, with Eilidh Barbour leading its live Scottish football coverage, while regular analyst Kris Boyd will be joined by James McFadden and three new faces on the Sky Sports Scottish Premiership team.
Former Rangers, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock striker Ally McCoist, former Scotland and Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher, and former Celtic striker John Hartson will all be part of Sky’s coverage throughout the campaign, while Ian Crocker and Andy Walker will both provide match commentary.
Sky Sports’ director of football Gary Hughes said:
“We’re delighted to be able to bring our customers comprehensive and exclusive coverage of the Scottish Premiership in this, the first year of a five-year contract. It promises to be a thrilling season and we can’t wait to get going on August 1 on the home of Scottish football.”
Full details of the 13 live Scottish Premiership games to be broadcast on Sky Sports in August can be found below.
For a full list of all forthcoming major football matches on the box, visit SOTB’s dedicated football TV listings page.
–
SATURDAY 1st AUGUST
Aberdeen v Rangers
|
12:30 |
 |
–
SUNDAY 2nd AUGUST
Celtic v Hamilton Academical
|
16:30 |
|
–
MONDAY 3rd AUGUST
Ross County v Motherwell
|
19:45 |
|
–
SATURDAY 8th AUGUST
St Johnstone v Aberdeen
|
12:30 |
|
–
SUNDAY 9th AUGUST
Kilmarnock v Celtic
|
16:30 |
|
–
TUESDAY 11th AUGUST
Dundee United v Hibernian
|
18:00 |
|
–
WEDNESDAY 12th AUGUST
St Mirren v Celtic
|
18:00 |
|
–
SATURDAY 15th AUGUST
Hibernian v Motherwell
|
17:30 |
|
–
SUNDAY 16th AUGUST
Livingston v Rangers
|
16:30 |
|
–
SATURDAY 22nd AUGUST
Dundee United v Celtic
|
17:30 |
|
–
SUNDAY 23rd AUGUST
St Johnstone v Hibernian
|
16:30 |
|
–
SATURDAY 29th AUGUST
Hamilton Academical v Rangers
|
17:30 |
|
–
SUNDAY 30th AUGUST
Hibernian v Aberdeen
|
16:30 |
|
–
–