There is no reason why the game can't be played at 3pm on Saturday and still be televised.
Well, there is. It's illegal. UEFA regulations do not allow games to be televised at 3pm on a Saturday (the so-called 'closed period') in England and Scotland. That's why SKY, Setanta and the BBC never have live games at 3pm on a Saturday. You can sometimes watch such matches via overseas satellite services but not British broadcasters.
This only applies to the Premier League & only to that country to which that League relates. Scotland has it's own league so therefore they COULD show English Prem League at 3pm provided the TV company was purely based in Scotland but as we know we are the UK when it comes to TV & Scotland does not have it's own TV company purely
broadcasting in Scotland with the funds needed to buy such matches.
Setanta Ireland do show a Prem league match every Sat at 3pm.
You could in theory get a friend or relative to register a sky box at an address in Ireland , Setanta then send the
card to the Irish address & money is taken from an Irish Bank & then you get the card , reset your box ,
connect it up to your dish in the UK with the card inserted & you then have an (Irish) sky set up .
You would get RTE 1 & 2 also & these replace BBC 1 & 2 in the EPG .
You would also get 3pm football via Setanta Sports 1 Ireland. Easy really.
But i opt for the Euro sat version personnally (more matches).
The closed period does exist however, but this is being fought by TV companies as the Euro parliament
has a policy for television signals without frontiers to which the UK has signed upto.Meaning
the freedom of movement of TV signals as per virtually anything else within the EU market as per
the freedom to trade across the EU.
So in theory the Prem League & Uefa are in breach of this code by trying to block these signals & also
punish Pubs & Clubs alike.
Not had anyone round to my house yet, but i am a domestic user , not open to the public.