No 12:30pm Kick-off in Premier League This Weekend: Here's Why

This weekend’s Premier League action will get underway later than usual, with no early game scheduled for Saturday lunchtime again. English top-flight football is continuing to come thick and fast but for a second straight gameweek there will be no 12:30pm kick-off. Arsenal's Champions League exploits meant their 4-1 win over Newcastle was rearranged to the Saturday 8pm evening slot last weekend. However, with no Premier League club involved in Europe this week, there is a different reason why the TV schedule has been tweaked again. There will also only be one late kick-off on Saturday evening, with Luton Town hosting Aston Villa at 5:30pm.

Why is there no 12:30pm kick-off this Saturday?

Put simply, there is no Saturday lunchtime kick-off in the Premier League this weekend due to no games being selected for broadcast. Under the Premier League's current broadcast deal, TNT Sports occupies the 12:30pm Saturday slot with Package A. TNT screens the rights to 52 Premier League games a season, which are divided by the weekend's lunchtime slot as well as two rounds of midweek fixtures. TNT has occasionally moved their early Saturday slot to 8pm if clubs involved have played an away Champions League game earlier that week - as was the case with Arsenal vs Newcastle last weekend. However, this is only the third gameweek of the 2023/24 campaign that TNT have decided to not show a live match at any time over the weekend. The broadcaster was also absent from the opening weekend of the season, as well as Gameweek 17 during mid-December. TNT will return with their regular schedule for the next three Saturday lunchtimes. Manchester United vs Everton, Arsenal against Chelsea, and Newcastle hosting West Ham are all upcoming 12:30pm offerings.

Gameweek 27 will get underway at 3pm, with Adrian Durham, Ray Parlour and Scott Minto live on talkSPORT. The trio will present GameDay Live from 2:30pm and you can be with them for all the goals from the Premier League and EFL, including Nottingham Forest v Liverpool, and Everton v West Ham. talkSPORT 2 will also have live and exclusive coverage of Tottenham v Crystal Palace at the same time, with the game not shown on UK TV.