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Boxing Day blackout? Why football’s festive tradition could be lost to the cameras

October 29, 2025

The festive fixture list has always carried huge weight in the Premier League title race. It is the stretch when form often disappears, as fatigue and the Christmas schedule test every squad. A poor run between Christmas and New Year can undo months of progress and have a lasting impact come springtime.

The reality is that the games come thick and fast, recovery time is short, and even the strongest teams can falter under the demands of travel and expectation. Managers often talk about “getting through Christmas,” knowing it can define the months that follow.

Those few days test more than just players and managers, they move the markets as well, with every dip in form or hint of fatigue quickly reflected in the odds.

The Betting Picture Before Christmas

At least for now, Arsenal look strong favourites in the latest football betting odds at around 2/5 to win the title in the lead-up to Christmas. However, those odds, and many Premier League bets, could change quickly if Mikel Arteta’s side stumble over the holidays.

It goes without saying that the Christmas period is one of the most compelling stretches of the season. This year, however, that drama may be missing from screens around the world. Reports suggest that 2025 could be the first festive period without a full round of Premier League matches on Boxing Day, a development that would mark the end of one of the league’s most familiar broadcast traditions.

A Fixture List Under Pressure

Boxing Day falls on a Friday this year, creating a scheduling headache for the Premier League and its broadcast partners. The expanded Champions League format has squeezed the calendar, while the FA Cup’s guaranteed weekend slots in the fourth, fifth and quarter-final rounds have removed much of the league’s flexibility. As a result, there may be room for only one televised Premier League fixture on December 26th.

That would represent a stark contrast to last year’s eight-match programme and the seven fixtures shown in 2022. The last time Boxing Day landed on a Friday, in 2014, every club still took part. Now, despite increased global demand for live content, the league faces a year when its most-watched day of domestic football could effectively disappear from the international broadcast calendar.

Broadcast Rights and the Bottleneck

The situation highlights how tightly UK and European football rights are now bound by competing schedules. Sky Sports and TNT Sports share the domestic Premier League broadcast package, but only one slot exists for a Friday night match. Every other slot across the weekend is already committed, either to protect the Saturday 3pm blackout or to accommodate European fixtures.

Clubs in the Champions League cannot be selected for Sunday broadcasts if they play on Tuesday. Europa League and Conference League teams cannot play on the Saturday following a Thursday match. With nine English clubs involved in Europe this season, the available windows for television scheduling have narrowed to the point where tradition itself is under threat.

A Global Audience Left Waiting

For broadcasters, Boxing Day football is more than a UK tradition. The day’s wall-to-wall coverage attracts huge audiences from Asia, Africa, and North America, regions where festive Premier League fixtures have become part of the global sports calendar.

While Boxing Day football is expected to return in 2026, when the date falls on a Saturday, the expanded Champions League and the Premier League’s growing broadcast commitments suggest this may not be a one-off. The world’s most-watched domestic league could soon find that even its oldest traditions are competing for airtime.

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