A raft of Premier League fixtures in December and January have been rescheduled due to the broadcast selections of Sky Sports, BT Sport and new player Amazon Prime Video.
Home games against Brighton, Man City, Chelsea and Manchester United and trips to West Ham, Everton, Palace and Chelsea (who we play twice in the space of three weeks) have all been moved. The only day of the week we don’t play on during the run is Friday. Kick-off times range from 12.30pm to 8.15pm.
Arsenal v Brighton & Hove Albion
Date: Thursday, December 5 (originally Tuesday, December 3)
Kick off: 8.15pm
Broadcast: Amazon Prime Video
West Ham United v Arsenal
Date: Monday, December 9 (originally Saturday, December 7)
Kick off: 8pm
Broadcast: Sky Sports
Arsenal v Manchester City
Date: Sunday, December 15 (originally Saturday, December 14)
Kick off: 4.30pm
Broadcast: Sky Sports
Everton v Arsenal
Date: Saturday, December 21
Kick off: 12.30pm (originally 3pm)
Broadcast: BT Sport
Arsenal v Chelsea
Date: Sunday, December 29 (originally Saturday, December 28)
Kick off: 2pm
Broadcast: Sky Sports
Arsenal v Manchester United
Date: Wednesday, January 1
Kick off: 8pm (originally 3pm)
Broadcast: BT Sport
Crystal Palace v Arsenal
Date: Saturday, January 11
Kick off: 12.30pm (originally 3pm)
Broadcast: BT Sport
Chelsea v Arsenal
Date: Tuesday, January 21 (originally Wednesday, January 22)
Kick off: 8.15pm
Broadcast: BT Sport
Arsenal’s Boxing Day trip to Bournemouth will also be broadcast by Amazon Prime Video but at the original 3pm kick-off time. This is because the service will broadcast nine games at the same time.
The scheduling, labelled by The Times ‘the most complex TV fixture schedule in the Premier League’s history’ due to the introduction of third broadcaster, led to a six-day delay from when it had originally planned.
In a statement released yesterday the Football Supporters’ Federation said: “The TV selections for December and January were due to be published by October 11. This has meant many fans wanting to book travel to games in the busy December period are potentially losing out on cheaper travel.
“Broadcasters’ impact on supporters, leaving match-going fans out of pocket on numerous occasions last season, has been a growing problem in recent years as the number of televised games has increased.”
Just to reiterate, in order to watch all of the above, you’ll need to pay for three separate TV subscription services; Sky Sports, BT Sport and Amazon Prime Video, which paid £90 million over three years to show 20 matches a season.
At the time of writing, there has been no apology from the Premier League for the disruption caused to travelling fans, many of whom will be majorly inconvenienced by the tinkering.
Do you think the amazon prime one will be in ultra hd?
Was going to say something clever about the ruin of football but I only really care about ultra hd
Knowing my Amazon Prime it will say ‘Oops something went wrong’ as soon as I try to access the game.
I for one can’t wait to play on Amazon tv. And soon enough our beloved Arsenal Amazon FC will lift the Prime Premiership at the Amazon Arena with all us Amazonians cheering on from our Prime Real Estate as we operate our camera drones to zoom in on star player Aubamazon. What do we think of Amazon? Prime! What do we think of Prime? Amazon! Thank you! That’s next day delivery! We love Amazon. We love Amazon. We are the Amazon Primers. Ah. And none of us will have workers rights and there won’t be hospitals or schools as all… Read more »
Well that Amazoned quickly.
Princess Diana of Themyscira will be the midfield powerhouse and captain we’ve all be crying out for since Viera left.
Aubamazon… how do you make up stuff like that.. classic 🙂
Haha, very rambling pete of you!
There’s only one Rambling Pete
Not sure what concerns me more – the whole dystopia, or the fact that the robots drink tea…
Is the COYA come on you Arsenal or Come on you Amazon’s?
Oh spuds!
Competition amongst the TV Channels is supposed to bring down costs but it’s going up!
Television costs don’t go down. Those claims were flat out lies and they all knew it.
When will they just have an Arsenal subscription so we can watch all the games like anyone abroad? Then they can leave the fixtures and times alone.
Can’t speak for those in other countries, but in the U.S. I need three subscriptions to watch all matches (though it IS just one to get all PL matches), and the coverage for EL and domestic cups is flawed, with commentary that would make Blogs long for Phil Collins on repeat.
In India, u only need one subscription – Hotstar ( walt disney just purchased it from Rupert Murdoch). We pay roughly around $15-16 a year, which is Okish. U also get to watch bundesligan & lot of tv series like game of thrones etc with it.
The good thing for Indian fans is that we will continue to pay to once one company – hotstar to watch all the EPL matches.
In Denmark I have one subscription, but another for europa league. Some premier league games are not shown live, but at least I can still stream on delay after the final whistle. I’ve considered dropping all services and watching all matches the next day on Arsenal player for free, but it would require patience and a self-imposed media blackout. I usually consider it after one of our dire league performances, why I am paying money to abuse myself in this manner?
Not here to gloat but I must say it is so much more simpler in Australia nowadays.
I think the full Optus Sport package is $15 a month (about 8 quid) but I get mine free as an Optus broadband customer.
I get every single Arsenal game, Premier League and Europe.
Not often I feel lucky but reading this…
Stuff Amazon Prime, Stuff all of the broadcasters.
They dont give a damn about the game or the fans, just money from subscribers and every year they are getting worse spreading the games between eachother for a piece of the pie.
I’ll just stream games illegally and go to matches whenever I can from now on.
Amazon prime is free for a month. I suggest that month is December.
Nothing involving Amazon or Bezos is ever a good thing.
Or just watch it for free on free streams!
Easier said then done. Bored to the back teeth of dud links and pop-ups that infect me worse than sleeping with a love island contestant.
Yep, most streams are horrible. Who wants to watch a game at a computer as well, I’m not 15.
Once you learn the legit links that are quality just mirror your laptop/phone to your tv. There are tons of great ones. Very simple & free.
Never heard of a Chromecast or a hdmi cable?
Can’t actually remember the last time we played on a Saturday
Both games against Liverpool and Burnley were on Saturday
We have 2 non televised Saturday 15.00 coming up v Wolves and Southampton.
Yikes! In Canada, we have DAZN – $150 Canadian for the year (89 British pounds) and you get all EPL matches, Cups, Euro, and Champion’s League plus La Liga and Serie A games.
Initially I was pissed, but if you cancel terrestrial cable then you save money.
Gave in this year too.
…after spending the same amount at the pub watching the first 2 matches of the season. Better for my health AND my wallet.
but DAZN doesn’t have business licences, which is odd. It’s hard to find pubs with the games. I live outside of Toronto
That’s cheap, I’m paying close to $60 USD a month for two subscriptions, $45 for premier league alone. but it is Denmark…
watching football is getting expensive.
I miss those days when 2 sports used to be enough for EPL, La Liga, UCL.
Now if you want to watch them the cost can easily shoot upto more than 150 USD per month, and you would still miss out certain games.
Staggering!
Welcome to NBC gold pass
I refuse to buy that. I’d rather use it as an excuse to go to my local Arsenal pub. I’m sure I spend at least as much $ that way, but at least it’s not going to NBC and it’s a fun outing
Fortunately there’s only one broadcaster in Sweden. They have the right to all premier league games, Champs league and FA Cup. I quite prefer the Swedish commentary as it’s not as bland, partisan and predictable as the English. They do ultra hd for £32 a month – you’re allowed 2 users per account so I share it with a friend and effectively only play £16 – also get UFC without the adverts which BT sports have 🙂 I stream the Europa league and league cup ones.
Also I find the UK broadcasting of football completely discombobulating, capitalistic and as a result very unfair to it’s viewership.
What gets me, is not just the random moving of the games around on Saturdays and Sundays, but the inventing of entirely new kick off times. Fucking Thursday at 8 15 ? I’ve gone and booked something else on the safe assumption that we never play PL on a Thursday.
Chelsea and United back to back over New Year’s. That will be interesting. At least they are both home matches.
Can I just say as a lifelong Arsenal fan who moved to Asia years ago for work… fuck Amazon, UEFA and the Premeier league for their constant (and consistently inadequate) rescheduling of Arsenal games. Many of these games are on at 3am where I live. Often 3am on weekdays or some other impractical time for me. The weekday games – of which there are now so many thanks to Europa league – are nearly always missed by me as it would mean staying up till 5am on a workday and heading to work just 2 hours later. When we weren’t… Read more »
Ridiculous to have highest ratio of Sunday/Monday games? Perhaps we could try not imploding at the tail end of the season to ensure top 4 then.
To be honest, I would be happy to be knocked out of Europa league now if it meant less games and better scheduling for us. After last year’s shitshow of a performance in the final I have zero confidence in these lads or Emery to win us the tournament.
Also a lifelong Arsenal fan who moved to Asia… I may be part of the problem… 12:30 KO is IDEAL for me as it’s 7:30pm here. Still it sucks for the fans who go to the games, and at the VERY least, they could sort this scheduling out a lot earlier so people can make travel plans in advance.
Not trying to be a prick but why complain about tv times but also Beg for new signings. Where do we think the money come from? Like 10 years ago 73 mill would buy you two generations of top flight footballers. Tv money changed that. Complain about the absurdity of the inflation, then we can do something about the contempt that fans are treated by their clubs
I am pleased I committed to amazon prime for 1 Arsenal game, not. I am pleased about this, not.
The one that really bothers me is the Man U match. By 8pm NY day I was hoping to be tucked up in bed nursing a well earned hangover. Now I’ll have to sit out in the elements watching our cohesive team with Xhaka on the bench giving the Mancs a jolly good thrashing. I don’t have BT sport ( I’m seriously considering ditching Sky too) so can’t even pass on my ticket and watch at home. Even worse for the travelling United supporters, Oh hang on a minute – they all live inside the M25 too, so they’ll probably… Read more »
What is with these Monday – Thursday fixtures? That’s three out of our six Europa league weeks we’ve played on a Monday evening followed by a Thursday game. And no, its not the same as Sat-Tues Champions League games – players and fans are usually home by late afternoon on a Saturday with and extra evening to recover, Monday night trips to the likes of Manchester and Sheffield mean players at the earliest are home 2-3am and fans usually the next day. Hopefully we’re through already an no first team players are risked for the Europa, still technically a first… Read more »
So as well as paying for Sky and BT sport, I’ve now gotta pay for amazon prime if I want to watch football!
Actually, I’m sure amazon prime is free to EE customers as one of the swappable benefits.
Hmm just stream. Fuck these people