Sky’s Friday Night Football experiment failing

Matt Stead

Sky Sports are likely to reconsider their plans with regards to Friday Night Football, with no further games scheduled to be shown until April at the earliest.

Sky have broadcast four Friday fixtures so far, starting with Manchester United’s win over Southampton in August, with the latest coming in the game between Hull and Everton on December 30.

They are permitted to show up to ten games on a Friday night during the season, but with no further matches scheduled to be broadcast in either February or March, it is unlikely they will reach that figure.

The Daily Mail claim that Sky ‘still want it to form part of their coverage’, but that it is proving difficult to schedule games on a Friday evening.

The viewing figures for the fixtures perhaps have a part to play, with 811,000 tuning in to watch United’s Friday evening victory over Southampton at Old Trafford in August.

Sky’s best-watched fixture that month came on a Sunday – Liverpool’s 4-3 win over Arsenal – with an audience of 1.28m.