POTTERS ARE SET FOR PLENTY MORE TV TIME IN THE NEW CAMPAIGN

STOKE City’s opening match will be the club’s first of at least 24 games to be shown live on television next season, it has been confirmed.

The Championship fixture list is to be turned on its head as part of a mega money new five-year deal with Sky Sports. All clubs will be picked for broadcast a minimum of 24 times. All opening weekend, final day, midweek and Bank Holiday games including Easter, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day - will be on TV.

There will be no new time slots created. Six matches across the EFL are expected to be played with a 12.30pm kick-off on Saturdays and there will be one or two on both Friday evenings and Sunday lunchtimes. Opening day matches can still kick off at 3pm on Saturday, August 10 because the blackout rule - which doesn’t allow live football on TV between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on a Saturday to protect match attendances - only applies when 50 per cent of Premier League and Championship matches are scheduled. The Premier League doesn’t kick-off until a week later.

All 15 play-off matches, all 93 Carabao Cup matches and all 127 EFL Trophy matches will be broadcast live. All games will have live commentary but, in a development from the previous red button facility, they will be shown on a new channel called Sky Sports+ and viewers will be able to pause and rewind. All games will have a minimum of eight cameras. The Daily Mail claims that Sky are launching a commentator recruitment drive “and have vowed to ensure the standard will be high”.

The fixture list is to be announced on Wednesday, June 29 at 9am. Sky say that television selections, dates and times for matches in August in September will be confirmed in early July and all picks up to January will be confirmed before the season starts Matches will be available for Sky Sports subscribers. A Sky Stream, Sky Sports, Sky TV and Netflix package is currently on offer for £46 a month on an 18-month contract. Day passes to watch Sky Sports via Now TV are available from £11.99 or it’s £34.99 for a month.

League bosses are confident that the decision will not affect attendances, saying in a statement: “Nothing beats the live match day experience and we are confident that fans that can and are able to attend a match will continue to do so in the large numbers that we continue to see.

“We also know that there is a large demand from fans that cannot always get to games, so making more EFL action available through one established provider represents another way of taking EFL action to the audience.”

The EFL has confirmed its international streaming services for overseas viewers will continue next season.