Olivier Dowden issues update on 'ongoing' Premier League talks ahead of restart

Sky Sports, BT Sport and newcomer Amazon have the rights to show live games, while the BBC broadcasts highlights.

However, a number of fixtures could be shown on terrestrial TV this summer if the Premier League, suspended since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, can be successfully restarted behind closed doors.

There would be no 3pm TV blackout for Saturday games given that fixtures would be played in empty stadiums, and culture secretary Dowden said: “I think that creates an opportunity for us to be able to get some sport, some Premier League free to air.

“Those discussions are ongoing. I’m having productive discussions – a couple of weeks ago and now the latest ones with Premier League, the EFL and the FA.

“I hope we can sort this out and also hope we can get more money going into the sport of football. I think we can find ourselves in a win-win situation.”

Newcastle United’s players – who have all be tested for coronavirus – returned to small-group training this week in phase one of the proposed restart.

And work is going on to prepare protocols for the next stage, which would be contact training.

“I hope, subject to the sign-off by Public Health England and others, we will then later this week, very shortly, get the guidance about how we can have training in a contact environment,” said Dowden. “This is for elite sports so that they can start to build up.

“The final stage would then be the guidelines as to whether they can resume behind closed doors.

“In doing that, we have been guided by the health advice, and I can update you again for the fourth time there were meetings between elite sports and Public Health England to find out how we can do it safely.

“If we can do it safely, I’d like us to be able to get it up and running towards mid-June if that’s possible.”

Newcastle, 13th in the league, have nine games left to play.