BBC1's Match of the Day could be overshadowed by
sky Sports, which today unveiled plans for an extensive Premiership highlights show starting 15 minutes before Gary Lineker's show on Saturday nights.
The multichannel broadcaster will try to tempt football fans away from Match of the Day, which returns to BBC1 at 10.30pm on Saturday August 14, with full 90-minute coverage of the best game of the day from 8.30pm and extended highlights of all the other matches from 10.15pm.
Viewer will be able to watch Football First's Game of the Day on one of
sky Sports' three premium subscription channels. At 10.15pm, by pressing the red interactive button on their remote controls, they will also be able to choose 50 minutes of highlights of all the other Premier League games played that Saturday afternoon.
This interactive element of Football First will be in direct competition with Match of the Day between 10.30pm and 11.05pm.
"The days of some clubs' games being restricted to a couple of minutes of highlights here and there are gone," said
sky Sport's managing director, Vic Wakeling.
"Now, everyone gets the chance to see much more of their own Premiership team or more of the best Premiership games which are not shown live. It's their choice," Mr Wakeling added.
Coming home from the pub to watch Match of the Day - and for the past three years, when ITV1 has had the rights to Premier League highlights, The Premiership - has been the regular Saturday night routine for football fans for decades.
It remains to be seen what impact Football First will have on the Match of the Day audience.
But the danger for the BBC is that avid football fans who subscribe to
sky Sports will decide that they can get all the Premiership action they want from the multichannel broadcaster's new Saturday night programme and will not bother watching Match of the Day.
Clare Tomlinson will present the first edition of Football First on Saturday August 14 and one possible candidate for Game of the Day will be Tottenham v Liverpool, which kicks off at lunchtime and will be broadcast live on
sky Sports' pay-per-view service.
The top clash of the first weekend of the new Premiership season, Chelsea v Manchester United, is to be played on Sunday 15, when last year's champions, Arsenal, are also taking on Everton.
Match of the Day faces the added threat that it could be blacked out on August 14 by a Bectu strike over the BBC Technology sell-off.