(Bloomberg) -- A three-year-old sports channel is considering breaking half a century of broadcasting tradition when soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo steps out for Italian champions Juventus Football Club on Saturday.

Executives at Eleven Sports are debating whether to stream Ronaldo’s Italian league debut match live to U.K. audiences from the kickoff, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. If they do, they’d be flouting a rule that bans live Saturday soccer coverage in England and Scotland between 2:45 and 5:15 p.m.

The blackout custom dates back to the 1960s, when televised sports began to draw big audiences and club owners feared fewer fans would attend matches in person. Most media organizations still respect the blackout for professional U.K. soccer games and British broadcasts of foreign matches, despite the rise of satellite TV, smartphone streaming and the proliferation of internet video services.

A spokesman for Eleven Sports declined to comment.

The Juventus league’s clash with smaller A.C. ChievoVerona begins at 5 p.m. U.K. time, though some Italian matches have been postponed after the deadly collapse of a highway bridge in Genoa this week. Eleven Sports’s programming schedule shows its coverage will begin from the kick-off.

Lopping off the first fifteen minutes of the match means U.K. viewers wouldn’t get to see the Italian league debut of the world’s biggest soccer player unless they turn to illegal streaming sites.

Eleven Sports is considering two options, according to the person, who asked not to be identified as the issue is commercially sensitive. It could broadcast the match from the start or begin its 5 p.m. broadcast with a message explaining why the game isn’t being shown. Normally, a broadcaster would fill the first minutes of a show with commentary and analysis.

Outdated Convention?

Eleven Sports, founded by Leeds United Football Club owner Andrea Radrizzani, has an interest in defying the rule after betting heavily on U.K. interest in Italian soccer.

“Eleven Sports has aggressive ambitions in the U.K., and needs to rapidly build awareness among football fans in the U.K. before it can begin to monetize and make a return on the array of sports rights it has acquired," said Richard Broughton, an analyst at media consultancy Ampere Analysis.

League authorities have sought to uphold the rule because televising dozens of live games on Saturday afternoons could affect attendance, especially at lower-league clubs.

The convention is enshrined in the statutes of European soccer’s organizing body UEFA, but it is optional and only England, Scotland and Montenegro are signed up to it.

The issue of the Saturday afternoon blackout had been a matter of discussion ever since Eleven bought the Italian and Spanish rights earlier in the year, but there had been an increasing intensity to those discussions in the run-up to Ronaldo’s Juventus debut this weekend, the person said. Another Juventus match starts at 5 p.m. next weekend.

The discussions over when to start broadcasting the Juventus match on Saturday had been conducted at the highest level within the company and Radrizzani had been kept informed, the person said.

Facebook is also showing the match on Saturday as part of a partnership with Eleven Sports but is abiding by the blackout rules, according to a person familiar with the social media giant’s plans.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Hellier in London at dhellier@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Aaron Kirchfeld at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net, Thomas Pfeiffer, Chitra Somayaji

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