Latest TV development that will benefit Birmingham City, Wrexham, Charlton Athletic and Stockport County

Birmingham City will either begin their 2024/25 League One campaign on Friday or Saturday.

Blues discover their fixture schedule on Wednesday (June 26) and there are already some hints on how where they will be for some key dates. The reign of Chris Davies is likely to begin away from St Andrew's if the Premier League fixtures are anything to go by as Aston Villa are away on the opening weekend, which usually means Birmingham are at home.

Aston Villa and Birmingham are usually never at home on the same day because of policing. It's a wise decision as it avoids West Midlands Police resources being stretched across the area.

More information has come to light about the opening weekend will pan out, such as the timings of games. The EFL season begins on the weekend of August 10, but there will be games scheduled on the Friday and Birmingham could be involved.

According to the Bristol Post, Sky Sports will be showing one game each from leagues One and Two on Friday, August 9 as well as two Championship games. All the matches involving the 72 EFL clubs are being shown, and as to how that will work will be explained.

Most of the games will be played on the Saturday, but there will be three time slots for the three divisions. Sky Sports will show all the leagues at 12.30, 3.00 and 5.00 pm, but as to which slot League One will be in is yet to be disclosed. Eight Championship games will be in one slot and then the remaining 11 games from leagues One and Two will be in the others.

Sky Sports will also show two more games on the Sunday but that will be four teams from the Championship. It means that Birmingham could kick their kick off on either the Friday or the Saturday, and there are four potential slots for them to be shown.

Birmingham will be considered one of the favourites to go back up, and television makers might look at Birmingham to drive up their viewership over the course of the season. It does mean that they might not always be at a 3.00 pm kick-off on a Saturday, but extra revenue could come in from being chosen for television.

Earlier this week, Birmingham discovered that they will be playing Shrewsbury Town and Walsall in the EFL Trophy, and they await their third and final opponent in the EFL Trophy draw on Thursday.

The Carabao Cup first round draw takes place on Thursday, June 27 at 11.30am, live on Sky Sports News. Blues are in the Southern section and are number 32, with the hardest tie in the draw being Norwich City, who finished sixth in the Championship last season.

Both the Carabao Cup and EFL Trophy games will be available to watch on the Sky Sports + app which is launching in August. As for the opening weekend, supporters are advised that even with the fixture list being published tomorrow, there could be additional changes to the schedule because of television picks.