UK commercial broadcaster Channel 5 has signed a three-year agreement to show prime-time Saturday highlights of the three divisions comprising the English Football League.
Effective from the 2015-16 season and running until the end of the 2017-18 campaign, Channel 5 will air a 90 minute highlights programme at 9pm GMT showing all the goals from the day’s Championship, League One and League Two matches – the second, third and fourth tiers of English domestic football.
The slot means Football League highlights will air immediately before Match of the Day – the flagship highlights programme for the English Premier League shown by public-service broadcaster the BBC.
The BBC was the previous rights holder for Football League highlights, although the Football League Show’s post-midnight slot after Match of the Day came in for regular criticism.
Channel 5 will also broadcast highlights of the League Cup and Football League Trophy knockout competitions – the former featuring Premier League teams alongside their Football League counterparts. The latter competition is contested by clubs from the bottom two divisions.
Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey said: “This is an exceptional opportunity for the Football League to work with a broadcaster that will schedule our matches in a prime-time slot. It will take our games to a wider, younger audience by giving us the chance to be first in front of fans on a Saturday night.”
Channel 5 is in the process of tendering the contract to produce its highlights show and will announce its preferred programme production partner in due course.
David Lynn, president of Channel 5’s parent company, Viacom International Media Networks UK, added: “The Football League is one of the toughest and most attractive club competitions in world football and we’re convinced this highlights package will prove highly popular with a mainstream audience at the heart of our Saturday evening schedule.”
The Football League has also agreed a partnership over the same three-year term for ITN Productions to serve as its production partner. Under what the league claims is a “multi-million pound” contract, ITN Productions will film, edit and deliver all match footage for television broadcasts, along with digital clips and highlights content of Football League competitions for use by domestic and international broadcast partners and club websites that fall under its FLi network.
Pay-television broadcaster Sky hold the live rights to the Football League in the UK, showing 148 matches per-season under an agreement sealed in July 2013 that runs until the end of 2017-18.