Five to show live UEFA Europa League on iPhone

Five has released an application on Apple’s App Store giving UK football fans the opportunity to watch live UEFA Europa League matches on their iPhone and iPod touch devices.

Beta tested earlier this month, the app goes live in time for tomorrow evening’s (1 October) match between Celtic and Rapid Vienna.

For a one-off fee of £3.99, fans are able to watch every one of Five’s Thursday-night fixtures, plus highlights of each week’s competition, for the entire duration of the 2009-10 tournament.

The service, available both on Wi-Fi and 3G, has been developed in association with Livestation and is available exclusively to UK iPhone and iPod touch owners.

Jonathan Lewis, Five’s head of digital media,  said: “Five is offering a genuine service to football fans. The app is attractively priced and means never having to miss a minute of the live action when you’re on the move.

“It also exemplifies Five’s ambition to extend the reach of our long-form, ad-supported video content to as many platforms as possible, with the aim of generating additional incremental advertising revenues.”

Matteo Berlucch, CEO of Livestation, commented: “The large screen size of the iPhone combined with the flat-fee data packages offered by mobile operators mean that finally people can enjoy mobile TV in a way that was not possible before – and top quality live football is arguably the best type of content too.”