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FA Cup Move From BBC To ITV Confirmed

ITV has won rights to the coverage of the FA Cup under terms of a new deal announced today. The deal, which was done in partnership with Sky Television and the Football Association, covers a four-year period from the 1997/8 season onwards.
As well as showing the FA Cup Final live, ITV will also broadcast live matches in the earlier rounds and highlights of replay games. The deal comes after it was announced earlier in the week that Sky had won exclusive rights to all league football from next season, with ITV reduced to showing just highlights.
ITV will show live FA Cup matches on Sunday afternoons from round three to six onwards, as well as one live semi-final and the final. ITV will also show highlights of mid-week replays from round three onwards. Sky television will continue to broadcast live games from every round plus live replays. The BBC will have FA Cup highlights for Saturday evening.
As part of the new deal, ITV will also broadcast highlights of all of England’s home matches, including qualifying games for the World Cup and the European Championships. Sky Television will continue to show all England’s home internationals live. From the start of the 1996/97 season, for five years, ITV will continue coverage of the Coca Cola Cup as part of the partnership with Sky Television. There will be highlights of the Coca Cola Cup from round two onwards, with live coverage of a semi-final. The final will be broadcast live by Sky Television, with highlights on ITV.
Endsleigh League matches will be covered in highlights form on ITV both mid-week and at weekends, with live coverage being concentrated on Sky Television. The end result of the deals announced this week means that there will be no live league football on terrestrial television, only one live Coca Cola Cup match, shared coverage of the FA Cup and highlights of Engsleigh league football and international matches.
For further information;
Carol Millward, ITV Network Centre: 0171 843 8216/7
Chris Haynes, Sky Sports: 0171 705 3905
Steve Double, Football Association: 0171 262 4542