ITV To Air England Football Highlights
ITV has signed a deal with Setanta to air highlights of England’s remaining away matches in their World Cup qualifying group.
The deal, reported to be in the region of £1 million, covers highlights of the away matches against Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Trevor East, the director of sport at Setanta, said: “Setanta wants to ensure that all England fans can see the highlights of the national team playing in the key World Cup away qualifiers.
“We are pleased that we have been able to achieve this as part of our wider partnership with ITV. This agreement will enable millions of fans to watch these important football games.”
The deal follows a row over the airing of highlights for England’s last two World Cup away qualifiers.
Setanta aired the highlights of last week’s England win in Croatia free to air on Setanta Sports 1 (see Setanta Sports Pulls In Over 1.5m Viewers For England Victory) after rejecting a late bid from ITV.
However, ITV bought rights to air highlights the next night, with ITV pulling in more viewers than Setanta’s live match.
Mark Sharman, ITV news and sport, said: “We’re pleased to have secured highlights of England’s crucial World Cup qualifiers for free-to-air television.
“We know there is huge demand from fans to watch their qualification journey and we’re delighted that every match will now be shown on ITV1.”
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com Setanta: 0207 930 8926 www.setanta.com