- ITV to continue with 1st pick of FA Cup ties and live England games
- Community Shield to be shown live on ITV1
- ITV4 to broadcast FA Youth Cup games
ITV has finally agreed a cut-price deal with the Football Association to continue showing FA Cup and England internationals for a further two years.
Under the broadcaster’s new agreement, believed to be worth around £90m, up to 16 FA Cup games per season will be shown on ITV1, as well as the majority of England’s internationals in the build-up to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
In addition, ITV will screen the season-opening Community Shield at Wembley Stadium, and digital channel ITV4 will showcase the best matches from the FA Youth Cup.
It is thought that Britain’s largest commercial free-to-air broadcaster is saving around 35% on its previous deal.
As part of the renewed arrangement, ITV will broadcast the first pick of FA Cup games from the first round to the final, as well as the third choice pick from the fifth and sixth rounds, plus the fourth choice pick in the third and fourth rounds.
ITV1 will also have first choice of replays from rounds three to six, and show comprehensive highlights from every round of the competition.
ITV will continue to be the free-to-air home of England internationals, including all home qualifying games for the 2014 World Cup and all home and away friendlies over the next two years.
Away qualifiers are sold individually by opposition associations and do not fall under this agreement. From 2014/15, UEFA will take over control of selling live rights to all European Championship qualifiers.
Live coverage of the FA Community Shield, English football’s traditional season curtain-raiser, will also return to free-to-air television in 2012 and 2013 under the new deal, having been shown on Sky Sports for the past two seasons.
ITV will also show live coverage of six games from the FA Youth Cup on ITV4, including the semi-finals and final of the competition.
All of ITV’s FA output, including live matches, highlights and video clips will be made available via the ITV website and its catch-up service ITV Player.
“The FA Cup and England internationals are events with huge resonance and appeal for our viewers,” said Peter Fincham, ITV’s Director of Television .
“I’m delighted that we are extending our partnership with The FA and that ITV1 will continue to be the home of live football on free-to-air television.”
The new FA deal further enhances ITV’s position as the undisputed free-to-air home of live football, having secured a three-year extension to its UEFA Champions League contract and an enhanced Europa League deal last year.
ITV will share the rights to this summer’s European Championships with the BBC, and will show England’s key group games against France and Ukraine.
Stuart Turner, FA Group Commercial Director said: “We enjoy a great relationship with ITV and this extension to our agreement underlines that.
“Having the FA Cup and England alongside other ITV content such as the UEFA Champions League and World Cups shows that our football content holds its own in exalted company.
“It further confirms ITV’s position as the home of free-to-air live football.”
ITV’s current four-year FA deal expires at the end of the current season. The broadcaster snatched the rights, along with Setanta Sports, in March 2007 from the BBC and BSkyB, the FA’s previous rights holders.
Following the collapse of the Irish sports broadcaster’s UK division in 2009, ITV secured England’s home international friendlies as well as extra FA Cup matches in the 2009/10 season.
ESPN stepped in to fill the major void left by Setanta’s demise by signing a four-year £60m deal for live FA Cup matches in November 2009.
ITV’s extended deal will sit alongside the existing ESPN agreement, with both deals running until the end of 2013/14 season.
