The live matches for the fifth round of the FA Cup have been confirmed.
The two fixtures on ITV1 see League Two Stevenage welcome Premier League outfit Spurs to Broadhall Way on the 19th February, and the winners of the Sunderland and Middlesbrough replay hosting Arsenal the previous evening.
As usual, ESPN will have three live matches, starting with Chelsea v Birmingham on the Saturday lunchtime, followed by everybody’s least favourite team Crawley against Stoke and Liverpool v Brighton on the Sunday.
That will be a very busy day with three games back-to-back across the two broadcasters.
The two replays from the FA Cup fourth round to be televised on ITV1 and ESPN have been selected.
ITV have the first pick, and unsurprisingly have gone for the North East derby between Middlesbrough and Sunderland on the 8th February. They showed the original tie at the weekend which finished 1-1. The winner of the replay faces a tough test against Arsenal in the fifth round, a match that will also be live on ITV1.
With only two other replays for ESPN to pick from, they went for Sheffield Wednesday against Blackpool on the previous evening. The two sides also drew 1-1 in the first match, and the winner will travel to Goodison Park to face Everton in mid-February.
After much deliberation, ITV have extended their deal with the Football Association to show the FA Cup and most England internationals until 2014.
The contents of the agreement are similar to what they are currently receiving, with up to 16 live matches from the FA Cup each season (including the first pick throughout), plus all of England’s friendly internationals, and their home qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Away qualifiers are sold through the relevant FA from each country, so are not covered by this contract.
A couple of extras have also been tossed in, mainly the Community Shield, the traditional curtain-raiser to the season. While it is a glorified friendly, it usually is an attractive prospect for broadcasters at the start of the year, and has been shown by Sky Sports in recent years. Also, ITV4 will show six matches from the later rounds of the FA Youth Cup, which has been without a home since the demise of Setanta Sports in 2009.
However, the main bonus for ITV is the cost of the deal-£90m. It sounds a lot, but in comparison to the £275m they have paid under the current four-year contract which expires in the summer, it works out at more than a 30% saving (£20m a year) for the broadcaster.
The 2008-2012 contract was signed at the height of the television sports rights market back in 2007 before the global recession, which has seen a marked drop in most TV rights fees for all bar the elite competitions in sport.
The deal summed up:
£90m over two years
One live FA Cup match in rounds 1 and 2, two live matches in rounds 3-6, one semi-final, and the final
First choice of matches in every round, plus the fourth pick in rounds 3 and 4, and the third pick in rounds 5 and 6
First choice on replays in rounds 3-6
England’s home 2014 World Cup qualifiers live
All England friendlies live, both home and away
Community Shield live
Six FA Youth Cup matches per season, including the semi-finals and the final
Covers online as well as television, plus mobile rights if necessary
The FA have announced the five live matches from the fourth round of the FA Cup to be televised live on ITV and ESPN.
The highlight of the round is the obvious first pick between Liverpool and Manchester United on ITV1. Due to policing requests, this match will be a lunchtime kick-off on Saturday 28th January. The fixture is always one of the highlights of the season, and a ‘big cup feel’ should only add to the drama. If it is half as good as the Manchester derby in the FA Cup third round, it should be a cracker.
Meanwhile, ITV’s other live game is the North East derby between Middlesbrough and Sunderland on Sunday 29th January.
ESPN again have three live matches, beginning with Watford v Tottenham to kick off the fourth round on Friday 27th January. The following day at 5.15pm sees Brighton face Newcastle.
The all-Premier League tie between Arsenal and Aston Villa finishes off fourth round weekend on the Sunday afternoon at 4pm.
The BBC are scaling down their coverage of the Australian Open tennis tournament that begins on Monday. In the past they had shown live action on the red button every day, with selected Andy Murray and later-round matches on BBC Two, but this year they will only televise both singles finals and one of the men’s semi-finals. British Eurosport will once again have comprehensive live coverage and highlights throughout the tournament.
The Wrexham v Brighton FA Cup third round replay, that was originally only scheduled for Welsh-language coverage on S4C, will now also be shown on ESPN Classic on Tuesday 17th February. The match is on the Classic channel, as ESPN are also showing Leicester v Nottingham Forest at the same time.
Premier Sports have added an extra live boxing card in the early hours of Saturday 21st January. The triple-header from the States is part of the Shobox series, and is headlined by an exciting Super Bantamweight title fight between Rico Ramos and Guillermo Rigondeaux.
Meanwhile, BoxNation have confirmed two more live cards from Germany as part of their contract with promoters Sauerland. This Saturday, the 14th January sees Robert Stieglitz face Henry Weber for a Super Middleweight belt, while the 4th February sees a Cruiserweight title rematch between Yoan Pablo Hernandez and Steve Cunningham.
Still in boxing, and ITV1 will celebrate the 70th birthday of Heavyweight great Muhammad Ali with a documentary looking at his many visits to Britain over the years, including interviews and archive footage. The programme airs this Monday, the 16th January at 10.35pm. Also over the rest of the week on ITV4 at 9pm, veteran presenter Des Lynam looks back at some of Ali’s best fights, including bouts with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier and George Foreman.
Finally this week, ESPN’s pitchside coverage of Monday’s FA Cup tie between Arsenal and Leeds had it’s problems. The Leeds fans were very audibly chanting swear words throughout the broadcast, and pundit Martin Keown suffered an unfortunate incident. Check the video below:
Four third round replays from the FA Cup will be televised live across ITV1, ITV4, ESPN and S4C.
Despite an absolute stinker of a first match, Wolves and Birmingham face each other again on television, this time on ITV1 on Wednesday 18th January.
Even with a relatively unattractive bunch of replays, ITV will get an extra match to make up for the time last season when they were unable to fit in a live fifth round replay. This game will be on ITV4 on Tuesday 17th January between Queens Park Rangers and Milton Keynes Dons, with the winner hosting Chelsea in the fourth round.
At the same time, ESPN will show the Leicester v Nottingham Forest, with the re-arranged Wrexham v Brighton the following night. The latter will also be shown with Welsh commentary on S4C.
The Manchester derby and Peterborough v Sunderland double-header on ITV1 is the highlight of the fixtures picked for live coverage in the FA Cup third round.
That match takes place on Sunday 8th January, with City v United kicking off at 1pm, followed by the Black Cats trip to the Posh at 3.30pm, and then the fourth round draw.
Meanwhile, the previous day, ESPN will also have two live matches. First up is the West Midlands derby between Birmingham and Wolves at 12.30pm, and then Bristol Rovers v Aston Villa at 5.30pm.
The final match of the round will come on the Monday night, with Arsenal hosting Leeds, also to be shown on ESPN.
Channel 5, ITV and ESPN have chosen their live matches for the final round of Europa League group stage fixtures.
Fulham v Odense headlines the line-up as Channel 5’s first pick, with the Cottagers needing a victory to confirm their progession to the last 32. Tottenham and Birmingham both face an uphill struggle to reach that stage, and both require wins to have any chance of qualifying. Their respective fixtures against Ireland’s Shamrock Rovers and Slovenia’s Maribor will be shown on ITV4, while Celtic and the already-qualified Stoke will feature on ESPN.
As with matchday 5, the fixtures are once again spread out over two nights next week, although with ESPN televising the FA Cup replay between Macclesfield and Chelmsford on the Wednesday at 8.05pm, they have effectively passed on one of their choices and will now only show three matches over the four timeslots. With mainly dead rubbers featuring foreign sides at that kick-off time it is no great loss for them.
ESPN will televise Yeovil v Fleetwood and Macclesfield v Chelmsford as their two live FA Cup second round replays.
With no particularly attractive replays for the broadcaster, they have at least managed to show two non-league sides with a chance of an upset.
Blackpool await the winners of Macclesfield v Chelmsford on Wednesday 14th December. This clashes with the final round of Europa League fixtures, but with that time slot consisting mainly of dead rubbers it looks as if they will sacrifice a lower pick to show the replay.
Meanwhile, whoever comes out on top between Yeovil and Fleetwood will welcome Bolton in the third round in early January.
A thrilling month of live Premier League fixtures lies ahead in February, which includes the Merseyside and North London derbies, as well as the continuation of the Manchester United v Liverpool rivalry.
The first weekend of the month sees Chelsea take on Manchester United and Liverpool v Tottenham live on Sky, followed the next Saturday by Manchester United v Liverpool.
After a weekend off for the FA Cup, the Premier League resumes at the end of the month with the Merseyside derby (providing Liverpool lose to Manchester City in the Carling Cup semi-finals, if they win then the Everton game will be postponed), while Arsenal take on Tottenham in the early kick-off on the Sunday leading in to the Carling Cup final.
Meanwhile, February is another quiet month for ESPN, who used a lot of their picks in the first half of the season. Their FA Cup coverage becomes the priority in the new year, meaning they will only show three live Premier League matches over the first two months of 2012.
The live matches for the fifth round of the FA Cup have been confirmed.
The two replays from the FA Cup fourth round to be televised on ITV1 and ESPN have been selected.
After much deliberation, ITV have extended their deal with the Football Association to show the FA Cup and most England internationals until 2014..jpg "ITV"){kind=small}
However, the main bonus for ITV is the cost of the deal-£90m. It sounds a lot, but in comparison to the £275m they have paid under the current four-year contract which expires in the summer, it works out at more than a 30% saving (£20m a year) for the broadcaster.
The BBC are scaling down their coverage of the Australian Open tennis tournament that begins on Monday. In the past they had shown live action on the red button every day, with selected Andy Murray and later-round matches on BBC Two, but this year they will only televise both singles finals and one of the men’s semi-finals. British Eurosport will once again have comprehensive live coverage and highlights throughout the tournament.
Four third round replays from the FA Cup will be televised live across ITV1, ITV4, ESPN and S4C.
he Manchester derby and Peterborough v Sunderland double-header on ITV1 is the highlight of the fixtures picked for live coverage in the FA Cup third round.
Channel 5, ITV and ESPN have chosen their live matches for the final round of Europa League group stage fixtures.
ESPN will televise Yeovil v Fleetwood and Macclesfield v Chelmsford as their two live FA Cup second round replays.
A thrilling month of live Premier League fixtures lies ahead in February, which includes the Merseyside and North London derbies, as well as the continuation of the Manchester United v Liverpool rivalry.
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