ITV Sport Channel - Some Questions Answered

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 31/07/2001

WITH confusion still surrounding the exact details of how TV coverage of the Nationwide league is going to work this season, The Fishy has obtained a copy of an ITV Sport Channel Q&A to answer your questions about the new packages.

What is on the ITV Sport Channel?

Exclusive action from the UEFA Champions League, Nationwide Football League and Worthington Cup featuring nearly 150 top quality live matches per season and a host of dedicated sports programming.

The breakdown is:

• 65 Division One matches
  
• 15 Division 2/3 matches
  
• 40 UEFA Champions League matches
  
• 15 Worthington Cup matches
  

How do I get it?

The Channel is available through ITV Digital and also NTL.

How much does the channel cost?

The Channel costs £6.99 per month.

How much does it cost to subscribe to ITV Digital

The basic package starts at £6.99 a month. This gets you around 15 free to air channels like ITV2 and BBC Choice as well as your choice of one of ITV Digital's primary channel which include E4, Sky One, UK Gold or MTV. For only a few pounds more you can add more channels.

Can I get Sky Sports through ITV Digital as well?

Yes, Sky Sports 1,2 and 3 are available.

What else is on the channel for Football League fans ?

As well as all the live games on the channel there will be the type of programming that up until now only Premiership fans have had. On a Saturday evening there will be a 90-minute highlights show, Football First, with action from all the days games and expert summary from Graham Taylor and Robbie Earle. On Sunday lunch-times Divisions 2 and 3 will also have their own, separate, highlights shows. There will also be magazine programmes, preview shows looking ahead to the weekends action and a nationwide football quiz, all revolving around the Nationwide League, all happening for the first time.

I've heard there are pay-per-view games, where do I get them and how much do they cost?

ITV Digital are showing 40 FA Barclaycard Premiership pay-per-view games and 20 Nationwide pay-per-view games through ITV Sport Select, our sports pay-per-view service. If you watch the ITV Sport Channel you get all 60 of these games for only £3.00 per month. That works out at 50p a game. The pay-per-view games are also available on a match by match basis.

How much have you paid the football league?

We paid £315 million for rights to show the Nationwide Leagues and the Worthington Cup for 3 years.

Why the 6.15 Sunday and 7.45 Thursday kick-offs?

It is obviously very difficult to find a kick-off time that suits everyone. We have and will take the needs of travelling away fans into consideration when we schedule our games, especially the Sunday night matches.

Programming like Football First, Football Second and Football Third and the Matchday Programme - an exclusive Nationwide preview show, demonstrates our commitment to the Football League and the fans who make it what it is. We want this channel to make more people go and watch their club live not less, and we will do all we can to make sure the way we choose our fixtures doesn't hinder that. Of course there will be odd occasions where not everyone agrees, but we aim to keep those as few and far between as possible.

I am a Sky subscriber. Can I subscribe to ITV Sport Channel through Sky?

As things stand Sky are not carrying the ITV Sport Channel. We are more than willing to talk to them about them taking the channel, just like we take Sky Sports so our subscribers can watch that. It is very much up to Sky if they want to carry the Channel or not and if they think their customers want it. The channel will be available to ntl customers.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE ITV SPORT CHANNEL CALL FREE ON 0808 100 0101.

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