Football League highlights set for switch from BBC to Channel 5

Channel 5 will show the highlights at an earlier time slot on Saturday night

Martyn Ziegler
Monday 15 December 2014 06:14 EST
Comments
Leicester City celebrate winning the Championship
Leicester City celebrate winning the Championship (GETTY IMAGES)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The Football League is set to announce that the BBC has lost the rights to the weekly highlights show to Channel 5.

It is understood Channel 5 will show the highlights at 9pm on Saturday evenings with the prime-time TV slot hugely appealing to the Football League clubs who want to attract younger audiences.

The BBC has scheduled its highlights of matches from the Championship, League One and League Two beginning after Match of The Day - usually starting just before midnight and ending after 1am.

The Channel 5 deal will take effect from the start of next season and will also include Capital One Cup highlights. The Football League is expected to make an announcement before Christmas.

It comes after the Premier League on Friday announced its Invitations To Tender (ITT) for the domestic TV rights for 2016-19, including for the highlights package held by the BBC since 2004.

ITV, which will be without Champions League football by that time, is expected to challenge the BBC for the Match of the Day slot.

Cricket highlights have been a crowd-puller for Channel 5 - in 2013 official figures showed 1.4million tuned in to the Ashes on a Sunday night.

PA

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in