Uefa have announced that BSkyB and ITV will continue to screen Champions League until 2009.
The current deal where ITV shows two matches involving English clubs live on Tuesdays while Sky shows all the other games. All live Wednesday games will remain in place.
The announcement has been widely expected and was only held up by discussions over Uefa’s insistence the broadcasters simultaneously transmit all their live matches over the internet.
With reference to matches involving Scottish clubs, any match played on Tuesday when two English clubs are playing, will also be shown live by ITV in its Scottish regions. Wednesday matches involving Scottish clubs will always be shown live by BSkyB.
Sky’s pioneering use of the “8 games on one channel (so you can’t really pay attention to any of them)” feature, much beloved by Peyton Manning, was once the scourge of the CSTB household. As was ITV’s tendency to pre-empt “Coronation Street” with Arsenal, Man U. or Chelsea’s European adventures.
(Vera and Jack get a night off so Granada can show more close ups of Arsene Wenger frowning)
Closer to home, ESPN2’s coverage of the Group G clash between Real Betis and Liverpoolt kicks off at 2:30pm EST. Setanata US will have Chelsea v. Anderlecht at the same time, while Rangers v. Porto will require a stroll to an establishment offering Setanta’s closed circuit services.