ITV to show EFL highlights from next season

[Rob]

Just announced...

https://twitter.com/itvfootball/status/1...2561417218

[adamiow]

I wonder if they will hire Colin Murray, give it to Mark Pougatch (might be too busy to commit?) or go with someone new?

[Brekkie]

This feels as natural a return as MOTD regaining the Premiership was.

[Steve Williams]

This feels as natural a return as MOTD regaining the Premiership was.

Yes, I am very pleased with this news. As you suggest it's nice partly because of the long association between ITV and the Football League which it's good to see rekindled but also, it will give the league a much bigger profile. Just the fact that they'll be able to promote the coverage on England games, the Six Nations, the Grand National and so on automatically puts it in front of many millions more eyeballs than ever thought of looking for it on Quest.

Presumably too this new deal means the regional news programmes will be able to show the goals as much as they like, rather than just once under news access rights, and it can't be overestimated how important that is. I think that the highlights show is the least important part of the deal and that I think a five minute feature on Football Focus does more to promote a Football League club than a whole season of their goals on Quest. At this level, visible coverage is absolutely more important than extended coverage.

Also, for all the limitations of the ITV Hub, it is at least a platform that people have heard of and use.

Quest's coverage has seemingly been very good and well-received by hardcore fans, I certainly hear fewer complaints about it than I did when it was on the Beeb, C5 or ITV the first time round. But I wonder if that's partly because hardly anybody watches it, and if you're not promoting the competition to as wide an audience as possible, I would say the deal has been unsuccessful. So I'm pleased with this news. Let's hope Wrexham get their arses in gear so I can see them on it.

[CentralAlpha2]

Hoping they'll bring back Beautiful Day from U2 so it's like the mid-2000s again.

[Tom]

I wonder if this news means we will be hearing this again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKATrHsDeFI

[Ash101]

Be interesting to see how this effects the ITV Saturday night schedule. The press release says it'll be scheduled to run after BBC One's Match of the Day. So this week, for example, that finishes at 11:45pm. But ITV have a film after the late news, so presumably that puts a stop to them.

As, even though it's a repeat (because it's going out first on ITV4 at 9pm) they won't run it post-midnight?

[CameronYoung]

I don't really care for football but it's nice to see more of it on the major FTA channels, particularly the lower leagues. It also gives dad more opportunity to laugh at Sunderland when they lose

in front of many millions more eyeballs than ever thought of looking for it on Quest.

I honestly didn't even know Quest do sport until I stumbled across them showing the snooker a few weeks ago.

I wonder if this news means we will be hearing this again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKATrHsDeFI

or "Here's the scores. If you're waiting for the highlights, look away now".

[thebigdog2020]

I wonder if they will hire Colin Murray, give it to Mark Pougatch (might be too busy to commit?) or go with someone new?

Can't see Pougatch with his other commitments and while I think Colin Murray is excellent I don't think ITV will take him. I could see it going to Laura Woods or Seema Jaswal who have had a prominent role on ITV FA Cup coverage.

[Brekkie]

In an ideal world it frees up Colin to do Countdown so it's watchable again.

Presumably too this new deal means the regional news programmes will be able to show the goals as much as they like, rather than just once under news access rights, and it can't be overestimated how important that is.

It won't happen of course but would be such an easy way to add half an hour a week of regional programming to the schedule and arguably a better way of covering League 1 & 2 at least.

[Humphrey Hacker]

I'd like to see Kelly Cates helm the coverage.

[CameronYoung]

In an ideal world it frees up Colin to do Countdown so it's watchable again.

I know it's a bit off-topic, but I'm pretty sure he's said he'd clear his calendar just to do Countdown, so he doesn't really need freeing up.

Presumably too this new deal means the regional news programmes will be able to show the goals as much as they like, rather than just once under news access rights, and it can't be overestimated how important that is.

Ah yes, the bane of the catch-up.


Anything to get rid of that screen, or at least reduce its prominence, would be a big plus.

[Colm]

As much as this would be a perfect opportunity to resurrect the various Soccer Night shows, there's been too many cutbacks in regional resources since then, and I doubt, sadly, the investment in a regional football highlights service would give the same return than a networked highlights programme on ITV and/or ITV4.

[Jon]

It’s that sort of thing I could imagine ITV offering online. Would be cheap to just link together all the highlights from a particular regions games and collectively might be worthwhile. But the other thing is, if people want to just their local clubs highlights it’s easy enough to find them all online anyway.

[Steve Williams]

I'd like to see Kelly Cates helm the coverage.

She is currently presenting Sky's Saturday night Premier League matches, so that seems unlikely, unfortunately.

Be interesting to see how this effects the ITV Saturday night schedule. The press release says it'll be scheduled to run after BBC One's Match of the Day. So this week, for example, that finishes at 11:45pm. But ITV have a film after the late news, so presumably that puts a stop to them.

As, even though it's a repeat (because it's going out first on ITV4 at 9pm) they won't run it post-midnight?

I would assume that "after Match of the Day" is a figure of speech because there's no way they'd be able to synchronise their schedules with BBC1 that accurately every week, especially if they're trying to work around Strictly and the like earlier in the evening. It'll presumably be around the time MOTD finishes around midnight, much like the rugby highlights they're already showing in a similar slot on Sundays.

They can run it post-midnight if that works best for them, it also says it's getting another repeat on Sunday mornings, so they'll get their money's worth out of it.

As much as this would be a perfect opportunity to resurrect the various Soccer Night shows, there's been too many cutbacks in regional resources since then, and I doubt, sadly, the investment in a regional football highlights service would give the same return than a networked highlights programme on ITV and/or ITV4.

Yeah, I'm not sure even the BBC regions would bring back the regional shows if they had the rights again. But presumably there might be the option for a networked magazine show that could feature various reports and features from across the league clubs, On The Ball-style. Probably not at the time On The Ball used to be on, cos it's a bit busy then football-wise, but would be nice one midweek evening on ITV4 and later that night on ITV1, perhaps.