In UK, ITV and Setanta have won the online, mobile and video-on-demand rights to show much of English soccer from summer 2008 – the first time the newer platforms have featured specifically in the governing Football Association’s (FA) offering. The TV broadcasters today won the rights to FA Cup, international and other matches with a 425 million GBP ($833 million) bid that snatches big chunks of the sport from BBC and BSkyB and allows them to air matches on their digital and analogue terrestrial channels as well as cable pay-per-view.
The FA said ITV1 can now show goal video clips via fixed and mobile internet, while Setanta Sports will for the first time show highlights via a new VOD service. But either ITV is not giving specifics at this stage or it does not yet know how exactly it will use these new digital rights – a spokesman told me it was 18 months away from the start of the contract so had plenty of time in which to announce the detail.
Since the FA signed its last rights away, new platforms including mobile TV have emerged; ITV1 is now simulcast over 3G UK networks. The broadcaster is still developing plans broadband internet TV.