ITV Lands UEFA Europa League Football

LONDON: ITV has secured a three-year deal for the broadcast rights to UEFA Europa League football, ending Channel 5’s coverage of the competition.

The deal, which runs from the 2012-13 season to 2014-15, will see ITV broadcast the first- and second-pick Europa League matches throughout each competition match week, as well as a highlights program. All matches will run on free-to-air, with the majority featured on ITV4 and ITV.com. Some matches featuring U.K. teams from the quarter-finals onward will be shown on ITV1.

Niall Sloane, ITV’s controller of sport, said: “There is great demand from U.K. viewers to watch domestic teams performing on the European stage and I’m delighted that ITV is extending its long and successful relationship with UEFA to broadcast the top-pick games from throughout the competition.”

Currently, Channel 5 has the rights to broadcast the first-pick of matches in each round and the UEFA Europa League final, ITV has the rights to a selection from the second-, third- and fourth-pick depending on the week.