Championship announce television arrangements for football's return
Clubs will be allowed to offer the games in lieu of a refund to season ticket holders, or as part of a wider package.
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Hide AdLeeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield Town, Middlesbrough, Hull City and Barnsley are due to resume their matches behind closed doors from June 20, with the plan for each to play their outstanding fixtures by July 22, before the play-offs.
Matches will be spread across 12 different time slots, with some midweek games starting at 5pm.
Sky Sports will show 30 of the remaining 108 regular-season games, plus the promotion play-offs, which are currently due to be played in the usual format, with two-legged semi-finals and a final.
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Hide AdAll matches, whether on Sky or not, will be available on each club's iFollow or equivalent streaming service. Sky Sports will show the “goals as they go in” from the matches they do not show live.
Fans based overseas will also have access to matches, and Sky's live games will be available to overseas broadcasters.
The Football League describe the arrangement as “one that has limited financial impact on the existing arrangement with the broadcaster at a time when EFL clubs have lost a significant income stream through a lack of gate receipts.”
The Football League's broadcast deal is worth £118m a year.
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Hide AdQuest will continue to provide extended highlights on Saturday evenings and in midweek.
The broadcast arrangements for the first four rounds of Premier League matches were announced on Friday, but the Championship's initial TV games are not expected to be announced until next week. There is no guarantee the matches scheduled to be shown before the pandemic will be on the resumption.
“I would firstly like to thank the team at Sky Sports for their patience and support whilst we have worked through some of the complex issues surrounding our agreement that have arisen as a result of live sport being unable to take place due to the current crisis,” said Football League chairman Rick Parry.
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Hide Ad“Whilst we have only ever wanted to return when it is safe to do, we have always understood that when we did, we had to balance the requirements of our broadcast partners with the unique and challenging financial circumstances that our clubs face.”
Leeds are top of the table and with their large fanbase they are likely to be heavily involved in the Sky schedule as usual. The Whites are seven points clear of the play-off places and hoping to return to the Premier League after 16 years away.
Huddersfield, Middlesbrough, Hull and Barnsley will all be heavily involved in the battle to avoid relegation.
Matches will be played in the following slots:
Friday: 6pm and 8pm
Saturday: 12.30pm, 3pm and 5.30pm
Sunday: 12pm
Tuesday: 5pm, 6pm and 8pm
Wednesday: 5pm, 6pm and 8pm.
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