ITV and FA in deal to show non-league FA Cup games

chris

Non-league FA Cup matches will be made widely available for the first time, following a deal between ITV Local, ITV.com and The Football Association.

ITV and the FA will film preliminary rounds of FA Cup action when more than 400 clubs play for their chance to make it through to the first round proper.

Matches will be filmed through August, September and October, with highlights packages made available to watch on ITVLocal.com, ITV.com and TheFA.com.

Clubs that are not shown can upload their own club videos to ITV Local's Grassroots Sport website.

The 2008-09 FA Cup season has seen a record entry, with the competition kicking off on 16 August.

ITV has TV rights to broadcast FA Cup games and England internationals as part of a four-year deal from the start of the 2008/9 season.

Under the terms of the deal, ITV1 will broadcast live coverage of 16 FA Cup games per season including first pick live matches from each round, plus one semi-final exclusively live. The FA Cup Final will be broadcast live on ITV1.

ITV has also secured the rights to 18 England International games across the term of the deal, including all home qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.

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