Five to give iPhone users Europa League content for one-off £3.99 fee

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Channel Five is to offer Apple iPhone users the chance to watch a season of live football matches for a one-off fee. Five, which has the broadcast rights to the Uefa Europa League, formerly known as the Uefa Cup, is to launch an application on the Apple App Store tomorrow. The application will allow UK owners of the iPhone and iPod Touch to watch all of Five's Thursday night matches as well as highlights from each round of the competition for the 2009/10 season. There are at least 16 rounds of competition.

To access the matches, which start tomorrow with the clash between Celtic and Rapid Vienna, Apple phone owners will pay a one-off fee of £3.99.

"The app is attractively priced and means never having to miss a minute of live action when you're on the move," said Jonathan Lewis, the head of digital media at Five. "It also exemplifies Five's ambition to extend the reach of our long-form, ad-supported video content to as many platforms as possible, with the aim of generating additional incremental advertising revenues."

The service is being launched in conjunction with Livestation, the online TV company. "The large screen size of the iPhone combined with the flat-fee data packages offered by mobile operators mean that finally people can enjoy mobile TV in a way that was not possible before," said Matteo Berlucchi, the chief executive of Livestation.

Source:guardian