ITV is lining up a bid for a Saturday night football rights package that would compete with BBC's Match of the Day. This month, the BBC paid the Premier League E147 million to secure the return of its traditional Saturday night football slot Ð held by ITV in the previous deal - for coverage of next season's matches.
ITV's rival package would allow it to show full, 90-minute coverage of one of the best Premiership matches of the day, starting at 8.30pm - two hours before the BBC programme goes on air.
The alternative programme, which would probably be shown on the digital channel ITV2, could be available for E35 million. The deal would also let ITV show 45-minute highlights of another game at 10pm - clashing with the the start of Match of the Day - and highlights of up to four other Saturday games after midnight, according to a report in the Independent newspaper.
ITV2 is available free of charge on digital terrestrial network Freeview and the 'near-live' package would be the first chance of the weekend to watch Premiership football in homes that do not have access to B
SkyB.
The near-live package would apply only to Premiership games not already selected by B
SkyB for live coverage. The satellite broadcaster paid a total of E1,433 billion for its right to show 138 live games during the season.
If ITV bids for the near-live rights it will not be able to show highlights of the games broadcast by B
SkyB until after midnight - unlike Match of the Day which is able to screen clips from all of the day's games.
ITV has so far offered only E14 million for the near-live rights, with cable company Telewest bidding slightly less. But the Premier League is hoping for between E35 million and E56 million and has called for new bids by 5 September.
29-08-2003
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