England’s matches in the UEFA Nations League, European Qualifiers to UEFA EURO 2024 and International Friendlies will be shown live on Channel 4.
Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon:
“As a life-long committed football fan I am personally so delighted that we have these matches on the channel which further reinforce our reputation as a top quality sport broadcaster having been named Sports Network of the Year at this year’s British Sports Journalism Awards.”
Six England games will be shown live on Channel 4 this year starting with their match against Hungary on 4th June, followed three days later with their away match against Germany on 7th June. Gareth Southgate’s men then look to avenge their UEFA EURO final defeat against Italy when they take on the reigning UEFA EURO champions at Molineux on 11th June. This will be the first time that live coverage of the men’s national team will have featured on Channel 4.
The deal struck by Channel 4’s sports team means that all England matches will be shown live on free to air television until 2024. And it will be the first time England UEFA Nations League games will be on free to air television. In total Channel 4 will broadcast 20 live England matches between 2022 to 2024.
Channel 4’s Chief Content Officer Ian Katz:
“After bringing some of the biggest sporting moments of last year to the nation, I’m delighted that Channel 4 will be airing so many mouth-watering England matches on free to air television. This deal shows Channel 4 can compete for some of the biggest properties in sport and will bring substantial new audiences to our award-winning slate of original programming.”
Channel 4 was named Sports Network of the Year at the British Sports Journalism Awards after delivering a host of free to air first class live sporting events to the nation throughout 2021, including Emma Raducanu’s stunning US Open Grand Slam win. It also struck a deal to show live coverage of the winner takes all F1 finale in Abu Dhabi which saw Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton and drew 4.4 million viewers.
Other major live sports coverage on Channel 4 has also included the British & Irish Lions; England’s Test tour of India; Ireland rugby union internationals; and the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games which attracted 20 million viewers. More recently the broadcaster aired more than 80 hours coverage of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Game and struck deals to show live Betfred Super League rugby and Formula E.
Channel 4’s Head of Sport Pete Andrews:
“England matches against Germany are always an exciting prospect and I’m sure the team will be keen to set the record straight against Italy after the defeat in the final of the UEFA EURO.We’re absolutely delighted to have secured this deal with UEFA and I’m sure England fans will be looking forward to the summer with great anticipation.”
