BT SPORT presenter Jake Humphrey has blasted reports he’s been dropped as the main Premier League anchor on the station as “misleading nonsense”.
Several media reports have suggested Humphrey was axed from the main role he has held since BT Sport’s launch.
The stories came out as Lynsey Hipgrave, who has stood in for Humphrey and hosted BT’s Europa League coverage has confirmed she’ll be leading the broadcaster’s Premier League coverage starting with Saturday’s Fulham v Liverpool 12.30pm match.
“After a weekend of dreams coming true for women in football the dreams of a mad Geordie lass have also come true…I couldn’t be any prouder to be leading BT Sport’s Premier League coverage this season,” she tweeted.
Humphrey responded saying Hipgrave would be “amazing” in the role saying he was “delighted” for her.
Confronting the stories it wasn’t his choice to vacate BT’s Premier League coverage, he tweeted: “Ignore the misleading nonsense headlines. I spoke to BT about being too busy and we agreed I’d host less Premier League games.”
He confirmed he would still host BT’s Champions League coverage and will present some of the channel’s Premier League matches.
“I’l still host some, but one of my favourite people, Lynsey Hipgrave, gets to lead the coverage and I couldn’t be happier for her.”
BT Sport has the rights to 52 Premier League games in new season compared to Sky’s 128 and Amazon’s 20.
ALL CONFIRMED PREMIER LEAGUE TV GAMES SO FAR FOR THE NEW SEASON HERE
THE EFL has confirmed the timetable it hopes to reveal which games Sky have been selected for live TV screening.
The league is stressing the dates are “illustrative” only and may change, but for the games up to the end of February it hopes to give a minimum five weeks’ notice of TV changes which then falls to four and three weeks’ notice for the climax of the season.
It means the next set of games for the remainder of August should be revealed by the end of this week.
Sky has the exclusive live TV rights for the EFL’s three divisions as well as the Carabao Cup and Papa John’s Trophy. Highlights are moving to ITV with their first show on Saturday July 30 at 9pm on ITV 4 – see HERE
You can see all the EFL TV games selected so far HERE
EFL DATES FOR TV SELECTIONS (illustrative only and may change)
Remainder of August Selections for 13 August to 31 August by 8 July – announced on time HERE
Selections for 03 September to 17 September by 29 July – announced on time HERE
Selections for 01 October to 22 October by 26 August.
Selections for 29 October to 12 November by 23 September.
Selections for 19 November to 03 December by 14 October.
Selections for 10 December to 01 January by 04 November.
Selections for 14 January to 04 February by 03 December.
Selections for 11 February to 25 February by 06 January.
Selections for 04 March by 03 February.
Selections for 11 March to 15 March by 10 February.
Selections for 18 March by 17Â February.
Selections for 26 March (Int Break) by 24 February.
Selections for 01 April by 03 March.
Selections for 07 April to 10 April (Easter) by 10 March.
THE Premier League TV games on Sky and BT for August and September have been confirmed.
Previously the opening weekend’s matches had been revealed. Here’s the full list which now goes through to mid-September when there’s an international break.
Sky’s have first pick of every weekend matchround with their games including Chelsea v Spurs, Man United v Liverpool and Man United v Arsenal.
BT Sport’s picks include Everton v Liverpool and have an entire August midweek round of ten games across three nights including Liverpool v Newcastle, West Ham v Spurs and Leicester v Man United.
>>DATES EACH SET OF PREMIER LEAGUE TV FIXTURES WILL BE ANNOUNCED HERE
AMAZON Prime Video will show some live Champions League games while the BBC will screen free-to-air highlights as part of a new UK TV deal confirmed by UEFA.
BT Sport has retained the bulk of Champions League live rights with Amazon showing the first pick Tuesday night game from each round of fixtures – 17 games in all when the new expanded format for the competition kicks in from 2024.
The BBC will screen a Wednesday night highlights programme through the deal and will also have highlights of the final.
Apart from the Amazon Tuesday night first pick game, BT has bagged all other matches as well as the Europa and Europa Conference League competitions.
The new deal won’t kick in from until 2024 so the upcoming season’s Champions and Europa League live matches and highlights will all be on BT Sport under the same arrangements as last season’s.
The BBC’s capture of highlights will see them return to free-to-air broadcast of the competition for the first time in three years. BT’s current deal covers live and highlights coverage so their dedicated highlights programme was only available to subscribers, although they did make short video highlights packages of matches available free online and via YouTube. Previously highlights were available on ITV.
Although Amazon’s rights will only see them show one game per round, it will mean they now will show top teams all season round. Their only other rights for live football are two entire match days of Premier League football of one midweek match day and the Boxing Day fixtures.
UEFA EUROPEAN COMPETITION RIGHTS 2024-25 to 2026-27 SEASONS
BT SPORT
– 553 OF THE 550 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, EUROPA LEAGUE AND EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE GAMES EXCLUSIVELY LIVE EACH SEASON (EUROPA COMPETITIONS ONLY ON BT SPORT WITH EVERY SINGLE GAME AVAILABLE LIVE.)
BT SPORT HAS CONFIRMED IT WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE ALL THREE FINALS FREE-TO-AIR ON SOME PLATFORMS.
AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
– 17 ‘FIRST PICK’ TUESDAY NIGHT CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GAMES EACH SEASON
BBC SPORT
– WEDNESDAY NIGHT CHAMPIONS LEAGE HIGHLIGHTS AND FINAL HIGHLIGHTS AS WELL
WHICH PREMIER LEAGUE GAMES ARE AMAZON PRIME SHOWING IN THE NEW SEASON? HERE
POPULAR presenter Mark Chapman will make his Sky Sports debut on Tuesday night as he anchors the broadcaster’s Carabao Cup coverage.
Sky has exclusive live rights to the competition again and will usually screen two matches from each round right through to the Wembley final in February.
Chapman will front the live coverage, but is expected to continue to work with the BBC on Match of the Day 2 and Radio 5 Live.
Sky’s director of football Gary Hughes said Chapman would bring “a wealth of football knowledge and broadcasting experience” to the Sky coverage.
Sky are showing Bradford v Hull and Sheffield Wednesday v Sunderland.
Free-to-air highlights are moving from Quest to ITV as part of their two-year deal with the EFL – see more HERE.
TUESDAY AUGUST 9
7.45PM BRADFORD V HULL
EFL CUP SKY SPORTS FOOTBALL/MAIN EVENT
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 10
7.45PM SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY V SUNDERLAND
EFL CUP SKY SPORTS FOOTBALL/MAIN EVENT
ITV 4 will have Carabao Cup highlights from 10.30pm to 12midnight on Wednesday night.
ITV’s new EFL highlights show makes its debut on Saturday night with a two-hour show promising every goal from all three divisions.
Hugh Woozencroft and Jules Breach will front the show after ITV have agreed a two-season deal for the highlights rights, taking over from Quest TV.
Woozencroft presents on Talksport and has previously worked for BBC Sport. Breach anchors England matches on Channel 4. Before that she was best known for her work on BT Sport Score.
They are promising to show them at 9pm on ITV 4 every Saturday (the same slot used by Quest) with repeats on the main ITV channel later that night and on Sunday mornings.
The rights also cover the Carabao Cup and Papa John’s Trophy.
ITV say each show will feature every goal from every EFL match and detailed analysis from a panel of expert pundits, although none of those have yet been announced.
While Quest’s coverage has been praised, ITV’s bigger reach is likely to give the EFL competitions a much larger audience.
Some fans had hoped Colin Murray, who fronted Quest’s coverage, would host ITV’s offering but it was widely expected ITV wanted their own presenters.
On Twitter, Woozencroft praised Murray and Quest’s coverage, but revealed the same production team would be working on the new ITV show.
Sky Sports will continues to provide live match coverage – all confirmed live EFL TV games are listed HERE
ITV’S DEAL FOR EFL HIGHLIGHTS IN FULL
– Championship, League One and League Two highlights programme at 9pm on Saturday nights on ITV 4 with a repeat on the main ITV channel later in the evening and again on Sunday mornings.
– Midweek highlights when full fixture round takes place on ITV.
– Extensive coverage of the play-off semi-finals and finals.
– Highlights shows from each round of the Carabao Cup and the semi-finals and final.
– A one-hour highlights show on ITV 4 from the Papa John’s Trophy Final.
– all shows will also be available on the ITV Hub to stream for 30 days following first transmission.
PREMIER League officials have revealed the provisional dates it hopes to announce which games have been selected for live TV broadcast.
However, due to the complicated nature of the picking system for broadcasters, policing arrangements and games being moved to accommodate cup competitions, the league has struggled to stick to the timetable in the past.
The 2022-23 season will see the same TV arrangements as the previous year as part of a rolled over new three-year deal with Sky, BT and Amazon – see HERE.
Sky will again show 128 live games and has the first pick of all the regular weekend rounds, typically screening up to five matches a weekend across Friday Night Football, Saturday Night Football, Super Sunday and Monday Night Football. BT again has the Saturday lunchtime matches including a number of second pick matches.
Amazon Prime Video has two complete rounds of games (20 matches in all) – an October midweek round and the Boxing Day which are likely to be staggered across different times slots and dates as in previous seasons – the games Amazon have can be seen HERE.
Free-to-air highlights will again be shown thrown the BBC’s Match of the Day.
DATES WHEN PREMIER LEAGE HOPE TO ANNOUNCE FIXTURES CHANGES FOR LIVE TV GAMES
JULY 5 – AUGUST/SEPTEMBER CHANGES – ANNOUNCED ON TIME HERE
JULY 29 – OCTOBER CHANGES
SEPTEMBER 13 – NOVEMBER CHANGES
OCTOBER 11 – DECEMBER /JANUARY CHANGES
DECEMBER 6 – FEBRUARY CHANGES
JANUARY 25 – MARCH CHANGES
FEBRUARY 21 – APRIL CHANGES
MARCH 23 – MATCHWEEK 35 CHANGES
MARCH 30 – MATCHWEEK 36 CHANGES
APRIL 7 – MATCHWEEK 37 CHANGES
Final day selections will be confirmed after the completed of match week 37 (all games will kick-off at the same time of 4pm for the final day so no fixtures will be moved).
All dates above are approximate and are subject to change. Source: Premier League
Gabby Logan, Alex Scott, Reshmin Chowdhury, Eilidh Barbour, Kelly Somers, Jo Currie, Thomas Kane, Nicola McCarthy.
PUNDITS
Fara Williams, Ian Wright, Kelly Smith, Anita Asante, Izzy Christiansen, Rachel Brown-Finnis, Sue Smith, Caragh Hamilton, Gail Redmond, Laura Georges, Jonas Eidevall, Vicky Losada, Anouk Hoogendijk, Scott Booth,
LEAD COMMENTATORS
Robyn Cowen and Vicki Sparks.
ALL EURO 2022 GAMES WILL ALSO BE BROADCAST ON THE BBC IPLAYER AND BBC SPORT ONLINE/APP