World Cup on TV in UK question

Cafe Society
1

hi,

i’m in london for the next few weeks. Most of the matches (Football/Soccer World Cup) are being shown live by either ITV or BBC. However, some matches ( a total of 8 x 2) are being played at the same time.

It seems that neither ITV nor BBC are showing some of the matches in its entirety, including Germany vs Cameroon and Argentina vs Sweden.

I am wondering, since i know nothing about UK TV, whether Sky Sports or any other pay channel, or any other channel at all, is showing these matches in its entirety, whether live or recorded, in the london, UK region ?

i wasn’t sure which forum to post this in; this seemed to be the telly addict forum so i decided to post here. If any mods see the need to shift this to GQ or MPSIMS please feel free…

2

If you cant get access to Eurosport, I’m sure they will show them all.

I’m watching on RTE, who will show all the games.

3

As far as I’m aware BBC and ITV have shown all the matches in their entirety. I’d be very surprised if they didnt, espesially since Sweden and Argentina are in England’s group.

4

My Mum, who’s not a big football fan, would say you’ve done well to avoid seeing every match :wink: .

OK, the UK has 5 ‘free’ (you pay an annual TV license) terrestial channels, plus the usual satellite stuff you have to subscribe to.

All the games are on either BBC1 and ITV. They are shown live - often at some early hour in the morning - and then the highlights come on in the evening.
You can get these two channels anywhere in London that has a TV set.

Also we do have a selection of sports pubs that have big screen satellite. I assume they will show all the games, either on terrestial or satellite.
(I don’t have satellite myself, so haven’t looked up whether the games are on there. I expect they are.)

Hope this helps.

5

For the next four days, there will be four games per day with two being played simultaneously.

That’s supposed to keep down any shenanigans from teams trying to manipulate the results (see 1978, Argentina-Peru; 1982-West Germany-Austria).

So you will have to make some tough decisions.

6

Okay, lets take tomorrow (morning):

7.30am kick off (UK time): Denmark vs. France
7.30am kick off (UK time): Senegal vs. Uruguay

  • both Group A and the final games (played simultaneously to avoid monkey business as per Germany vs. Austria in a previous tournament).

ITV has the dibs on both live games tomorrow but will broadcast only the Denmark vs. France game live.

BBC shows highlights of all the games at 7.00pm as does ITV at 10.30pm – from what I can see, neither channel will show the Senegal vs. Uruguay in full or live. And yep, that’s the first game of this tournament to not be shown in full and live to my knowledge.

The same pattern is repeated at 12.30pm when the last two games in Group E are played (ITV showing Saudi Arabia vs. Ireland live rather than Cameroon vs. Germany – highlights of the latter being shown on both later in the day).
I guess that will be the pattern for this stage of the tournament i.e. until the final Group stage (8 x 2 games) is complete.

7

Sky Television won’t be showing World Cup games. They haven’t got the rights. In fact they are prevented by law from having the rights. World Cup games are on the government’s list of ‘ring-fenced’ or ‘crown jewel’ sports fests that must be available on the so-called free-to-air TV services.

BBC and ITV will share the matches. For the most part, they will display a tiny amount of common sense and not duplicate coverage, but if there’s an especially important England game later on they may both decide to show it, duplication or not. It’s happened before.

8

But we Yanks get both games live. I’ve got my portable TV ready. I will likely watch France-Denmark on the big screen and Uruguay-Senegal on the small screen.

9

Hi, thanks for all your inputs. Appreciate it.

I have Telewest Digital. The free BBC and ITV channels are availabke to me.

TwistofFate, EuroSport makes no mention of showing matches live or full length.

London_Calling, that was exactly my understanding… but… today ITV2 showed the Senegal vs Uruguay match live and in it’s entirety while France vs Denmark was shown live at the same time on ITV1. Cameroon vs. Germany will be shown on ITV2 live today. So you can make the choice of game to watch.

BobT, my decision is made simpler by the fact that i have access to 2 tv sets simultaneously. Now i just have to choose the audio stream.

So now as i understand it, every set of simultaneous matches that ITV shows, they will show one on ITV1 and the other on ITV2.

However, take the example of England vs Nigeria and Argentina vs Sweden. The England vs Nigeria is being shown live on BBC tomorrow. BBC’s listings state that only the highlights of the Arg vs Swe match will be shown. ITV has no mention of this full match either. Infact, i was surprised ITV did not advertise that the other live game would be shown on ITV2 this morning.

Anyone who can shed new light ? i’ll be glad to shout GOOOAAALLL and award you my golden boot :slight_smile:

10

Basically, I think you know as much as we do. I’m not convinced the terrestrial stations have decided exactly which matches take priority.

11

I think I’ve got it.

Firstly I should have explaned that both BBC and ITV have an extra channel, which you can get free when you subscribe to a cable or satellite service.

I don’t have this myself, but it’s just been announced by Gary Lineker on BBC1 that the Argentina v Sweden game will be on livetomorrow morning on the BBC extra channel.

So you need to find out if your TV includes that access.

12

i am filled with glee :slight_smile: thank you so much.

I’ll be tuning into all BBC channels tomorrow morn. BBC 2, 4, Choice. Hopefully it’s on one of these.

GOOOAAALLLLLL.
you get the golden boot. yay. :slight_smile:

13

Oh I see, ITV2…sorry for not mentioning all the options. I get so confused now that we have so many extra channels popping up everywhere.