Champions League Live
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2008) |
Champions League Live is a football programme currently shown on both ITV and Sky Sports in the UK, broadcasting live UEFA Champions League football.
Under the current rights agreement, ITV show two live matches on a Tuesday (on ITV/STV and ITV4), with Sky Sports showing all other matches via its interactive service. Then on Wednesday, Sky show all eight games, including those involving the English clubs. Both channels show the final live. Despite sharing the name, the two channels' programmes are different productions.
[edit] ITV
On ITV, Steve Rider, Matt Smith and Craig Doyle share presenting duties. Pundits include Robbie Earle, Andy Townsend and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. The commentators are Clive Tyldesley, Jon Champion and Peter Drury, with analysts David Pleat and Jim Beglin.
When ITV Sport have the rights to a Scottish Champions League match, ITV's Scottish equivalent, STV broadcast their own programme, produced by Setanta Sports. Jim Delahunt returned to STV screens after a two year gap to host the highlights programmes, with Rob MacLean also returning to STV, after an 18 year gap to front the live matches.
[edit] Sky Sports
On Sky Sports, there are a large number of commentators and co-commentators due to the interactive coverage showing every match live. The programme is presented in the Sky Sports studio, covering all matches shown. Richard Keys is the presenter, with punditry variously from Jamie Redknapp, Andy Gray, Ruud Gullit, Ray Wilkins, Graeme Souness and Glenn Hoddle. Commentators include Martin Tyler, Rob Hawthorne, Ian Darke, Alan Parry, Kevin Keatings, Bill Leslie and Rob Palmer.

