Channel 4 announces English football deal

British free-to-air TV network Channel 4 has secured the rights to broadcast all of England’s national team games for the next two years. The newly-announced partnership sees Channel 4 replace ITV and Sky Sports as the national team’s broadcast partner.

The agreement will see Channel 4 broadcast all of England’s men’s national team games between 2022 and 2024, which will include matches from the UEFA Nations League, UEFA EURO 2024 Qualifiers and international friendlies. The agreement will kick off from June 4, 2022, when England face Hungary in the Nations League.

Pete Andrews, Channel 4, Head of Sports, commented:

“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.”

Alex Mahon, Channel 4 CEO, stated:

“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 sports broadcaster having been named Sports Network of the Year at this year’s British Sports Journalism Awards.”

Ian Katz, Channel 4’s Chief Content Officer, added:

“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.”

The deal, however, does not cover England matches at the Qatar World Cup later this year, which will be broadcast by ITV and the BBC. Yet, for Channel 4, it’s been a strong run, with the network having broadcast: England’s Test tour of India, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, Irish Rugby Union international and the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing.