ITV have agreed a major shake-up of their EFL highlights show.
They are changing the format of the Saturday package featuring action from the Championship, League One and Two. Television bosses are cutting back on guest pundits, scrapping the studio set-up and are set to reduce the running time for this coming season.
Instead, they will introduce a quickfire goals show presented from pitchside at one of the EFL grounds with post-match interviews from players and managers. Current presenters Hugh Woozencroft and Jules Breach will remain as mainstays as they have rotated presenting duties on the English Football League Highlights show.
But there will be no place for regular pundits like Dean Ashton, Jamie Mackie and Sam Parkin who all featured last season. The show was aired last season at 9pm on ITV4 and lasted for a marathon two hours before being repeated on ITV ’s main channel after Match of the Day on the BBC.
The hope was that fans of EFL clubs would tune in to the first airing then general football fans would switch over after Match of the Day for another fix of goals and action - but now it will be done in a new-look format.
It comes as yet another major football TV shake-up after BT Sport - now being rebranded as TNT Sports - scrapped their Score show on a Saturday afternoon. Breach, who is one of the rising stars on sport on TV, was the presenter on the Score show but also works on Channel 4 ’s England coverage and will surely be front and centre on TNT Sports in the long term.
Sky have also undergone a huge raft of changes as their highly-respected tunnel interviewer Geoff Shreeves announced this week he is leaving and much-loved commentator Martin Tyler is also going with Peter Drury doing Sky games from next season.
Jeff Stelling, one of the most popular figures on television, has also stood down from Sky’s Soccer Saturday show. A whole raft of departures from Sky have also been confirmed.
TNT Sports are likely to make substantial changes and Jake Humphrey has already announced his departure after being the presenter for BT Sport for the past ten years.
ITV are a year into their two-year contract for the EFL highlights show - which also includes the Carabao Cup and Papa John’s Trophy - and clubs like the fact they are back on terrestrial TV as well as their regular community features.
But the highlights package has been shifted from pillar to post in recent years, having previously been shown on Quest. The EFL announced a record-breaking five-year deal with Sky for live games worth £935m from the 2024/25 season which is a real game-changer.
That also underlines the popularity of the EFL which enjoyed bumper attendances last season with 21.7 million supporters passing through the turnstiles in the 2022/23 season which is the highest since 1953-54.
But there are fears about the new overseas TV deal for the FA Cup with the Football Association considering selling them to the Premier League.
There is still no financial compromise deal in place between the EFL and Premier League and with major changes to the Carabao Cup and FA Cup replays likely to be scrapped from 2024 because of the expanded Champions League format, there will be greater pressure to find a solution.
