Official TV channel of Liverpool F.C.
Television channel
LFCTV (Liverpool F.C. TV) is the dedicated official channel for English football club Liverpool F.C. which launched on 20 September 2007. It was formerly offered as part of the Setanta Sports package, but is currently a stand-alone channel.[1]
The channel has also always been broadcast live on the club's official website as part of the e-Season Ticket subscription, the site's premium content offering.
On 28 October 2014, LFCTV launched in HD on Sky channel 455. At the same time, it became a premium channel.
On 1 June 2018, the standard-definition channel closed on Sky, and did so on Virgin Media on 30 January 2019.
History
Following its entry into the UK sports market, Setanta Sports offered to create dedicated sports channels for numerous football clubs. These included LFCTV plus Arsenal TV, Celtic TV and Rangers TV, which operated in a similar manner to the existing and independently operated MUTV and Chelsea TV. Setanta declined to put a value on each of the initial three-year deals, but included rights payments from Setanta to each club, as well as payments for a package of marketing and promotional rights.
Launched in September 2007, with branding designed by Michael Sutton-Long at Liquid TV, the channel is broadcast seven days a week between the hours of 10:00 UTC and 01:30 UTC. Following the demise of Setanta Sports GB, it was available free-to-view on Sky and it was available on Virgin Media's XL Pack until 28 October 2014, when the HD version launched. It is also available via the club's premium online subscription package, LFCTV Online.[2][3][4]
On 14 October 2009, the channel made history by becoming the first club channel to broadcast a World Cup qualifying match live, when it showed the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 5 match between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Spain, which Spain went on to win 5-2, which resulted in them finishing their group with a 100% record.[5]
LFCTV moved studios in Summer 2010 and for a period stopped broadcasting live shows, the broadcasting hours were also reduced to 12 hours per day. On 12 July 2010 the channel resumed live broadcasting from their new studio which has views of the Royal Liver Building and the Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas, Liverpool behind the set.
From August 2011, the club started to broadcast a pre-match show for an hour live from Anfield before each home game from an outside studio in one of the hospitality boxes in the centenary stand, with a live show also at half time and at full time. LFCTV broadcast a live build-up show from outside Wembley Stadium from the morning and right up to kick-off time of both the 2012 FA Cup Final and 2012 Football League Cup Final. They also broadcast a live post game analysis show after both finals, with exclusive coverage and interviews from the Liverpool dressing room after the victorious League cup final.[6]
For the 2012–13 season the channel broadcast full match commentary of each home game with commentary from Steve Hunter and a guest, usually Gary Gillespie or David Fairclough. During the commentary live pictures of the crowd inside the stadium is shown and also pictures of the commentary team.
For the 2013–14 season the pre-match and post match coverage for home matches is presented from the TV studio in the Centenary Stand at Anfield with live match commentary of all home and away matches provided with the screen displaying the match score and match time.
