BT Sport rejigs Saturday line-up
August 4, 2016
Following its success in securing a broader range of Premier League live coverage rights, BT Sport has unveiled a new Saturday TV line-up for 2016-17 season, including a new football results show, BT Sport Score, ahead of live Saturday evening Premier League action.
BT Sport Score kicks off on Saturday afternoons from August 13th at 2.30pm presented by Mark Pougatch, who will be joined by a host of new BT Sport pundits including former England international Jermaine Jenas, former Leeds United, Liverpool and Australia star and Watford coach Harry Kewell alongside established BT Sport analysts Robbie Savage, Harry Redknapp, David James and ex-referee Howard Webb.
The show will keep viewers up to date with the action from all the matches taking place across the UK and the big games in Europe, including the FA Women’s Super League (WSL). Guests on the show will include current managers, recently retired players, former referees as well as ex-players and leading figures from the WSL game. The show will also include Fantasy Football updates.
Following the show, at around 5.00pm on Saturdays, BT Sport will broadcast an exclusively live Premier League game presented by Jake Humphrey. The 2016/17 season will see BT Sport showing more Premier League games than ever before in addition to BT Sport’s exclusive coverage of elite European competitions including the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.
Following the live Premier League action on Saturday evening, Humphrey and the pundits will bring the curtain down on the day’s action at 8pm with Premier League Tonight, featuring discussion and analysis of the day’s key stories.
Live football will kick off on BT Sport at 12:15pm on Saturdays with a match from the Ladbrokes Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) or the Vanarama National League. BT Sport will be covering the first appearance of newly-promoted Maidstone United in the Vanarama National League, where they host relegation victims York City on their artificial 3G pitch, the first such game at that level.
Simon Green, head of BT Sport, said: “Football fans can look forward to a topical feast of football on Saturday on BT Sport with exciting new shows alongside fantastic exclusively live action. This season we will show more Premier League games than ever before at the new kick off time of 5.30pm.
“BT Sport Score will keep people up-to-date with all the news whilst offering diverse opinions in a relaxed and informal way. Premier League Tonight will also talk about the best action and dissect any controversial moments from the day from 8.00pm on a Saturday evening.”
This season will see BT Sport showing more UHD games than ever before, with at least three live games each week from football and rugby. This will include every Premier League game, at least 60 Aviva Premiership rugby games, at least 30 Vanarama National League games and 10 FA WSL games. Home matches for British teams in the UEFA Champions League will also be shown at least once during group stages and the UEFA Europa League will also be broadcast in UHD, as well as live speedway, hockey and the popular weekly studio show Rugby Tonight.
As a result of the new look Saturday on BT Sport, Saturday afternoon Aviva Premiership Rugby games move to BT Sport 2. BT Sport is also showing its first international cricket with Australia taking on South Africa during the autumn and winter months.