LFCTV (Liverpool F.C. TV) is the dedicated official channel for English football club

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...

which launched on 20 September 2007. It was formerly offered as part of the

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports Media is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland and in Tbilisi, Georgia, broadcasting throughout select Eurasian countries, and the Philippines. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Iris ...

package, but is currently a stand-alone channel. 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,

offered to create dedicated sports channels for numerous football clubs. These included LFCTV plus

Arsenal TV Arsenal TV was a sports television channel devoted to coverage of the English football club Arsenal F.C. Until June 2009, it was a part of the Setanta Sports package and was similar to Setanta's other channels Celtic TV, Rangers TV and LFC ...

Celtic TV Celtic TV is a British premium streaming service devoted to coverage of the Scottish football club Celtic F.C. From 2004-2009, Celtic TV existed as a sports television channel operated by Irish Sports broadcasting company Setanta Sports. Hist ...

and

Rangers TV Rangers TV is a British premium streaming service devoted to coverage of the Scottish football club Rangers F.C. From 2004-2009, Rangers TV existed as a sports television channel operated by Irish sports broadcasting company Setanta Sports. H ...

, which operated in a similar manner to the existing and independently operated MUTV and

Chelsea TV Chelsea TV was a British subscription based sports television channel, dedicated to the fans of the English Premier League football club, Chelsea. The channel first launched in August 2001 on Sky Digital. The station was registered with Ofco ...

. 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 Free-to-view (FTV) is a term used for audiovisual transmissions that are provided free without any form of continual subscription. It differs from free-to-air (FTA) in that the program is encrypted. Free-to-view vs. free-to-air The free-to-vie ...

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

and it was available on

Virgin Media Virgin Media Limited is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 ...

'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. 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 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

match between

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, which Spain went on to win 5-2, which resulted in them finishing their group with a 100% record. 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 The Royal Liver Building is a Grade I listed building in Liverpool, England. It is located at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building is one of Liverpool's '' Three Graces'', which line th ...

and the

Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas, Liverpool The Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas is the Anglican parish church of Liverpool. The site is said to have been a place of worship since at least the 1250s. The church is situated close to the River Mersey near the Pier Head. The Chapel of ...

behind the set. From August

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, the club started to broadcast a pre-match show for an hour live from

Anfield Anfield is a Association football, football stadium in the area of Anfield (suburb), Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since its formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the ...

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 Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

from the morning and right up to kick-off time of both the

2012 FA Cup Final The 2012 FA Cup final was a football match between Chelsea and Liverpool on 5 May 2012. It was the final match of the 2011–12 FA Cup, the 131st season of the world's oldest football knockout competition, the FA Cup. Chelsea were participati ...

and

2012 Football League Cup Final The 2012 Football League Cup final was a association football, football match between Cardiff City F.C., Cardiff City and Liverpool F.C., Liverpool on 26 February 2012 at Wembley Stadium, London. It was the final match of the 2011–12 Football ...

. 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. For the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season the channel broadcast full match commentary of each home game with commentary from Steve Hunter and a guest, usually

Gary Gillespie Gary Thompson Gillespie (born 5 July 1960) is a Scottish former professional football centre-back who played for Falkirk, Coventry City, Liverpool, Celtic and the Scotland national team. Playing career Falkirk Gillespie started his career with ...

David Fairclough David Fairclough (born 5 January 1957) is an English retired professional footballer, most famous for playing for Liverpool as a striker during the 1970s and 1980s. Life and playing career Known affectionately as ''Supersub'' (because he was ...

. 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.

Channel content

*Exclusive interviews with staff and players *Full ninety-minute replays of every Liverpool match in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

, Champions League and League Cup, including post match coverage & studio analysis *Pre-match coverage of all Liverpool home games in live @ anfield *Pre match analysis and chat in Big Match Build Up every Friday at 18.00 *Live news programme, 'You're on LFCTV' at 18.00GMT (repeated at 22.30GMT) Every Monday *Classic matches including the top one hundred Premier League games *Many Liverpool friendlies and all reserve games are broadcast live *Interactive studio discussions and call-in show, "This is Anfield" with former Liverpool players, supporters, celebrity fans and football experts *Goals, Goals, Goals shows Liverpool goals on various themes including goals from players from a particular era, season, position, against certain teams etc. *LFC's Most Wanted is a countdown of the most watched videos on the official website. *Documentaries based on the club's history *News from in and around the training ground with 'Inside Melwood'. *"60 Minutes with" interviews with current and past players. *The

John Barnes John Charles Bryan Barnes (born 7 November 1963) is a former professional football player and manager. Often considered one of the greatest England players of all time and one of Liverpool's greatest ever players, Barnes currently works as an ...

show which was first shown in 2007. The show sees former player Barnes interviewing past players and personalities from the club in a talk show type setting. *"

John Bishop John Bishop (born 30 November 1966) is an English comedian, presenter, actor and former semi pro footballer. His first television appearance was in 2007 on the RTÉ topical-comedy show '' The Panel'', where he was a regular panelist until 20 ...

meets..." where comedian and lifelong Liverpool fan John Bishop talks to former players about their experience and time at the club. *Celebrity Kop Club where famous Liverpool fans are interviewed about their love for the club. *Press Box a chat with regional journalists about reds news. *Kop Talkin - A chat covering all reds news over the week. * #LFCWORLD *LFC360 *LFC's Most Exciting Games - A countdown of Liverpool's top 100 most exciting

games. This was first shown during the summer of 2012. *The Liverpool Library - Each programme features a new or recently released LFC themed book with an interview with the author. *Thursday Night Live - A live studio show featuring guest interviews and previews of the weekends game. This show started for the 2013–14 season and replaced the previous show Friday Night Live. *LFC Now- Daily news bulletin with all of the latest news from the club with interviews and match highlights.

Presenters

*Peter McDowall - Lead TV presenter and commentator, pitchside announcer *Claire Rourke - since 2007 *Paul Salt -

Real Radio Real Radio was a network of five regional radio stations broadcasting to North East England, North West England, Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire. Each station broadcasts a mix of local and networked programming. On Tuesday 6 May 2014, the statio ...

presenter *Sophie Fairclough -

's Daughter *

- former Liverpool and England footballer presented the ''John Barnes Show'' in 2007 *

- comedian and lifelong fan. *Alastair Mann - Freelance TV Presenter. *Peter Stevenson - Freelance TV Presenter. *Steve Hothersall - Radio City presenter. *Mark Benstead - freelance TV presenter *

Rosanna Davison Rosanna Diane Davison (born 17 April 1984) is an Irish actress, singer, writer, model and beauty queen who was crowned Miss World 2003. She is the daughter of musician Chris de Burgh, and the song "For Rosanna" was written by her father for his ...

- briefly in 2013, former Miss World, daughter of

Chris de Burgh Christopher John Davison (born 15 October 1948), known professionally as Chris de Burgh ( ), is a British-Irish singer-songwriter and musician. He started out as an art rock performer but subsequently started writing more pop-oriented material ...

. *Amanda Burden - USA based presenter since December 2013.

References

External links

* {{Association football on television Liverpool F.C. Football club television channels in the United Kingdom Television channels in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations established in 2007 2007 establishments in the United Kingdom Premier League on television