''EFL on Quest'' was a football highlights programme on the Quest channel in the United Kingdom. The programme covered the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...

, taking over from Channel 5's '' Football League Tonight''.

History

Starting from the 2018–19 season, the four-year deal saw Quest provide 90 minutes of extensive match highlights of the

English Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

and

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

, hosted by

Colin Murray Colin Murray (born Luke Wright on 10 March 1977) is a Northern Irish radio and television presenter. In 2010, he became host of BBC Television's ''Match of the Day 2'' on BBC Two, while still anchoring shows on BBC Radio 5 Live, including '' 5 ...

, in primetime at 9pm every Saturday night. As a result, the channel announced a HD version would launch in July 2018. It launched on 21 July 2018 on Virgin Media channel 217 but was removed on 24 July 2018. It officially launched on 2 August 2018 on Virgin Media, on 3 August on Freesat and Sky, and on 14 August on Freeview. A duplicate version was also added to Virgin Media from 22 July 2018 to 11 August 2018 on channel 194 as a replacement for Dave HD following the

UKTV UKTV Media Limited, simply known as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through ...

channels' removals. The EFL said in its news release on 4 May 2018 that "the partnership between the EFL and Quest will guarantee accessible high quality, free-to-air coverage for football fans across the country". When the first programme was broadcast on 4 August 2018, viewers experienced frequent breakup of picture and the screen aspect was reduced to the obsolete 4:3 ratio. Numerous complaints were made and ''

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...

'' ran a feature on the impact of the "technical difficulties". Quest claimed that "some" viewers experienced problems but the ''Digital Spy'' investigation strongly suggests that everyone was impacted. Quest added that they were working to resolve the issue. Starting on 30 March 2019, the programme was extended to two hours, with increased coverage of

and

and with a second pundit added. On 23 February 2022, the EFL announced that they had awarded

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

the rights for EFL Highlights from the start of the 2022–23 season, thus meaning that the show will come to an end at the end of the season following the conclusion of Quest's contract. The last episode aired in 29 May 2022.

Presenters and pundits

The programme was usually presented by former BBC and Channel 5 presenter

, although on certain weekends the show was presented by

Jacqui Oatley Jacqueline Anne Oatley (born 28 December 1974) is a leading English broadcaster. She is a football commentator for Sky Sports, calling Premier League and FA Women's Super League matches. She is a sports presenter on Quest TV channel, covering ...

or Michelle Owen. Alongside the presenter were two of a number of pundits, including

Ian Holloway Ian Scott Holloway (born 12 March 1963) is an English professional football manager, former player, media personality and television pundit who was most recently the manager of Grimsby Town. A midfielder, he notably played in the Premier League ...

Dean Ashton Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

, Stephen Warnock, Michael Brown,

Sue Smith Sue Smith may refer to: * Sue Smith (politician) (born 1951), member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council * Sue Smith (footballer) (born 1979), English footballer * Sue Smith (trainer) (born 1948), British horse trainer * Sue Smith (writer), Austra ...

Curtis Davies Curtis Eugene Davies (born 15 March 1985) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Derby County. Davies began his career at Luton Town, for whom he made his professional debut in 2003. Davies moved to Premie ...

Sam Parkin Samuel Parkin (born 14 March 1981) is an English former footballer; a radio presenter for BBC Wiltshire, regularly involved with Swindon Town's coverage; and commentator for Chelsea TV. Throughout his career Parkin has played as a forward fo ...

, Ali Maxwell, George Elek,

Michael Appleton Michael Antony Appleton (born 4 December 1975) is an English professional football manager and former player. He is currently the head coach of Blackpool. As a player, he operated as a midfielder, in a nine-year career that began in 1994 and e ...

and

Gary McSheffrey Gary McSheffrey (born 13 August 1982) is an English football manager and former player who was most recently manager of club Doncaster Rovers. As a player he was a striker and left winger who made more than 450 appearances in the Football L ...

. Sometimes guest pundits such as EFL managers were also present. Commentary came from the Pitch International world feed commentators, such as Paul Walker, Nigel Adderley, Kevin Keatings, Dan Mason,

Jon Champion Jonathan Martin Champion (born 23 May 1965) is a British sports commentator currently working as the lead association football commentator for ESPN (US). Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC ...

, Steve Wilson,

Dan O'Hagan Daniel O'Hagan is a freelance football commentator and TV presenter as well as covering the UEFA Champions League for SBS in Australia and BT Sport in England. Formerly he was the voice of the world feed for the French Football League. He is best ...

, John Roder, Chris Sharples, Dave Farrar, Joe Speight, James Fielden, Jon Driscoll, Martin Fisher and

Sam Matterface Samuel Peter Matterface (born 21 April 1978) is an English sports broadcaster currently working for TalkSPORT and ITV Sport. Career Matterface started working in sports radio in 1992 for local hospital radio station OHR, before moving into com ...

. QUEST also used their own commentators on certain games, such as Simon Watts,

Jonathan Legard Jonathan Legard (born 7 July 1961 in Cardiff, Wales), is a sports journalist, best known as the lead commentator for the BBC's Formula One TV coverage in 2009 and 2010. Legard has been the BBC's motor racing and football correspondent as well a ...

, Andy Clarke, and world feed regulars such as Paul Walker, Dan Mason, Chris Sharples and Dan O'Hagan. The programme had largely the same reporters as the BBC's

The Football League Show ''The Football League Show'' is a BBC One football television show, primarily hosted by Manish Bhasin. It features match highlights from the Championship, League One and League Two. It began on 8 August 2009, at 11:45 pm and immediately f ...

and Channel 5's Football League Tonight - regulars included the likes of Sue Thearle, Chris Ford, Georgie Bingham, Dave Beckett, Matt Williams, Nick Halling, Jack Woodward, Tom Skippings, Jonathan Legard, Danny Jamieson, Ollie Wilson, Alison Bender, Will Cope and Tim Long.

References

{{reflist

External links

*Official websit

2018 British television series debuts 2022 British television series endings 2010s British sports television series 2020s British sports television series English Football League on television English-language television shows Football mass media in the United Kingdom Quest (British TV channel) original programming