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 based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

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

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...

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. It was a part of the Setanta Sports package and was similar to other Setanta's other channels Celtic TV, Rangers TV and LFC TV. Arsenal ...

, Celtic TV and

Rangers TV Rangers TV is the official television channel of Scottish football club Rangers F.C. Initially launched in 2004 as a satellite and cable TV channel, it has operated online since 2009. History Setanta Sports Launched in 2004, the channel was in ...

, 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 Ofcom ...

. 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-view ...

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

and it was available on

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...

'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 representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

match between

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, 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 the ...

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 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

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

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...

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 (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

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. 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 Gary Thompson Gillespie (born 5 July 1960) is a Scottish former professional football defender who played for Coventry City and later Liverpool, through much of the 1980s. Liverpool His three goals in that double winning season all came in th ...

David Fairclough David Fairclough (born Liverpool, 5 January 1957) is an English retired 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 a t ...

. 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 (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

, Champions League and

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

, 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 MBE (born 7 November 1963) is a former professional football player and manager. He currently works as an author, commentator and pundit for ESPN and SuperSport. Initially a quick, skilful left winger, he moved to cent ...

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 Marcus Bishop (born 30 November 1966) is an English comedian, presenter, actor and former footballer. Bishop formerly played football as a midfielder for Winsford United F.C., Crewe Alexandra F.C., Runcorn F.C., Rhyl F.C., Witton Al ...

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

*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 broadcast a mix of local and networked programming. On Tuesday 6 May 2014, the station ...

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. *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