Live Serie A on UKTV shocker!

The Milan derby will be live on BBC on Sunday 15 Feb, 7.30pm kick-off, no doubt due to the presence of Sir Lord Beckham.

Still, let's enjoy a little slice of Serie A while we can.

Podcast Review - World Football (BBC)

Subscribing to this podcast gets you two podcasts for the price of one. The first, the World Football Program, which is originally broadcast on the World Service is presented by Alan Green. Now I hate Alan Green - his pompous level challeneges Andy Gray's at the best of times - but loathe as I am to admit it, he's very good on this. His knowledge as passion for the game come through as he links interviews and reports on diverse subjects - it genuinely is a World Football Show, with it's reports coming from BBC reporters based across the globe. It's perhaps a little on the dry side, but very interesting, and refreshing to get a much more global perspective, especially with the incredibly English-centric media in this country.

The second part of the podcast is edited highlights from the World Football Phone in, which is broadcast in the middle of the night on Radio 5 Live. Now, being in the middle of the night limits the audience somewhat, so listen for more than a couple of episodes and you'll start to become familiar with the listeners. It can be an aquired taste - such regular contact between presenter and listener allows them to build up more of a relationship than perhaps a "normal" football phone in would allow, and personally I find the in-jokes and the nicknames they have for each other cringeworthy, but move beyond that and it can be a very interesting broadcast.

With it being listener driven, by questions asked to the pundits by either phone or email, the quality depends on what's being asked this week, but there is no denying the pundits know their stuff. Stand-out pundit is Tim Vickery (the Vikipedia), representing South American football, and this man's knowledge is vast. Other pundits cover Australasian football, European Football, African Football, and there are two or three pundits each week. Many of the questions are centred on reports of players who may be heading to the UK to ply their trade, but there is also a variety similar to the other part of the podcast. I've only ever listened to the 40 or so minutes highlights show, I've never considered staying up to listen to it live, but if you want to keep up with more of what's going on in the world, it's a very worthwhile listen.

What's on this season?

Just thought I'd compile a list of what we know is going to be available in the UK this season on various TV and internet channels. Please send me anything that I've missed: email thefootballwatcher@gmail.com with anything that is inaccurate or missing.

England
Premier League
Live matches on Sky and Setanta, highlights on BBC.
Delayed full matches shown on BT Vision, extended highlights on Sky Sports.

The FA Cup
Live matches on ITV and Setanta

The League Cup
Live matches on Sky, highlights on ITV

The Football League
Live matches on Sky, highlights on ITV

Johnstones Paint Trophy
Live matches on Sky

Blue Square Premier
Live matches on Setanta

Scotland

Premier League
Live matches on Setanta, highlights on BBC. Delayed matches shown on BT Vision and BBC Gaelic

FA Cup
Live matches on Sky and BBC

League Cup
Live matches on BBC

Other Leagues
League of Wales
Live matches on S4C

Carnegie Irish Premier League (Northern Ireland)
Live matches on Sky

Eircom Premier League (Republic of Ireland)
Live matches on Setanta

La Liga (Spain)
Live matches on Sky

Bundesliga (Germany)
Live matches on Setanta

Ligue 1 (France)
Live matches on Setanta

Eredivise (Holland)
Live matches on Setanta

Serie A (Brazil)
Live matches on SportsXchange

J-League (Japan)
Live matches on Eurosport 2 (streaming also on bet365)

Chinese Super League
Live matches streamed on bet365

Russian Premier League
Live matches streamed on bet365

Finnish League
Live matches streamed on bet365

European Competitions
Champions League
Live matches on ITV and Sky

UEFA Cup
Home rights sold by individual clubs - expect matches on ITV4, Setanta and Five for English clubs. ITV have rights to Manchester City matches.
BBC Scotland usually broadcast Scottish matches. Matches not involving British Teams tend to be streamed on bet365.
Quarter finals onwards broadcast only on ITV.

UEFA Super Cup
Live on ITV

Worldwide competitions
World Club Cup Championship
Expected to be on BBC, as it features Manchester United

Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana
Live matches on Setanta

Internationals
England
Home: World Cup qualifiers on ITV, Friendlies on Setanta (Highlights on ITV), some on ITV
Away: Sky/Setanta

Scotland
Live home matches on Sky; highlights on BBC Scotland
Away matches on Sky/Setanta/BBC Scotland

Wales
Live home matches on Sky; highlights on BBC Wales
Away matches on Sky/Setanta/BBC Wales

N. Ireland
Live home matches on Sky; highlights on BBC N Ireland
Away matches on Sky/Setanta/BBC N Ireland

Rep. Ireland
Live home matches on Sky
Away matches on Sky/Setanta/BBC Scotland

As part of Setanta's deal to broadcast home nations away matches, they have secured rights to the home matches of various European national teams. It is belived they will screen some of these other matches which take place in home nations groups as time allows.

So, looking at that list, it would appear that the Italian Serie A will not be broadcast this season (at time of writing), and the Portuguese BWin League has also disappeared from Setanta's portfolio.