Champions League Live

Champions League Live is a football programme currently shown on both ITV and Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, broadcasting live UEFA Champions League football.

Under the current rights agreement, the ITV network (ITV, STV and UTV) shows one live match on a Tuesday, with Sky Sports showing all other matches via its interactive service. On Wednesdays, Sky Sports show all eight games, including those involving the English clubs. Both channels show the final live. Despite sharing the name, the various programmes are different productions. In the 1990s ITV were the only British company to have coverage and showed matches on Tuesday and Wednesday involving British teams and this was branded as The Big Match - Champions League Live. Towards the end of the millennium ITV coverage was on Wednesday night on ITV and ITV2 with Tuesday night on On Digital or the ITV Sport Channel and some on the ITN/ITV News Channel. In 2002 Sky won the rights and ITV only had 2 picks for Tuesday matches with matches on ITV and ITV2 or ITV4 when that launched and the rest on sky on their sports channels or via their digital service. This remained up to 2008 season when Sky won all the rights bar first pick on Wednesday night which remained with ITV and this meant no live coverage on ITV4 bar highlights or preview programmes, this was in turn with ITV making Wednesday night their main football night with FA Cup replays, England Internationals and Champions League on Wednesday night. In 2012 ITV coverage returned to Tuesday nights as England Internationals and FA Cup shifted back to Tuesday night and yet again Tuesday night is ITV's main football night.

ITV

On ITV, Adrian Chiles and Matt Smith with Chiles on live matches and Smith on highlights. Punditry comes from Gareth Southgate with Roy Keane joining in 2011 and Lee Dixon in 2012 and these are the main pundits now for all matches, with Southgate and Townsend doing highlights. Some guests occur for each individual match such as Gordon Strachan when Celtic or Manchester United are playing. The commentators are Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend with occasional contributions by Peter Drury and Jim Beglin who are not exclusive to itv anymore. Reporting comes from Ned Boulting and Gabriel Clarke.

Previous presenters for ITV coverage was Elton Welsby, Matt Lorenzo, Bob Wilson, Des Lynam, Steve Rider, Gabby Logan, Craig Doyle and Jim Rosenthal. Former regular ITV pundits are Terry Venables, Ally McCoist, Martin O'Neill and Robbie Earle. Former ITV commentators for this is Peter Brackley, John Helm, Jon Champion, Guy Mowbray, Ian Crocker and Jim Proudfoot.

Bob Wilson hosted the 1999 Final which Manchester United won against Bayern Munich, Gabby Logan hosted the 2005 and 2006 finals which Liverpool won against AC Milan and Arsenal lost against Barcelona. Steve Rider hosted in 2008 when Manchester United beat Chelsea while Doyle and Rosenthal hosted ITV4 coverage and highlights.

In Northern and Central Scotland, STV produce and broadcast their own Champions League coverage but only when a Scottish team is playing in the ITV match — e.g. Rangers v Manchester United on Wednesday 24 November 2010. If no Scottish club is involved in the ITV match, STV will carry ITV's coverage. The programmes are produced in-house by STV News. The most recent example was Celtic v Juventus in 2012–13, which had commentary from Derek Rae and Alan Brazil.

Sky Sports

On Sky Sports, there are a large number of commentators and co-commentators due to the interactive coverage showing every match live. The programme is presented in the Sky Sports studio, covering all matches shown. Jeff Stelling is the presenter with Ben Shephard the secondary presenter, with punditry variously from Jamie Redknapp, Gary Neville, Ray Wilkins, Graeme Souness and Glenn Hoddle. Commentators include Martin Tyler, Rob Hawthorne, Alan Parry, Kevin Keatings, Bill Leslie and Rob Palmer, co commentators are Alan Smith, Ray Wilkins, Gary Neville, Gerry Armstrong, Neil McCann and Davie Provan.

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