Scottish fans to miss out on ITV coverage of English FA Cup

Scottish football fans will be denied the opportunity to watch the English FA Cup on ITV this season.

The Guardian has learned that Scottish Television, which holds both ITV broadcasting franchises in Scotland, has told the ITV network they wish to opt out of the FA Cup coverage, which was secured in a joint £425m deal with Setanta in March last year.

Under the terms of the deal ITV1 will broadcast live coverage of 16 FA Cup games a season. The FA Cup final will be broadcast live on ITV1 while the contract also includes highlights of all weekend and midweek FA Cup matches.

STV claimed the slots earmarked for live FA Cup football offer a perfect opportunity to showcase locally produced output, such as Scottish drama.

However, sceptics believe the FA Cup snub is part of the wider dispute between STV and ITV plc over how much the Scottish broadcaster pays for network programmes such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

Deciding not to screen programmers made by ITV plc subsidiary ITV Productions, such as the FA Cup, is likely to mean STV will seek to reduce what it pays the UK broadcaster for network programming by a seven-figure annual sum.

There has recently been a very public war of words between STV and the ITV chairman, Michael Grade, about which body subsidises the other.

It remains unclear whether STV will revise their position for the subsequent three years of the FA Cup contract. The company could even do that this season - for example in advance of the final - if there was suitable public outcry.

FA Cup matches traditionally rated highly in Scotland, sometimes disproportionately so, when shown by the BBC between 2001 and last season.

Scotland internationals including Manchester United’s Darren Fletcher and Sunderland’s Craig Gordon are likely to play in the competition.

STV’s flagship domestic football programme, Scotsport, broadcast the last show of a 51-year history in May after the BBC won a five-year highlights deal for the Scottish Premier League.

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