This is a timeline of UK television coverage of American Football on UK television. The timeline begins when the sport first got regular coverage as prior to 1982, coverage was ad-hoc and was only seen very rarely in the UK.
7 November – Coverage of American sport gets its first regular coverage on UK television when Channel 4 starts broadcasting American football on a weekly basis.[1] Weekly highlights of the NFL are shown each Sunday teatime. Prior to this, American football was occasionally shown on ITV's World of Sport.
1983
30 January – Live American Football is seen in the UK for the first time when Channel 4 broadcasts live coverage of Super Bowl XVII.[2]
1984
29 March – Screensport launches[3] and coverage of American Football is a significant part of its output throughout its time on air.
1985
No events.
1986
No events.
1987
Autumn – As part of its newly launched overnight schedule, London Weekend Television shows late night highlights of American sport, including college football. The coverage is also broadcast on Anglia Television due to Anglia simulcasting LWT's overnight schedule. The coverage ends approximately a year later.
1988
No events.
1989
No events.
1990s
1990
No events.
1991
Spring – Sky Sports shows live coverage of the newly created World League of American Football. Channel 4 also covers the competition with a weekly Saturday morning highlights programme.
31 March – On its first night on air, Channel 5 launches its overnight weekday live and recorded coverage of American sports.
1998
25 January – Channel 4 ends its coverage of American Football when it shows Super Bowl XXXII. This ends a relationship with the sport that had existed since Channel 4's first week on air.
September – Channel 5 becomes the new home of terrestrial coverage of the NFL.
1999
No events.
2000s
2000
No events.
2001
No events.
2002
5 December – NASN launches to show live and recorded coverage of North American sports.
2003
No events.
2004
1 February – Channel 5's first spell of providing regular coverage of the NFL ends with its live coverage of Super Bowl XXXVIII.
2005
January – ITV broadcasts American Football for the first time when it shows the play-offs and the Super Bowl. ITV also broadcasts these events in 2006 and 2007 until the rights move to the BBC in 2008.[6]
1 February – NASN is renamed ESPN America following the sale in late 2006 of the channel to ESPN.[10]
2010s
2010
1 March – A European edition of SportsCenter starts to be broadcast five nights a week on ESPN America.[11] The programme includes full coverage of news and action from the NFL and the NCAA.
Channel 5 ends its live overnight coverage of American sport, when it decides not to continue its coverage of American Football. This brings to an end its coverage of American sport which had been a mainstay of Channel 5's weeknight overnight programming since the channel's launch.
21 June – ESPN America begins broadcasting in high definition.[12]
April – ESPN America stops broadcasting a European version of SportsCentre, instead opting to broadcast an edited version of the 2am show produced in Los Angeles.
September – The BBC broadcasts Monday Night Football but does so for just one season as for the 2013/14 season, terrestrial coverage of the NFL moves to Channel 4.[14]
2013
1 August – BT Sport launches and the channel's output includes extensive coverage of the College Football season. As well as extensive live coverage, college football programming also includes various ESPN-produced College football magazine shows such as College Gameday and College Football Final via a long-term agreement with ESPN to carry its original programming (including original documentaries and studio programmes), and events whose international rights are owned by ESPN International.[15]
8 September – Channel 4's American Football coverage expands when it signs a new two-year deal with the NFL to become the terrestrial home to the game for the next two seasons. The deal sees the return of the Super Bowl to Channel 4, 16 years after it had last shown the event.[16]
9 September – Eurosport becomes the new broadcast of the NFL's Monday Night Football.[17] Eurosport broadcasts the weekly game for the next two seasons.
9 September – The BBC announces that the NFL will return to its screens after Channel 4 opted not to renew its rights from the 2015 season after failing to reach a deal with the NFL.[19] The deal includes the rights to show the NFL London Games live with at least one match being exclusively live. The BBC also show weekly highlights and magazine shows, which starts in November. The deal included live television, radio and online rights to screen the Super Bowl alongside Sky Sports.[20]
2016
No events.
2017
No events.
2018
No events.
2019
No events.
2020s
2020
3 September – Sky Sports NFL launches. It is an in-season rebrand of Sky Sports Action and provides round-the clock coverage of the NFL. As well as live and recorded coverage of games, output includes simulcasts of magazine shows from NFL Network such as Good Morning Football and NFL Total Access.[21] The channel broadcasts until early February 2021. This has been repeated in subsequent years.
14 September – Channel 5 resumes its coverage of the NFL when it starts showing the weekly Monday night game plus a weekly highlights show.[22][23]
2021
No events.
2022
September – Sky Sports begins showing coverage of Notre Dame home matches.
9 September – After seven years on the BBC, terrestrial coverage of the NFL returns to ITV. The deal includes the rights to show two of the three NFL London Games and the Super Bowl in addition to a weekly highlights programme.[24]
2023
August – BT Sport is relaunched as TNT Sports following the sale of BT Sport to Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA.[25] and TNT decides not to show NCAA competitions.[26][27] Consequently, for the first time in two decades, UK viewers are unable to full coverage of the College Football season with the only College Football action aired in the UK being Notre Dame's seven home games which are shown on Sky Sports.
18 November – Following an agreement with ESPN, Sky Sports starts showing three College Football games a week plus the Bowl season and ESPN's pre-game show College Gameday. The deal also includes the 2024 College football season.[28]
2024
ITV cancels its NFL highlights programme shortly before the start of the NFL season but continues to show their two London games and the Super Bowl.
2025
29 August – DAZN becomes the new home of College Football in the UK, broadcasting up to 25 games a week. The deal is achieved through a sub-licensing agreement with ESPN.[29]
7 September –
Channel 5 starts showing two games/week during the regular season - the 6pm on Five and the 9.15pm on 5Action. Channel 5 will also show the London and Dublin matches, three play-off games and the Super Bowl.[30]
There is also an increase in the number of games that Sky Sports now broadcasts as its latest deal sees Sky covering five more Sunday night games - two more 6pm matches and thee more 9pm games. Altogether, Sky is now showing more than half of all NFL matches.[31]
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