England face Switzerland on Saturday in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024, a tournament which is being shared by the BBC and ITV.
The two main UK broadcasters split England games between them in a process that took place long before a ball was kicked at the championship.
Which channel England are on may seem unimportant – beyond your tolerance for advertising breaks interrupting the analysis – but the team’s record is much better on one of them.
What channel is England v Switzerland on?
The BBC has the rights to the match in Dusseldorf, which is due to kick off at 5pm UK time.
Coverage fronted by Gary Lineker and featuring guests who are likely to include fellow former England striker Alan Shearer begins at 4pm.
ITV has Saturday’s other Euro 2024 quarter-final, between the Netherlands and Turkey, which kicks off at 8pm UK time.
All of BBC’s games are also on its iPlayer platform, while ITV’s are also live on ITVX. Just turn off any score notifications on your phone as the stream will lag behind.
Who decides which channel England are on?
Bosses from the BBC and ITV divide up the matches for each major tournament in the months leading up to it.
Both channels get to show the final, so the most prized game up for grabs is the semi-final which is most likely to feature England.
They take it turn to pick games, and ITV had first choice so elected for the second semi-final on Wednesday 10 July, which was always going to be on England’s route to the final if they won their group, which they did.
The BBC, therefore, chose England’s likely quarter-final, which is this Saturday’s clash with Switzerland.
What is England’s ITV curse and is it real?
For some reason – presumably not because the players care which channel they are on – England’s recent record does vary markedly between BBC and ITV.
Since the 1998 World Cup, England have played 32 major tournament matches on ITV and 29 on the BBC. (Matches shown on both channels simultaneously are not counted.)
On ITV they have won just 25 per cent of those matches (8/32), while on the Beeb they have won a whopping 69 per cent (20/29).
So perhaps it’s for the best that Lineker and Co will be helming the show when England face Switzerland at Euro 2024 this weekend.