According to ITVfootball's online schedule, the away match in Auxerre on Wednesday 2nd October (match 3) is going to be shown live on ITV2, not on ITN News.

Either they've changed their minds or someone at ITV has been giving out wrong information, because they were definitely saying yesterday that our next 2 games would be on the cable-only ITN News channel.

But don't get too excited because it's not quite clear yet what this means. It doesn't necessarily mean you can get the game on Sky Digital or Terrestrial digital. The situation regarding ITN News (read the links mentioned above) shows that it's quite possible for them to send out different stuff on the cable version of a channel to what they send on the other digital services.

One interesting point though: several readers have pointed out that the Irish channel TV3 is showing Champs League games. Now, according to this site, UK SkyDigtal users can manually tune their boxes to the TV3 frequency, but if they do so they only get a blank screen.

So where does this leave ITV's argument that they can't send the matches out on the Sky Digital version of ITN News because it'd mean sending they'd be accessible abroad? It seems there is technology in ploace which can tell what country you're in and bar channels accordingly. Why not put the games on a channel which is only accessible to UK subscribers....?

Rupe adds...
Apparently ITV have confirmed that the game has been moved from ITN News to ITV2. Well done to everyone who complained!!

But we're still not sure if it means we'll be able to get it on our SkyDigital and Terrestrial Digital boxes. ITV's email about it says "ITV2 is available to 10 million homes, more than any of the Sky Sports Channels, while the Champions League broadcasts on the ITN News Channel are available in around 3 million homes", which does suggest that we will be able to.

But to be frank, even if they tell us "for definite", it's going to be hard to believe till we're seeing it with our own eyes!

The questions we'd liek answered are:
Is ITV2 not available via satellite outside the UK?
If not why not, and why not just do the same with ITN News?
If yes, how come showing the game on that channel is not in breach of ITV's contract with UEFA, but showing it on ITN News is?

The thot plickens. [Add Rupe] Thanks to Alex Kersley for pointing out that I got the date of the match wrong in the first version of this article! What happened was that the match appeared on ITV's schedule for the 1st, and I wrote the article accordingly without considering the possibility that they'd got it wrong. I'm sorry if copying their mistake caused any confusion, and would point out that it only goes to prove how important it is tpo take anything they tell us with a pinch of salt!

For example...

When Ilan Mahalla rang ITV, they told him that it is possible to scramble the ITN News channel for overseas subscribers (which would appear to be confirmed by a few readers who have written to tell us that ITV2 is in fact scrambled in this way). However, it is not feasible.