Gary Lineker to host Champions League on BT Sport

Gary Lineker has been unveiled as the face of BT Sport’s coverage of the Champions League from next season.

Match of the Day host Lineker will anchor its coverage alongside current presenter Jake Humphrey as BT Sport broadcasts matches from European football’s premier club competition for the first time.

Former England defender Rio Ferdinand, who announced his retirement last month, also joins the BT Sport team to help front their Champions League coverage.

Former Liverpool and England skipper Steven Gerrard, ex-QPR manager Harry Redknapp, former England boss Glenn Hoddle and retired referee Howard Webb join BT Sport’s punditry team, which already boasts the likes of Paul Scholes, Michael Owen, Steve McManaman and Owen Hargreaves.

BT Sport will broadcast all 351 matches from the Champions League and Europa league next season as part of an £897m (€1.222bn) deal lasting three years.

Setanta Sports confirmed BT Sport Europe will be available to viewers in the Republic of Ireland as part of the Setanta Sports pack. This will bring the number of channels on the Setanta Sports pack to six on satellite.

In the group stages the Setanta Sports package will show all Tuesday games live, all Wednesday games live and all Thursday games exclusively live. The finals of both tournaments will also be broadcast on the Setanta.

There are no details yet in terms of a possible price hike for Setanta customers in Ireland. At the moment, the cost of the Setanta Sports Pack to customers on satellite (the Sky platform) is €21.99 a month.

“The new channel and its line-up was just confirmed to Setanta Sports by BT Sport today, so as of yet no decisions have been made regarding pricing in Ireland”, according to Brian Quinn, Marketing Operations Director.

Customers who take BT TV will receive the full BT Sport Pack for free including BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, ESPN on BT Sport and the new BT Sport Europe channel, which launches on August 1. BT Sport will make a selection of matches available for anyone to watch, including non-subscribers, via a new free-to-air channel called BT Sport Showcase.

The company has announced it will also launch the first Ultra HD channel in Europe, BT Sport Ultra HD, which will first broadcast for the Community Shield.