Euro 2008 on television

At this point in time, television stations around the world are still working on finalizing what part of Euro 2008 is going to be broadcast and on what channels. Right now the broadcasting rights are still being negotiated on a market-by-market basis. American fans of football will be happy to know that as of November 2007, EPSN had gained the broadcasting rights for the tournament. For fans in the United Kingdom, BBC/ITV is working on getting the matches as well.

There was question at first as to whether or not people having 'football parties' would be required to obtain a license to watch the games in large groups at home. Licenses will only be required if the venue hosting the party is a commercial venue - such as a restaurant or pub - or non-commercial venues with television sets measuring three meters diagonally. Non-commercial licenses will be issued for free if there is no charge to watch the game. Commercial venues can expect to pay somewhere around ?6.00 per square meter per match is they are charging an entry fee or it is associated with one of the corporate sponsors. Corporate sponsors include McDonalds, JVC, and Coca-Cola. All the revenue from the licences will be donated to a charitable cause and used for fan-related projects. Online license applications for interested parties are available on the official UEFA website.

Fans of Euro 2008 interested in the final schedule can find it with the match-ups and approximate kick-off times on the official UEFA website. They will also want to check their local listings closer to June 7, 2008, when the final matches will begin.

Euro 2004's final tournament broke all viewing records for such a match. Over 7.9 billion people watched it on television and were seen all over the world. It was in increase of 157 percent from Euro 2000, making it one of the largest sporting events to ever be watched by an international audience. The game between Portugal and Greece had so many viewers that it surpassed the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. 446 million American viewers, 986 African viewers, and 1.1 billion Asian viewers all watched Euro 2004.

Fans will also be able to watch the matches online over the Internet. The many different broadcast stations and affiliates will be airing simultaneous broadcasts for customers who are also online, allowing people to keep up with what is going on with their favourite teams from anywhere in the world as well as on their cell phones if their service provides Internet access.