Manchester City impacted by major TV scheduling changes as part of new four-year broadcasting deal

Manchester City are set to be impacted by changes to the broadcasting of both the Emirates FA Cup and Community Shield Final.

Pep Guardiola’s side have featured in the FA Cup Final and Community Shield Final in the past year, beating Manchester United at Wembley Stadium to lift the historic trophy in June and losing on penalties to Arsenal in the Community Shield in August.

Manchester City have featured predominantly in the Community Shield fixture in recent years, meanwhile the Sky Blues have continually reached the latter stages of the FA Cup under the management of Guardiola.

City face Luton Town in the fifth round of this season’s competition next Tuesday, having beaten both Huddersfield Town and Tottenham in the past two rounds.

Nathan Ake’s late goal secured a 1-0 win over Spurs in the fourth round last month, after a thumping third round win over Huddersfield setup a huge Premier League tie at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The FA Cup is one of three trophies Manchester City are bidding to retain this season, after completing an historic treble last year; winning the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.

Both the Blues’ previous two matches have been available on freeview TV in the UK, however future Manchester City fixtures in both the FA Cup and Community Shield could be set to move away from the BBC and ITV.

The FA and TNT Sports have announced a new four-year deal to broadcast the FA Cup and FA Community Shield from 2025/26 season.

TNT Sports will show live matches from the first round, with every game from the third round outside of the 3pm kick-off slot be available on television in the UK.

A statement by the FA, said: “The new partnership between The FA and Warner Bros. Discovery, which operates TNT Sports, will ensure that the world’s longest-running national knockout football competition continues to be as broadly available as possible across the UK.

“TNT Sports will showcase live matches from the first round, with every game from the third round outside of 3pm kick offs on display through to the final at Wembley Stadium connected by EE.

“Selected matches from every round will be available free-to-air, and highlights of every game will be made available. Further details of the free-to-air broadcaster will be confirmed in due course.

“In addition to the Emirates FA Cup ties, TNT Sports will also broadcast the English football season’s traditional curtain raiser, the FA Community Shield, and the FA Youth Cup semi-finals and final. They join the Vanarama National League, which TNT Sports also has the rights to in a long-standing commitment. ”