DirecTV to Offer Interactive TV Coverage of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League Soccer

DirecTV on Tuesday announced plans to offer a multiscreen interactive TV Soccer Mix Channel (channel 480) in both HD and SD, that will allow viewers to watch up to eight games from the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League simultaneously--thus, the company says, "provid[ing] a comprehensive view of each day's UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League coverage."

Like DirecTV's other sports-themed Mix Channels (see, for example, [itvt]'s July 12th article on the Mix Channel that the company offered for the British Open Golf Championship), the new Soccer Mix Channel will allow viewers to use their remotes to highlight any of its component channels in order to listen to that channel's audio, and will also allow them to click on a component channel in order to watch it in full-screen mode. In addition, while watching the Soccer Mix Channel or any of its component channels, viewers will be able to press red to access scores, stats and other relevant information on the game they are watching.

The new Soccer Mix Channel is part of an extensive soccer offering from DirecTV that it says will see it delivering more than 320 exclusive live matches this season, including up to 28 exclusive European matches a week from top competitions: it plans to launch Fox Soccer Channel HD August 11th (note: it also recently launched GolTV HD), and says that its partnerships with that channel, as well as with Fox Soccer Plus, Fox Sports Networks and Fox Sports en Espanol/Fox Deportes, will enable it to offer every match from the UEFA Champions League. It also says that coverage of Spain's "La Liga" soccer will kick off on August 28th with at least 114 exclusive live matches in addition to those already broadcast by its partners, GolTV and ESPN, and that UEFA Europa League coverage from GolTV will kick off on September 16th and "continue through DirecTV's exclusive 153-match coverage of the final on May 18, 2011."