United kick off their 2018/19 campaign with one of the longest away trips of the season as they travel to face play-off finalists Exeter City at St James Park on Saturday 4 August.
And they’ll be eating up the miles once again on the final day as they face another mammoth road trip, this time to face the Glovers at Huish Park.
The first home game sees Northampton Town come to Brunton Park on Saturday 11 August, with the Cobblers new to the division having been relegated from League One last season.
Other notable home games include Tranmere Rovers on Saturday 15 September and the visit of Morecambe on Saturday 13 October.
We make the joint longest trip to Crawley on Saturday 22 December, before the always busy festive period kicks in.
The Blues open that run of games by hosting Oldham Athletic and Macclesfield Town on Boxing Day and Saturday 29 December respectively, with the shortest journey of the campaign coming on New Year’s Day with a local derby at Morecambe to look forward to.
Good Friday sees us host Lincoln City, with Easter Monday taking us away to Blundell Park to play Grimsby Town.
For midweek fixtures, our first Tuesday night league game brings Port Vale to Carlisle on Tuesday 21 August and Grimsby to our home patch on Tuesday 2 October. Meanwhile our first league midweek away game takes us to Sincil Bank on Tuesday 23 October.
Our final home game of the campaign brings Crawley Town up north, before that closing fixture in Yeovil on Star Wars Day – Saturday 4 May.
Please note – all fixtures remain subject to change at this stage.
For the full fixture list, click HERE.
iFOLLOW
Following iFollow’s successful introduction in 2017/18 for supporters based overseas, enhancements are being introduced to the live streaming platform ahead of the start of the new campaign at no extra cost to viewers.
Improved production values are being implemented across the online broadcasting service, providing Clubs with the scope to introduce bespoke commentary as well as on-screen graphics. Some midweek Championship matches will also benefit from a four camera setup while additional enhancements to iFollow include more in-game statistics via the app, mobile/desktop websites and an improved match centre.
Prices for the platform have been frozen at £110 for the season for overseas viewers, and International Season Pass subscriptions are on sale as of today. Supporters can find out details on how to subscribe by visiting your Club’s website.
In a second development, and in what is a first for English football, some Sky Bet EFL matches will also be made available to watch to supporters within the UK and Ireland throughout the 2018/19 season via iFollow.
This development has been made possible due to the new broadcast agreement with Sky which was agreed last year, whereby EFL Clubs have been granted the rights to stream games to a domestic audience, in addition to their followers overseas which has been available since the start of 2017/18.
EFL Clubs will be able to live-stream in the UK and Ireland any league match via their respective iFollow (or equivalent) service that takes place outside the blocked hours of 14.45-17.15 on Saturday afternoons and that is not broadcast live on Sky Sports. Fixtures taking place on Bank Holidays or Easter will be unavailable for streaming. Sky Sports will have the right to stream the same Championship fixtures to subscribers across their interactive and digital services.
Details of how to access EFL matches domestically will be announced in due course.
TV SELECTIONS
As with 2017/18, the EFL and broadcast partner Sky Sports have again committed to give Clubs and supporters at least five weeks’ notice ahead of any EFL League matches being selected for live television coverage.
In a small change to the policy from 2017/18, the EFL has outlined the dates when any changes will be announced to the public via the EFL’s digital and social channels, rather than the dates when Clubs will be initially notified. The dates will again ensure any fixture changes are announced with a minimum of five weeks’ notice of the fixture taking place in order to give EFL supporters as much time as is possible to allow for any alterations to travel plans that may be required.
In addition, an amendment to this policy was made in March 2018, whereby a minimum of three weeks’ notice was put in place for the penultimate weekend of the season in order to ensure the most appropriate matches are picked for broadcast.
