Stats show Sky Sports' love affair with Sunderland strong as ever

Sunderland have had yet another game moved at the behest of Sky Sports, but just how often are the Black Cats selected by the broadcaster?

Sunderland fans will have to head to the match on New Year’s Day nursing morning hangovers after Sky Sports selected the clash with Preston for live broadcast.

The game will now kick off at 12.30pm, which is far from ideal for supporters. Travelling Preston fans will be especially badly effected in the latest example of supporters being essentially disregarded by television companies.

Fortunately, the rest of Sunderland’s festive programme will be unaffected, with the game against Ryan Lowe’s men the only one Sky Sports have opted to broadcast.

What it does do, though, is continue Sky Sports’ love affair with Sunderland.

No team in the Championship were covered more extensively by the broadcaster last season, and this campaign has already seen games moved regularly to they can be put in front of the cameras – including Saturday’s clash with Birmingham City.

So, exactly how many Sunderland matches have been selected for TV broadcast so far this season and how does that compare to the rest of the Championship?

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Sunderland games moved for TV

Including the most recently confirmed selections, a total of eight Sunderland matches have been shown live on Sky Sports.

That makes the Black Cats one of the most watched clubs in the Championship again, with only Leeds and Southampton shown more. It is usually the case, though, that clubs just relegated from the Premier League are covered the most early on in the Championship season.

After Sunderland and the recently relegated clubs, the list is then dominated by clubs from the Midlands and North West, probably due to the number of derby games they have.

All clubs have been selected at least once, though, with Swansea, QPR, Huddersfield and Bristol City propping up the list.

Most televised Championship clubs

Club	Number of games selected for live TV
Leeds, Southampton	9
Leicester, SUNDERLAND	8
Birmingham, Preston	6
Blackburn, Stoke, West Brom	5
Coventry, Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday	4
Middlesbrough, Millwall, Norwich	3
Cardiff, Hull, Plymouth, Rotherham, Watford	2
Bristol City, Huddersfield, QPR, Swansea	1

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