UPDATE: In a dramatic turn of events, beIN SPORTS has lost the rights to the EFL Championship and EFL Cup to ESPN. For all of the details regarding this huge development, read our exclusive story.

The 2017/18 Championship season will be televised in the United States on beIN SPORTS after the broadcaster renewed its contract with the English Football League (EFL).

The new season of England’s second division kicks off on Friday, August 4 with Sunderland against Derby County, which will be shown live on beIN SPORTS Connect and fuboTV. The weekend action will continue with Fulham-Norwich and Aston Villa-Hull on Saturday, August 5 followed by Bolton-Leeds on Sunday, August 6.

An added complexity for the 2017/18 season is that the vast majority of clubs have signed up on a club-by-club basis to offer legal streams of every home and away league game to viewers around the world (outside of the United Kingdom and Ireland). The streaming service, named iFollow, will feature all of the league games for each participating club except for those games that are televised or streamed by beIN SPORTS in the United States.

To navigate through all of the changes, we recommend that you visit our Championship TV/streaming schedule for viewers in the USA, which will be updated weekly throughout the season with all of the links and TV details to view the matches. As of press time, the schedule for the opening weekend of the Championship has been finalized for August 4-6.

As an example, a Nottingham Forest supporter can sign up for a season pass to iFollow Forest for $140 for the entire season, which will allow him or her to stream every home and away league match during the season. Note, however, that games that will be available via beIN SPORTS will be blacked out from iFollow, so you’ll need to ensure you have a subscription to a package that includes beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS Connect for the Forest games that are shown there (fuboTV offers both beIN SPORTS, beIN SPORTS Connect and beIN SPORTS en Español with a 7-day free trial).

Several clubs (Birmingham City, Bristol City, Derby County, Fulham, Hull City, Leeds United, Middlesbrough, QPR, Sunderland and Wolves) have decided, as of press time, not to sign up to the iFollow service. If your club is one of those, you’ll need to check with their official club website to see if they’re planning on providing their own streaming service for international subscribers.

To watch the average of 3-4 Championship games that are available each weekend on beIN SPORTS and/or beIN SPORTS Connect, a subscription to iFollow is not necessary.

For the upcoming season, the Championship will feature several well-supported teams including Aston Villa, Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Middlesbrough and Sunderland. Read our beginners guide to the Championship for more details on one of the most competitive leagues in the world.