BBC Sport has renewed its deal to screen Premier League highlights for a further three years, ensuring Match of The Day will continue through to at least the end of the 2018/19 season.
The new £204m agreement covers the corporation’s flagship weekend football programming, including Match Of The Day, its Sunday sister show Match of the Day 2 and Football Focus on Saturday lunchtimes, plus a new midweek magazine show to air on Wednesday nights on BBC Two at 10.00pm.
It was widely reported that ITV were seriously considered mounting a challenge for the rights, which the commercial channel last held between 2001 and 2004, but insiders suggest that it had ultimately decided against putting a bid in at all, despite having recently lost live FA Cup and Champions League rights.
In its 50th anniversary year, Match Of The Day continues to provide football fans without a pay TV subscription to Sky Sports and/or BT Sport with a comprehensive digest of all the day’s Premier League action, with a cumulative reach audience of 33 million.
Every weekend around nine million fans tune into watch highlights and analysis on Saturday’s Match Of The Day, hosted by Gary Lineker, as well as MOTD2 on Sundays, which is presented by Mark Chapman.
Since the emergence of televised football in the 1960s, top-flight football highlights have switched between the BBC and ITV since Match of the Day made its debut in 1964, a landmark moment which ushered in a new age of regular football on television.
During the Premier League era, the BBC has been the chief free-to-air broadcast partner, except for a three-year period in the early 2000s when ITV paid £180m to grab the rights, though the move ultimately failed to take off among fans, who lamented the frequent commercial breaks during the Des Lynam-fronted highlights shows.
As part of the latest BBC highlights deal, a new midweek programme on BBC Two will review and preview the weekend’s action with all the latest Premier League news, going behind the scenes at Premier League clubs and bringing interviews with managers, players and those who have made their mark on the league’s illustrious history.
All of the BBC’s Premier League programmes will also be available on demand via the corporation’s highly-popular catch-up service, BBC iPlayer.
With uncertainty over the future of some of the BBC’s current sports rights properties, including Open Championship golf, Wimbledon and the Six Nations, coupled with pressures on budgets ahead of licence fee negotiations, the new £204m agreement, a 13% increase on the previous three year rights deal, will be a welcome relief to many within the BBC Sport hierarchy, with Match of the Day now considered as the corporation’s flagship sports programme.
Commenting on the deal, Barbara Slater, Director BBC Sport says: “We’re delighted to retain the rights to show Premier League highlights on the BBC, and continue to bring the most popular league in the world to our audiences.
“Match of the Day is the most iconic brand in television sport, and we work hard to ensure that it continues to be the destination for millions of viewers each weekend across platforms.
“It’s very exciting to be able to add a new midweek show to the mix, reflecting the continued appetite for Premier League action and analysis.”
Tony Hall, the BBC’s Director General, added: “Sport matters. It brings the nation together. It can break hearts and raise spirits. And because it matters to the public, it also matters to the BBC.
“That’s why it’s fantastic news that we have kept the Premier League highlights. It’s the best and most exciting league in the world.
“The BBC has made the highlights programme, through Match of the Day, a national treasure, and fans can look forward to enjoying all the drama with us for another three years.”
Bids for the live rights, which raised £3bn under the current deal, are due in by early February but it could take several days for a result to be announced, depending on how many rounds of bidding there are.
Sky Sports airs 116 live matches a season and BT Sport 38 games under the current deal, but from 2016-17, there will be 14 more matches per season on offer including up to 10 scheduled on a Friday night.
Judging by the quite overwhelming reaction, you're as chuffed as we are with the news about @BBCMOTD . Thanks, your support means a lot.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) January 29, 2015
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