The BBC’s Match Of The Day, one of British television’s most enduring and popular institutions, celebrates 50 years on air in August 2014.
This hugely significant broadcasting milestone will be marked by a special documentary – Match of the Day at 50 – which charts the history of this iconic programme and highlights its long-ingrained place at the heart of Saturday night television.
When it all began way back in August 1964, Match of the Day was shown in a 6.30pm slot on BBC2 and only viewers in London were able to watch its black and white coverage of Liverpool’s Division One match against Arsenal at Anfield.
Less than half the number who saw it at the ground on the day watched the first programme, introduced by Kenneth Wolstenholme, but now it regularly attracts more than four million viewers in its traditional post-10.30pm slot on BBC One.
It is not only the viewing figures, the on-air talent, on-screen presentation or the football itself that has changed beyond recognition in the last fifty years.
Five decades ago, the Football League clubs, many fearful that the show would lead to a slump in attendances, each made an estimated £100 from the BBC’s rights to broadcast matches.
The last deal struck by the BBC with the Premier League in 2012 was worth nearly £180m over three seasons, with each top flight club making a cool £3m.
Even in the face of so many changes within football over the years, Match of the Day has retained its appeal despite the rapid expansion of live Premier League football over the years, predominantly via Sky and latterly from BT Sport, as well as the newer threat from online highlights and on-demand mobile clips, with fans still preferring to watch their team in a fixed slot on Saturday nights.
MOTD remains the only place on free-to-air television where fans can get a complete round-up of every Saturday matches in one programme, including action and reaction from on and off the pitch.
At a time when highlights programmes are regarded as ‘old hat’ by broadcasters, Match of the Day continues to buck the declining trend with more than five million viewers regularly tuning in every Saturday.
In the face high-profile rights defeats and on-screen defections back and forth to its ITV rivals over the years, the BBC show has always been a firm fixture for football fans, adapting and changing under many different guises over the years as the corporation reacts to the ever-changing TV sports rights landscape.
From Kenneth Wolstenholme in 1964 through Jimmy Hill in the 70s, Des Lynam in the 90s, to the Gary Lineker era and beyond, Match of the Day continues to remain the cornerstone of the footballing weekend for fans up and down the country.
A special tribute programme to mark this significant broadcasting milestone, Match of the Day at 50 airs on Friday, August 22 at 10.35pm on BBC One, exactly 50 years ago to the day that the programme first went on-air.
Read SOTB’s complete guide to the programme’s unique history below.
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| 1964 |
The first ever Match of the Day went to air at 6.30pm on Saturday, August 22, 1964 with the great Kenneth Wolstenholme introduces highlights of Liverpool against Arsenal.
His famous opening line: “Welcome to Match of the Day, the first of a weekly series coming to you every Saturday on BBC Two.
“As you can hear we’re in Beatleville for this Liverpool versus Arsenal match.”
Only available to viewers in London were able to watch it at the time, with the show drawing a first-night audience of only 20,000 viewers, which was less than the actual gate at the ground.
Despite strong reservations from certain quarters and fears that attendances at the ground would decline, the format was deemed a success, with England’s 92 clubs receive £5,000 for the rights, which equated to about £50 each at the time.
Ratings built gradually during its first two years on BBC Two and following England’s victorious 1966 World Cup win, Match of the Day makes a permanent move to BBC One.
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| 1968 |
After being relatively unchallenged during its first four years on air, Match of the Day faced competition for the first time in 1968.
This came in the shape of ITV’s The Big Match, which was presented by future MOTD presenter Jimmy Hill, but the Beeb hit back by revamping its highlights programme, with Grandstand presenter David Coleman joining Kenneth Wolstenholme as a regular presenter.
From 1969, the same year the show was first broadcast in colour, the programme becomes live and studio based, rather than being pre-recorded at the ground of the featured match.
There were now two games featured on the programme each week, a format which was largely retained through until the early 1990’s.
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| 1970 |
The current Match of the Day theme tune, written by Barry Stoller, made its debut in 1970, the same year as the now famous Goal of the Month competition was introduced.
Thousands of postcards were sent to the BBC after it introduced the Goal of the Month competition, with Coventry’s Ernie Hunt being the first Goal of the Season winner at the end of the 1970-71.
Two more significant moments occured in 1971, with John Motson making his debut on Match of the Day, remaining the programme’s longest serving commentator to this day, and the first slow-motion replays were also introduced.
Jimmy Hill joined Match of the Day as a presenter in 1973, which marked the start of his 25-year association with the BBC as a presenter and pundit.
Only six years after the first audience of a meagre 20,000, the BBC’s FA Cup final coverage, which was part of Grandstand in those days, attracts over 20 million viewers, while Match of the Day attracts regular audiences of 12 million in its 10.00pm slot.
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| 1979 |
Having celebrated its 500th edition in 1977, Match of the Day’s first near-death experience came towards the end of the 1970s.
Arch rivals ITV came close to claiming exclusive rights in a secret deal with the Football League, dubbed ‘Snatch of the Day’, before the Office of Fair Trading intervenes.
They force both broadcasters to share the rights to league matches, a result which temporarily moved MOTD to Sunday afternoons, before it returned to its now familiar Saturday night slot for the 1980/81 season.
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| 1983 |
Following its return to Saturday nights, Match of the Day was supplemented by live matches for the first time, with the BBC and ITV showing seven live games between them per season, mostly on Friday evenings.
Up to now, Match of the Day had featured all four Football League divisions, but they decided to drop the Fourth Division in 1984, followed by the Second and Third two years later.
Contractual disputes and strike action lead to MOTD becoming increasingly irregular during this period, with highlights considered out of fashion by TV bosses.
There were only fourteen editions of the programme all season during 1986/86 and the only Football League action on the BBC came in the form of seven live games on Sunday afternoons.
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| 1988 |
After more than 20 years, Match of the Day’s first run at the top of televised football came to end as the Football League voted to sell all their matches exclusively to ITV in a four-year deal from the 1988/89 season onwards.
This left the BBC, and the fledgling BSB, which later became Sky, to share the rights to FA Cup and England Internationals, with ITV airing regular live games from Division 1 throughout the season, as well as regional highlights, but no ITV equivalent to Match of the Day was formed.
The final season of the BBC contract for League football was also Jimmy Hill’s last as presenter after a record fifteen years in charge of the show. He would then become a regular pundit, staying with the BBC until the 1998 World Cup.
Des Lynam, who anchored the BBC’s coverage of the 1986 World Cup, would take over as the BBC’s main football presenter from the 1988/89 season.
For the next four years, Match Of The Day became ‘Match Of The Day – Road to Wembley’ on FA Cup weekends, as for the first time since its inception it could not broadcast any League football.
A significant moment during this period was the Hillsborough tragedy, which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool supporters during the 1989 FA Cup semi-final, which the programme was due to cover later that evening.
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| 1992 |
After four years in the relative wilderness, Match of the Day was revived to its former glory in 1992 after the TV rights for the new FA Premier League were awarded to Sky and the BBC.
Each Premier League club had one vote in the process to determine the new rights holders who would cover the new bold and exciting era in English football.
BSkyB were awarded exclusive live rights to air matches on Sundays and Mondays, while the BBC gained the Saturday night highlights as part of a five-year deal, with both broadcasters fending off a rival bid from ITV, who made do with the rights to air Football League matches from Divisions 1-3.
Des Lynam anchored the new era of Match of the Day during the boom years of the 1990s, with Gary Lineker and Ray Stubbs regular stand-ins, where he would be joined by new regular studio pundits, including Alan Hansen, Jimmy Hill and Trevor Brooking.
The show reverted to the classic format of extended highlights from three main games. Now, however, as well as all the extra analysis, viewers were also able to see the goals from all the other matches as well.
Alan Hansen, who left MOTD after 22 years in 2014, uttered the infamous “you can’t win anything with kids” in reference to Alex Ferguson’s young Manchester United side at the beginning of the 1995/96, with the team going on to win the Premiership.
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| 1999 / 2000 |
Despite its successful revival during the 1990’s, Match of the Day’s future on air was plunged again into huge doubt at the turn of the millennium.
The departure of the BBC’s face of sport Des Lynam to ITV in 1999 would act as the catalyst to the commercial network gaining exclusive terrestrial Premier League highlights from 2001/02 onwards with an eye-watering £180m deal.
Morale within the whole BBC’s sports department was at an all-time low during this period, with many big contracts, including Test cricket and Formula 1, going to rival broadcasters.
In spite of the upheaval around him with BBC Sport, Gary Lineker would unassumingly take over from Des Lynam to became the show’s new regular presenter from the 1999-2000 season onwards, a role which he remains in to this day.
Despite plenty of hype and fanfare, as well as the ‘Des factor’, ITV’s The Premiership (intro sequence below) wasn’t well received by fans, who did not warm to the commercial breaks, nor the Lynam-backed move to a prime-time 7.00pm slot.
Match of the Day would stay on the air during the second ITV phase as ‘Match of the Day Live’, after the BBC grabbed back the live FA contract from ITV and Sky, while the programmes continued on Saturday nights during FA Cup weekends.
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| 2004 |
After a three-year hiatus from Saturday nights, Match of the Day returned once again in 2004 after the BBC won back the rights to show Premier League highlights.
Gary Lineker was back in the chair to anchor the programme, which for the first time featured full edits from all matches played that day, with a commentator at every ground, bringing an end to the usual goals round-up at the end of each show.
A new Sunday show was introduced for the first time, Match of the Day 2, which would become a cult favourite with Premier League fans under the stewardship of presenter Adrian Chiles.
Just weeks into the return, MOTD’s veteran commentator Barry Davies decided to retire from football commentary after 35 years on the programme, citing his slip down the BBC’s commentary pecking order as the main reason for his departure, though he would continue to cover other sports such as tennis and hockey for the corporation.
Celina Hinchcliffe became the first female presenter of Match of the Day in February 2005, while Gabby Logan, who joined the BBC from ITV in 2007, became a regular deputy for Gary Lineker.
Jacqui Oatley became Match of the Day’s first female match commentator in 2007 when she covered Fulham against Blackburn, a decision which was greeted by a mixture of praise as well as a rather unsavoury stream of hysteria from certain sections of the press.
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| 2008 |
As the FA Cup and England contract switches back to ITV, John Motson steps down as BBC’s main live match commentator after the Euro 2008 final.
However, Motty’s famous voice would not be lost to Match of the Day forever, as he decides to carry on with his commentary role for the programme.
Now 43 years and counting as an MOTD commentator, Motson is though to have covered more than 2,000 games for the BBC, including many World Cup finals, FA Cup finals and European Championship finals.
One of Motty’s famous sheepskin coats takes pride of place in the National Football Museum in Manchester.
The BBC retains the Premier League highlights rights into the next decade, while Adrian Chiles left the BBC and Match of the Day 2 for ITV in 2010. Colin Murray takes over the reigns, only to be replaced in 2013 by Mark Chapman.
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| 2014 |
Match of the Day celebrates 50 years on air with a special documentary, a new title sequence, which takes the audience on a journey through the last five decades of BBC TV’s football coverage, and the one-off return of veteran commentator Barry Davies.
In November 2011, the programme moved to Salford, after more than three decades in London, to a brand new studio as part of the BBC sports department’s relocation north.
Despite the decline in ratings and interest in sports highlights shows, with most preferring to watch live sport where possible, the highest peak audience in most recent years was 6.2m, which was achieved in February 2011, a day that saw a record 41 goals in eight Premier League matches, which is still record amount of goals for a single day.
Last season’s peak audience was 5.5m when comedian Russell Brand took to the pundits chair as part of Sport Relief.
The 2013/14 season brought to an end Alan Hansen’s long association with the programme, after announcing his decision to retire after 22 years following the World Cup in Brazil.
The BBC’s current contract for Premier League highlights expires at the end of the 2015/16 season, with the programme still attracting strong viewing figures on both TV and online thanks to BBC iPlayer.
Baring an unlikely knockout bid from one of its terrestrial rivals, Match of the Day looks like it will remain the firm fixture for football fans on Saturday nights for many years to come.
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