The BBC will remain the free-to-air home for Premier League football after announcing it will continue to show weekly top flight highlights on Match of the Day until at least 2022.
As well as Match Of The Day, the new three-year £211.5m deal starting from the 2019/2020 season, covers all of the BBC’s established weekend Premier League programming.
This includes the flagship Match of the Day highlights show on Saturday nights and Sunday morning repeat showing, as well as Sunday’s Match of the Day 2, the Saturday lunchtime preview show Football Focus, plus midweek magazine show The Premier League Show through to and including the 2021/22 season.
Now presented by former England captain Gary Lineker, who has been the BBC’s main football presenter since 1999, Match of the Day was first broadcast on BBC Two in 1964.
Commenting on the deal, Barbara Slater, Director, BBC Sport, says:
“To keep Premier League highlights on the BBC is testament to the continued success and popularity of Match Of The Day.
“Our longstanding partnership with the Premier League continues to flourish and evolve as seen with the recently launched Super Movers initiative.
“The new deal strengthens that relationship even further and ensures the nation’s favourite sport will continue to be seen by the widest possible audience.”
The BBC reports that its Premier League football programming was watched by 37m people and there were a further 40m requests for these shows on BBC iPlayer.
Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore added:
“We are extremely pleased that our partnership with BBC Sport will continue through to 2022.
“They do an excellent job of making the Premier League available to millions of fans across the UK with a range of high quality programming and content.”
Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content, said:
“To secure the Premier League highlights for another three years is fantastic news for football fans all over the UK and ensures the BBC remains the free to air home with the iconic Match of the Day at the heart of all the action.”
The iconic show’s first broadcast featured Liverpool’s 3-2 win over Arsenal on 22 August 1964.
It was originally intended as a one-off series – a trial run for the 1966 World Cup – but continued, and was broadcast in colour for the first time in 1969.
Barry Stoller’s classic theme tune, commissioned in 1970, was named as the most recognisable in British television in a survey by the Performing Rights Society for Music in 2010.
Match of the Day 2, an accompaniment to the main programme, was broadcast for the first time in August 2004.
In April 2007, Jacqui Oatley became Match of the Day’s first female commentator, while Celina Hinchcliffe became the first female presenter in February 2005 and Gabby Logan has since regularly hosted the show.
Gary Lineker is the fifth main Match of the Day presenter after Kenneth Wolstenholme, David Coleman, Jimmy Hill and Des Lynam, who Lineker succeeded in 1999.
The new Match of the Day rights deal covers UK highlights but the live television rights deal, which will come in for the 2019-20 season, is still being negotiated.
