History of Football On TV UK

This page contains a brief history of football on TV in the UK from the early days right up until the current Premier League era.

For complete listings of Live Football On TV in the UK, please visit Live-FootballOnTV.Com

Early Days

Football was first screened live on television in the UK in 1937 by the BBC who broadcasted a specially arranged friendly between Arsenal and Arsenal Reserves from Highbury. In 1938 International Football and the FA Cup Final were shown live for the first time with the BBC providing live coverage of England V Scotland and Huddersfield Town V Preston North End.

The first FA Cup match that wasn’t a final was broadcast live in 1947 which was a FA Cup 5th Round match between Charlton Athletic and Blackburn Rovers, and in 1954 The World Cup was broadcast live in the UK for the first time. In 1955 ITV began broadcasting live matches from the newly formed European Cup. The BBC also began broadcasting its football highlights programme Soccer Special which showcased matches from the old Division One.

Football League On TV

In 1960 the very first live broadcast from the Football League was made by ITV when Blackpool played Bolton Wanderers at Bloomfield Road. In 1964 the BBC broadcasted Match of the Day for the first time and the first match to be shown was Liverpool V Arsenal, and in 1969 Match of the Day first broadcast a match in colour from Anfield between Liverpool and West Ham.

In 1983 the first live match from the Football League since 1960 was screened on ITV between Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest. The BBC also showed its first live match from the Football League which was a matchup between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford.

Premier League Era

In 1992 Sky acquired the rights to broadcast live fixtures from the newly formed Premier League in a deal worth £304 million over 5 years. Channel 4 also began broadcasting live Italian Serie A football on its Football Italiano show presented by James Richardson.

In 1993 Sky kicked off the Premier League Era by broadcasting its first live Premier League match between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool. In 1995 Sky also acquired live rights to the English Football League, League Cup and the Scottish Football League.

In 1997 Manchester United launched MUTV, the first channel dedicated to a single football club in the UK. In 1999 ITV acquired exclusive live rights to broadcast the Champions League in a deal worth £299 million over 4 years. In 2001 ITV began broadcasting the Championship – a Premier League highlights show and also acquired the rights to broadcast live matches from the Football League on its newly rebranded ITV Sport channel in a deal worth £315 million. Chelsea also launched their dedicated club channel Chelsea TV in 2001.

In 2002 ITV Digital collapsed, still owing £178.5m to the Football League, which it failed to get back in court. Sky then acquired ITV Digital’s live rights. ITV and Sky won the race for Champions League rights, despite stiff competition from the BBC, paying £83m a year between them after the rights package was restructured at the behest of EU competition authorities.

In 2007 Setanta Sports broke Sky’s Premier League monopoly by broadcasting its first live Premier League match between Aston Villa and Liverpool. Jacqui Oatley became the first woman to commentate on a televised football game when she covered the Fulham v Blackburn Rovers match on the BBC's Match of the Day and Liverpool launched their own channel LFC TV. In 2008 Arsenal launched their channel Arsenal TV.

In 2009 BBC acquired shared rights to broadcast live matches from the Football League Championship and Carling Cup. The UEFA Europa League is introduced and is broadcast by Five, ITV and ESPN. Setanta Sports defaulted on a payment for their 2009/2010 Premier League TV rights and therefore lost their rights to the highest bidder ESPN (Setanta Sports would later go into administration).

In 2010 Sky Sports were the first to broadcast a Live Premier League Game In 3D. FIFA also announced that up to 25 live games from the 2010 World Cup On TV , including the 2010 World Cup Final would be made available for broadcast for the first time in 3D.