By Oliver Christie MATCH OF THE DAY

 1964: First ever MOTD on BBC2 – 22 nd August and it showed only one game: Liverpool v Arsenal (Liverpool won 3-2)  TV audience: Approx 20,000 – less than half of the gate for the actual match   1968: MOTD show two games per programme to combat ITV’s rival show ‘The Big Match’  1969: First colour edition 15 th November: Liverpool v West Ham (Liverpool won 2-0)  1970: The ‘Match of the Day’ theme tune that we know today was brought to the programme by Barry Stoller and replaced Arnold Stock's 'Drum Majorette‘  1979: Four year deal splits the rights between BBC and ITV after Office of Fair Trading intervened HISTORY

 1983: MOTD showed first live first division match – Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur (Man United won 4-2), two months after ITV’s ‘The Big Match’ showed its first division live match between Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest (Tottenham won 2-1)  1992: Premier League formed and MOTD regains highlights of matches showing three main games and all the goals from the other Saturday games  2001: Premier league gives highlights to ITV’s ‘The Premiership’ in a three year deal  2004: Highlights given back to BBC. They showed highlights of all Saturday’s fixtures with a commentator at every ground and launched MOTD2  2009: BBC announce they have been given the rights to carry on showing premier league highlights HISTORY

 For the purposes of this presentation I will look at why MOTD has increased the amount of time it spends analysing matches and decreased the actual match footage and the part that ever increasingly knowledgeable fans play  I will look at:  Analysing football matches and the need for entertainment  An example of MOTD in 2014  Fans increased knowledge of the game TIME FOR A CHANGE?

 MOTD : Aired for 1hour29mins – roughly 1 hour and 3 minutes of match highlights and roughly 26 minutes of analysis – almost a third of the programme   “You know the reason why viewing figures are on the up Mr Mosey! (BBC Sport Editor) Its because people like the Match of the Day name, you know people will be fixated to Match of the Day because of his history and that we are better informed from each game then before. You know that either Gary, Gabby or Adrian will put out a point and it will be covered.” – A fan’s view on a BBC Sport comment page (2008)  Fans can watch match footage whenever they want, what they can’t get on demand is expert analysis from ex professionals. ANALYSIS

 In 2008 BBC claimed MOTD peaked at 4.7m viewers on the final weekend of the season – in the early years of match analysis  In the 2007/08 season it averaged 3.7m viewers  In 2013’s final weekend MOTD didn’t make it into the top 30 most watched programmes on BBC1 with the lowest of the 30 being Saturday’s evening news which amassed 3.87m viewers suggesting people watched the news and then either turned off or switched channel when MOTD came on  Why five years on are fans losing faith in the long serving MOTD?  Knowledgeable fans want better analysis and that means better pundits! ANALYSIS

 Nowadays fans are more knowledgeable about the game  Football Manager 2013 sold 940,000 copies (accurate 31 st March)  To see just match highlights isn’t enough like it was in the early years of MOTD  With easy access to the internet fans can google anything they want and become part time scouts at home  The analysis needs to bring an element of entertainment to it now – Gary Neville’s Sky analysis has been praised  Shows like Gillette Soccer Saturday combine football and entertainment and in an era where anybody can stream any live game and watch highlights whenever they want, MOTD may need to entertain viewers more KNOWLEDGEABLE FANS

 The biggest moan on MOTD used to be when your team were low down in the running order but now its that you don’t like a certain pundit’s analysis  BBC have decided to axe the ‘old boys’ of Lawrenson and Hansen in favour of fresher faces such as Danny Murphy and to some extent Shearer to cater to a younger audience – current football experience  Due to fans knowing more about the game they don’t just take on board whatever is said to them by TV pundits, they question it now which has led to analysis needing to be creative and more informative  It can’t just be something the average fan can pick up on  Russell Brand made an appearance on the show – it was for sport relief – but it may be a sign of things to come as entertainment becomes key KNOWLEDGEABLE FANS

CONCLUSION

 Fans today need more than just match highlights which is why analysis now takes up almost a third of the programme  Analysis is so important that choosing the right pundit has become crucial  Analysis needs to be informative and entertaining with today’s culture  MOTD audience may possibly becoming frustrated with boring analysis from pundits who are from a different era of football and have turned to younger ex professionals to help liven it up CONCLUSION

 BARB. (2013). Top 30s. Available: Last accessed 21st March  BBC. (2004). MOTD through the ages. Available: stm. Last accessed 20th March  Jefferies, M. (2013). Match of the Day shake-up: End of "old boys’ club" as younger pundits take over. Available: end-old Last accessed 21st March  Mosey, R. (2008). Editors' Blog. Available: n_a_great.html. Last accessed 20th March BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Shergold, A. (2012). No more Match of the Grey: 43 years on from first colour broadcast, how the nation's favourite football show changed forever. Available: Day-colour--43-years-on.html. Last accessed 20th March 2014  Yin-Poole, W. (2013). Football Manager 2013 best-selling game in the series. Available: football-manager-2013-best-selling-game-in-the-series. Last accessed 20th March  Zeus--. (2013). Match Of The Day HD. [Online Video]. 16 March. Available from: [Accessed: 20 March 2014]. BIBLIOGRAPHY