In 1937, Arsenal, for ever innovating had built a TV camera gantry when the club rebuilt the East Stand in the old Highbury. Its proximity to the BBC's Alexandra Palace enabled the club to host the first ever televised match.
It was actually a training game between Arsenal and their Reserves, with one camera high up to show the overall "comprehensive view of the ground" and two low down near the goals to "give close-ups of the play, players and visual interviews". Apparently no film was being used, just transmission by radio direct Alexandra Palace. The programme began at 3.40pm and ran for 15 minutes. The "match" was viewable on tiny 9 inch screens and the whole exercise was deemed a success.
Later in the season (30th April) the FA Cup Final between Huddersfield and Preston was televised in part and the following April, a full international between England and Scotland was shown.
In 1946 a match between Barnet and Wealdstone at Underhill was shown until it got too dark!
In 1947 the FA Cup tie between Charlton and Blackburn was shown, but only London based matches were technically possible.
In the mid 1950s ITV saw an opening in televising the newly promoted European Cup. Following the success of this, mainly due to Manchester United's success in European, ITV decided to get Football League games on their contract. £150,000 was paid to the FL for a ten year deal. Many club chairmen thought this would erode attendances, but the match would kick off at 6.50pm and not be broadcast live until the last few minutes of the first half, around 7.30pm, as other supporters arrived home from watching their own live matches. "Sports Special" became a BBC regular slot until 1963.
On September 10th 1960 the First Division match between two top teams, Blackpool v Bolton was ITV's first ever "The Big Game".
The following week the Arsenal and Newcastle game should have been broadcast with the Gunners scoring FIVE to none, but Arsenal banned the ITV and everyone missed out. The Blackpool-Bolton game was played without the injured Stanley Matthews which meant that the attendance was down by about 5,000. It was drab game ending 1-0 to the Trotters.
Spurs were due to be shown next but the club also banned the television cameras. In September 1962 ITV again promoted Ipswich v Wolves on local Anglian television known as "Match of the Week". BBC then showed "Match of the Day" in 1964 in preparation for the nationa's upcoming 1966 World Cup tournament. The first "training" match was Liverpool 3 v Arsenal 2 in August 1964.
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It was not until October 1983 that Spurs and Nottingham Forest became the first fully televised League game.
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