The first LIVE Football League match was transmitted by ITV in September 1960 but the programme was not a sucess. I remember seeing Blackpool play Bolton Wanderers at Bloomfield Road, on a tiny telly, in black and white, grainy to say the least; it was not a great success. The cameras were stationed behind the goals and ITV only showed the last five minutes of the first half. The main attraction (for me especially) was Stanley Matthews, my hero, and he was not playing-injured!
The match, was worth £150,000, and kicked off at 6:50 pm with live coverage starting at 7:30pm under the title The Big Game. The game was played in front of a half-empty stadium. ITV withdrew from the deal, after Arsenal first and then Tottenham Hotspur, refused ITV permission to film at their matches against Newcastle Utd and Aston Villa respectively, and when the Football League demanded a dramatic increase in player appearance payments.
The viewing figures were poor and within weeks the contract between broadcaster and FL was scrapped.
23 years later another league match was televised but not in its entirety, when ITV showed Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest on, 2nd October 1983, with regular LIVE matches shown by ITV and BBC during the mid-1980s, although the broadcasters operated as a cartel, keeping the costs low. Football hardly benefitted.
The football administrators tried to hold out for more money in 1986, so the games were taken off the screens for half a year, until the FLeague returned "cap in hand" to take the £4.5m on offer.
Satellite technology changed attitudes, with BBC and ITV no longer the only "players". British Sky Broadcasting made a £99m ten year bid for league rights in 1988, which led to ITV breaking from the BBC and offering £44m for four years. ITV won the bid partly because the big clubs would pocket the majority of the prize which had previously been split between the 92 league clubs.
The seed of a "breakaway super league" had been unearthed and on 20th February 1992 the Premier League was launched with matches starting in the Summer 1992 when the ITV deal "ran out".
HOW MANY CAN YOU NAME? DON'T SCROLL DOWN!
ITV bid £262m for the new PL TV contract and appeared to have won it, when Spurs' chairman (and Amstrad satellite dish manufacturer) Alan Sugar announced "You've got to blow them out of the water" down a phone. But to whom? Hours later SKY produced a £304m bid and won the contract.
In August, Teddy Sheringham shot past David James to score SKY's first "LIVE GOAL" and as the adverts announced, "A whole new ball game" was born. David James made his debut after moving from Watford in July. Paul Stewart made his debut after moving from Tottenham Hotspur in July.
Commenting on the only goal of the game, Forest manager Brian Clough said: "You don't work on scoring goals like that. They come out of the blue through sheer ability. Edward Sheringham stuck it in. That's what he's paid for."
The time line is: 18 May – Sky outbids ITV for the live rights to the newly formed football Premier League. Sky bids £304 million, as opposed to ITV's £262 million.
27 June – Due to ITV losing the rights to top flight football, Saint and Greavsie is broadcast for the final time following a decision by ITV to drop its Saturday football preview and results programmes. The final edition of Results Service had been shown a month earlier but Saint & Greavsie continued for an additional month so that the programme could cover Euro'92
- 15 August – Sky Sports launches Sports Saturday. The programme follows the same format as the BBC's Grandstand programme featuring a mix of sporting action, concluding with the day's football results.
- 16 August – To mark the start of Sky Sports' coverage of the PL. the channel launches an afternoon-long programme called Super Sunday The programme concludes with a 90-minute football round-up called Scorelines.
- 17 August – Monday Night Football makes its debut on Sky Sports as part of Sky's deal to show Premier League matches on Monday evenings. This is the first time that domestic football has been shown in the UK on Monday evenings.
- August – ITV maintains their partnership with the Football League and begins showing matches from the second tier of English football. The coverage is shown on a regional basis with many English regions showing a live game on a Sunday afternoon.
- 6 September – The first edition of Football Italia is broadcast as part of Channel 4's deal to show Serie A. The channel continues to show Italian football for the next ten years. At its peak in the 1990s, Football Italia attracted over 3 million viewers, and remains the most watched programme in the UK about a non-British domestic football league.
- 16 September – ITV shows its first matches from the newly formed UEFA Champions League having purchased the rights following it being outbid for the rights to the Premier League.
- https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/12049799/on-this-day-first-live-premier-league-goal
- Back Row (L-R)
David Hirst (Sheffield Wednesday)
Lee Sharp (Manchester United)
Tony Daley (Aston Villa)
Vinnie Jones (Chelsea)
Mark Wright (Liverpool)
John Wark (Ipswich)
Tim Flowers (Southampton)
Tim Sherwood (Blackburn Rovers)
Middle Row (L-R)
Ian Brightwell (Manchester City)
Ian Butterworth (Norwich City)
Hans Segars (Wimbledon)
Andy Pearce (Coventry City)
Carl Bradshaw (Sheffield United)
Gordon Durie (Spurs)
David Hillier (Arsenal)
Front Row (L-R)
Gary Charles (Nottingham Forest)
Andy Ritchie (Oldham)
John Salako (Crystal Palace)
Andy Sinton (QPR)
Andy Kernaghan (Middlesbrough)
Gordon Strachan (Leeds)
Peter Beardsley (Everton)
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