Timeline of ITV football

Sixties beginnings

First televised football contracts signed

      1968 - ITV franchise map re-drawn and regional system of football coverage begins.  "World of Sport" is launched

-         Early commentators include Hugh Johns (ITV commentator on the 1966 World Cup Final), Brian Moore, George Taylor, Gerry Harrison and Arthur Montford

Seventies heyday

-        Eight ITV stations regularly cover local football (TTT, YTV, GTV, ATV, Anglia, LWT, STV and Grampian), plus two stations on a  less frequent basis (HTV and Southern)

1978 - “Snatch of the Day” as Michael Grade and LWT attempt to gain exclusive rights to TV soccer.  They are rebuffed, but the new   four-year deal for the first time allows ITV to screen matches on a Saturday night (alternating season by season with the BBC)

-         1980 - ITV football moves to Saturday nights

Eighties disillusion

 TV chiefs begin to complain of low ratings, football bosses to complain of low crowds.  Each blame the other (see Page 8 for more details)

1983 - End of regional system and first threats of TV football blackout

       First live League football game screened on ITV (Tottenham 2 Nottingham Forest 1)

      1983/84 -  All ITV recorded soccer is blacked out for 5 months by an industrial dispute.

The dispute involves the rights of regional ITV videotape technicians to edit football matches locally rather than having the games edited nationally. It is revealed that 3 senior videotape editors at LWT, where "The Big Match" was put together, were earning more than the company's Managing Director due to a union agreement. One editor earned around £100000 per year whereas the Managing Director earned only £60000 per year!
 

     1985 - TV soccer blackout.   After Robert Maxwell calls the new TV offer "mad, bad and sad", chairmen hold out for more  money.  It is not forthcoming.  In December 1985, via intermediary Jimmy Hill, the now desperate Football League capitulate       

       Arrival of “Saint and Greavsie” but the end of "World of Sport", after 15 years.  You can see a Real Player file of "World of  Sport"s title sequence (later version, without the planes flying the banner) at the TV ARK  website,  http://www.marksteele.worldonline.co.uk/tv-ark/sport-itv.html

       1988 - Greg Dyke tries to launch “ITV Superleague” to fend off a challenge from satellite station BSB.  Although the "Superleague" idea is  dropped (for now), ITV win exclusive rights to league football. 

      A “gentleman’s agreement” focuses coverage on the “Big Five" (Man United, Liverpool, Everton, Arsenal and Tottenham).  ITV bosses are dismissive of smaller teams (“Keep death off the screen” – Trevor East)

Nineties boom

Massive expansion in televised football after 1990 World Cup

          1992 - ITV lose league soccer rights to Sky but later win rights to Champions League coverage

     Exit of “Saint and Greavsie”

     1998 - Launch of On Digital by Granada and Carlton

     1999 - Complaints about drab presentation and bland presenters (e.g., Matt Lorenzo, Bob Wilson) lead to big-money signing of Des Lynam by ITV

Dishy Des, in his younger BBC days and later at ITV

Millennium bust       

 2001 - ITV win exclusive rights to Nationwide League games and later, Premier League highlights

            On Digital renamed ITV Digital

         “The Premiership” launches in a new early-evening slot ("better for you, better for us", says Des), but flops with viewers and is soon rescheduled to a  later time

        Death of Brian Moore, ironically on the same day that his beloved England thrash Germany 5-1 in Munich

             2002: collapse of ITV Digital is blamed largely on overpaying for Nationwide League rights.  Acrimony between ITV bosses and football chiefs (plus ça change!)

      2004 - BBC regain rights to Premier League football