Match of the Day
Match of the Day is the BBC's principal football programme. It is shown on BBC One every Saturday night during the football season, showing highlights of Premiership (formerly Division One) matches. There are also some midweek editions, showing highlights of weekday evening games. Match of the Day also screens FA Cup and England international matches, either live or as highlights.
Match of the Day was first broadcast in 1964 on the BBC's new television service, BBC2, switching to BBC1 two years later. It is currently presented by former England striker Gary Lineker. Past presenters include Kenneth Wolstenholme, Jimmy Hill and Des Lynam. The MoTD theme tune (composed by Barry Stoller) is famous in the UK and is closely associated with not just the programme, but with football itself.
The BBC have not always held exclusive rights to league football highlights; through much of the 1970s and 1980s it has had to share them with ITV's The Big Match, while between 1988 and 1992, and 2001 and 2004, the BBC held no league rights at all. In these periods though Match of the Day still appeared irregularly throughout the season, covering FA Cup highlights to which the BBC still held the rights.
Pundits featured on the show to make (often) insightful comments about the games they have just seen, have included Alan Hansen, Trevor Brooking, Mark Lawrenson and Jimmy Hill. Hill is notably the only person to have both presented and appeared as a pundit on the show.
In 2004, a spin-off program, Match of the Day 2, was launched on Sundays on BBC Two, showing highlights of Sunday matches and further reaction to Saturday's action.