sport news Match of the Day is more than just a football show: It's free to air and in a ... trends now
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Match of the Day contributes just two per cent of the Premier League’s annual broadcast income of £3.5billion, yet arguably delivers more benefits to a larger number of viewers than any other TV deal done by the league.
The astonishing meltdown at the BBC these past few days, that led to last night’s MOTD being thrown into doubt, will no doubt be weighing heavily on minds at the corporation and two simple numbers illustrate why.
The first is £70.5m. That is the sum the BBC currently pays each year, in a three-year £211.5m deal running to 2025, for exclusive use on free-to-air TV in the UK of Premier League highlights. These appear not just on MOTD and MOTD2 but on Football Focus and MOTDx, which replaced The Premier League show in 2019.
The second is 61 per cent. That is the share of the British population, or around 40 million people, who watch at least part of MOTD’s output each season. The flagship Saturday night show can routinely attract 4m viewers, with up to three million tuning in to MOTD2 on Sundays. Tens of millions of additional fans each season request the shows on BBC iPlayer.
By contrast, the average live Premier League game on Sky attracts around a million viewers and games on BT Sport get fewer. Those broadcasters
