Match of the Day has undergone revolution in recent years, with Premier League highlights available quickly and more vieweres able to watch the weekend’s action online
Match of the Day has been a “fantastic” success – despite losing ten per cent of its audience. BBC director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski says the overall viewing figures are up because of its increased digital output.
The BBC’s flagship football show – an institution once 1964 – underwent a huge change this season as they ditched Gary Lineker as the main presenter.
Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman now share duties on Saturday and Sunday nights and the latest figures showed the weekly audience for the two programmes was 6.88million viewers — 770,000 fewer than the average for August to December 2024.
But the BBC now shows extensive highlights on its iPlayer app and that has seen a 21 per cent rise in digital views. It means the BBC has lost just over 750,000 viewers for the BBC One and BBC Two Match of the Day broadcasts but gained double that number in digital viewers.
Kay-Jelski, talking at the FT Live event, said: “Yeah, it’s been going great because the numbers overall of the brand – because we added this year the clips on top of all the other great work we’ve done with the traditional programme – we’re hitting 20 or 21 per cent more people overall.
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“That’s fantastic. I’m now sitting here worried that I’m getting my numbers wrong! But I know it’s up by a significant. We’ll take that.”
The initial switch from England legend Lineker as the recognisable host of the longest-running football show in the world saw a backlash.
But a new generation of viewers now watch the highlights on their phones, iPads and laptops with games available later the same day and before Match of the Day. The highlights often last up to nine minutes and the package which is shown on Match of the Day is available online.
Kay-Jelski added: “We’re all living in this very, very, very different media landscape now where most of us are saying things first on our phone anyway, and we’re all swiping and swiping and swiping on the same tiny little screen.
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“But we’re not competing against who we’re competing for before. BBC might have thought traditionally it was up against ITV or Sky or various other broadcasters as well. That’s what we’re not.
“We’re in a race to not be swiped up against people sending me holidays or clothes companies, or two for one chicken breasts on sale from the supermarket or football teams or athletes.
“We need to be cleverer and better and engaging people, all of us, in order to compete in a far wider landscape than it’s ever been before.”
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