Soccer Night
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Soccer Night was a British regional television football programme produced by ITV plc regions in England and Wales between August 2004 and May 2008. The late night magazine show, focusing on Football League clubs, was introduced for the 2004-5 season to replace the long-standing Sunday afternoon highlights programmes owing to cutbacks by ITV plc.
Contents |
[edit] Soccer Night regions
| Region | Presenters |
|---|---|
| Anglia | Kevin Piper |
| Tyne Tees N.B. Also shown on Border. |
Roger Tames |
| Central | Stan Collymore Sarah Jane Mee (2004-8) |
| Meridian | Andy Steggall |
| Granada | Matt Smith Alistair Mann (2004-5) |
| West | Jed Pitman |
| Westcountry | Mark Tyler Jeff Welch |
| Yorkshire | Andy Townsend John Shires (stand-in) Peter Beagrie |
| London N.B. Axed after the 2005/6 season. |
Tony Francis |
| Wales N.B. Axed in December 2005. |
Sam Lloyd Jonathan Owen (stand-in) David Giles (analyst) |
[edit] Variations in programming
[edit] Wales Soccer Night/Soccer Sunday
Wales Soccer Night (produced by ITV Wales) was axed in December 2005 in response to high viewer demand for the return of a full highlights programme on Sundays as opposed to the magazine-based format on late Thursday nights. Soccer Sunday returned on 15 January 2006 with extended highlights of Cardiff City, Swansea City and Wrexham matches. Soccer Sunday is presented by Jonathan Owen (a local actor and assistant producer at ITV Wales) with match commentary provided by Bob Symonds and Phil Duffell.
The programme was extended to an hour in February 2007 and incorporated goals from all other Football League games. ITV West sports editor Jed Pitman presented the newly expanded programme. The new format was dropped at the end of the 2006/7 season and Soccer Sunday returned to its original format. Pitman left the programme at the end of the year and was replaced by Jonathan Owen.
ITV Wales lost the rights to show highlights of Wrexham's matches when the club were relegated to the Blue Square Premier league at the end of the 2007/8 season.
[edit] Hancock's Half Time
Central Soccer Night and London Soccer Night were replaced in 2006 by Hancock's Half Time, a pan-regional show produced from ITV Central's studios in Birmingham and presented by Nick Hancock & Sarah Jane Mee.
The programme was axed during the 2007/8 season and replaced by a revival of Central Soccer Night in the Midlands. ITV London chose not to produce a replacement programme.
[edit] Axing
The various Soccer Night programmes in England were axed in May 2008 as part of further cutbacks in regional output. Goals from local Football League matches are due to feature in ITV regional news programmes during the 2008/9 season. After which, ITV will lose the rights for Football League highlights to the BBC.
Soccer Sunday (Wales) is set to continue with coverage of Cardiff City and Swansea City throughout the 2008/9 season.
