The Premiership (TV series)
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This article is about the UK series. For the Irish series, see The Premiership (television).
| The Premiership | |
|---|---|
| Format | Sports |
| Starring | Des Lynam Ally McCoist Andy Townsend Gabby Logan Robbie Earle Terry Venables Clive Tyldesley Jon Champion Ron Atkinson |
| Country of origin | UK |
| Production | |
| Running time | 70 |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Original run | August 18, 2001 – May 15, 2004 |
The Premiership (also known as The Premiership on ITV) was ITV Sport's flagship football show, from 2001 to 2004, devoted to the English Premier League after they won a lucrative multi-million pound deal to show highlights. The programme was presented by Des Lynam, with Ally McCoist and Andy Townsend serving as pundits.
The theme music was a heavily edited Beautiful Day by U2.
[edit] History
[edit] Television Rights
Match of the Day, the BBC's prime football show was in its eight year of terrestrial Premiership coverage and was about to start their ninth. Bidding for a further three seasons, the BBC went as favourites to regain the exclusive highlight deal. However, against all the odds, the contract was awarded to ITV, with a £185 million pound deal lasting for three years.
After much debate about who was going to sponsor the programme, Coca Cola was awarded with the rights, in a £100 million pound deal – the biggest sponsorship in British television history. The soft drink brand beat off competition from Pepsi and Budweiser and focused their advertising on footballers, such as Robbie Savage, Rio Ferdinand and Emile Heskey friends and families. In addition, U2's Beautiful Day became the show's signature tune. ITV also extended On The Ball, it's lunchtime football show to an hour and introduced The Goal Rush, which they claimed was the most fastest and comprehensive results service in the country.
As part of the deal, ITV decided to air the show at 7pm – at a time when they thought that people could watch it together. A later edition of the show was aired at 11pm, with extended highlights and further match commentary.
[edit] Controversies
The first show, aired on 18 August 2001 was presented by Des Lynam at 7pm. The main game featured was Middlesbrough and Arsenal at the Riverside Stadium; Arsenal winning 4-0.
The Premiership was watched at a peak of 5 million viewers, compared to The Weakest Link which drew an average of 7 million, on the BBC. Despite ITV declaring that it was a positive start to the show, Media critics – most notably the Daily Mirror, outspokenly howled about the lack of highlights, in contrast to the amount that the pundits were talking. Out of the 70 minutes on air, the show only broadcasted 28 minutes of action, compared to an average 58 minutes of Match of the Day.
A week later saw ITV consequently suffer their worst Saturday night ratings for five years. An average of 3.1 million viewers watched The Premiership, and it didn’t dramatically improve. Within two months, only 4.6 million viewers tuned in, which marked the final straw to ITV’s top executives.
A decision was made in early October 2001, to shift The Premiership from its original slot to a permanent, later time of 10:30pm, from November 17th, with repeats broadcasted early on Sunday mornings.
