FMP- Year 2 Script.

Football before Re-brand

“In October of 1990 English football was set to undergo a big change, because
after 104 years of division one, representatives of the England’s big 5 clubs (at
the time) which include David Dein of Arsenal, Philip Carter of Everton, Noel
White of Liverpool, Martin Edwards of Manchester United and Irving Scholar of
Tottenham Hotspur all met to discuss the big change that would alter the
course of English football as we know it today”

“But before we get to that we must talk about how football in England rose to
the point where the re brand would eventually earn the league a 6-billion-
pound TV deal, and this can be traced back to 1888 when the inaugural league
season in England took place with Preston North End going unbeaten to win
the title and even won the FA cup as well that season, but to find the first game
to be televised you would have to go all the way back to the 16th September
1937 when Arsenal played their own reserve team, the broadcast was filmed
from the gunners former ground Highbury”

“For the first competitive game to televised you would have to wait less than a
year later, as on the 30th April 1938 the FA Cup final between Huddersfield and
Preston would get that honour, Preston would go on to win the cup 1-0, thanks
to a George Mutch Penalty deep into extra time, at the time of this game being
played there were less than 10,000 TV sets in the country”

“In 1955 the European cup was created (Now known as the Champions league)
to be a midweek cup competition for champions in various European leagues
to compete against each other, the introduction of floodlights to football was a
big reason for this as games could now be televised later into the night”

“In the same year ITV was created and they saw televised football as a great
opportunity to gain a share of the viewers from their rivals the BBC who were
established 19 years before hand in 1936, The BBC Countered ITV by starting to
showing brief highlights packages of the Saturday games, and later that night
would launch sports special which would first air on the 10th September 1955
and would run until its cancellation in 1963, the first games to be featured on
the show would be Luton Town vs Newcastle United and Charlton Athletic vs
Everton. Kenneth Wolstenholme and Cliff Mitchelmore were the
commentators”

Premier League Formation

“In May of 1992 the landscape of football coverage would take a dramatic turn,
as Sky win the rights to show coverage of the re-brand division one which
would now be called the Premier league, Sky would pay 304 million pounds to
show games for the next five seasons (1992-1997) thus leaving the rival ITV
with nothing to show for their efforts, In the end Sky would only end up paying
190 million pounds after the broadcaster failed to reach their foreign sales
targets”

“The story of how the re-brand came about is a complex a conniving one, as
the genesis for this seismic change to football in England would come about
because of…. well money, that would be the easiest way of putting it, but there
is a little bit more to share as to why the change occurred”

“In October 1990 managing directors of the “Big 5” clubs in England at the time, Liverpool,
Manchester United, Arsenal, Everton… yes Everton and Finally Tottenham Hotspur, had a
secret meeting on how they could get their clubs more exposure on TV, which would lead to
more money and opportunities to grow their clubs globally.
Another fundamental difference was at that time the money in the breakaway league would
only be divided between the clubs active in that division, Whilst in the previous arrangement
it was shared between all Football League clubs across all divisions. The plan was drawn up
for a Premier League of 18 clubs to be created in time for the 1992–93 season”

“On 27 May 1992, the Premier League was officially formed, and it was confirmed that the
first season of the new league would begin in August that year, involving the 19th highest
placed teams in that season’s First Division as well as the champions, runners-up and playoff
winners from the Second Division. The old Second Division would be renamed Division
One, the Third Division would become Division Two and the Fourth Division would become
Division Three. The three-up, three-down system of promotion and relegation, established in
1974 (although there had since been exceptions to the system on occasions when the league
was being reorganised) would continue in the future. David Dein (Arsenal) was constantly
asked what is the difference between the Premier league and the old first division? ‘Nothing,
except there’s more money swishing around”

Inaugural Prem season

“Going into the 1992-93 season there was a decision to be made as to what the first live game
of this new era would be that distinction would be given to Nottingham Forest and Liverpool
on the 16th August, in which Forest would beat Liverpool by a goal to nil thanks to a Teddy
Sheringham strike in the 29th minute, which was then in turn the first televised goal scored in
the premier league era”
“The league was won by Manchester United by 10 points over Aston Villa, this being their
first title since 1967 and 8th in their history and would (sadly) be the start to a period of
dominance in the league that would go until the early 2010s”

“During the first season of the re brand many common aspects of the sport that we know and
take for granted were introduced here these being some of the things, The clock and score-
line are introduced to live football coverage, Steadicam was also introduced to sports TV for
Sky Sports' football coverage, enhancing the television viewing experience for football fans,
And lastly Super slow-motion cameras used on Sky Sports for the first time, allowing in-
depth analysis and break-down of key moments”

Soccer Saturday

“Since 1992, Sky Sports had broadcast sports news, initially a brief Football Update and later
this was expanded into a 30-minute programme called Sky Sports Centre. These programmes
were generally broadcast on weekdays at 6pm and 10pm”

“On the 10th August 1998 Sky sports news began doing test runs with Mike Wedderburn and
Kelly Cates launching the channel with the first edition of good morning sports fans”

“The service became officially available to the public on the 1st October, the launch date of
BSkyB's Digital Satellite service, and was BSkyB's first digital only channel. On 10 April
2000, Sky Sports News relaunched as Sky Sports.com TV, to tie with the launch of the
SkySports.com website”

“Sky Sports News HD launched on 23 August 2010 on Sky channel 455, transferring to
channel 405 several months later. The HD channel offered enhancements such as widescreen
viewing and sharper graphics. A range of new programmes, such as First Fast Now and Sky
Sports News at Seven were launched plus new presenters, as well as the extension of existing
offerings, such as Ed Chamberlain presenting a regular live Sunday afternoon sports update.
Sky backed the launch of the channel with an extensive advertising campaign”

MNF

“Sky television's acquisition of rights to broadcast live Premier League football from the start
of the 1992–93 season saw them attempt innovations such as digital on-screen graphics and
Monday night live games. The first Monday Night Football game broadcast was
between Manchester City and Queens Park Rangers on 17 August 1992, which ended in a 1–
1 draw. To give the broadcasts a different look to Sky's Super Sunday strand, the broadcaster
introduced the "Sky Strikers", a dance troupe similar to American cheerleaders This pre-
match and half-time entertainment was dropped after the first season”
“Ed Chamberlain was given the presenting role for the 2011–12 season, with Gary Neville as
the new analyst. The show also returned to its previous format in the purpose-built analysis
studio, with Chamberlin and Neville carrying out the same roles as Keys and Gray the
previous season”

“In 2013, following his retirement from professional football, Jamie Carragher joined
the Monday Night Football show, to form a regular three-man line-up alongside Chamberlin
and Neville. The first Monday Night Football of the 2013-14 season, and Carragher's first
appearance, aired on 19 August 2013 with the Manchester City against Newcastle United
game. Manchester City won the game 4–0”

Current State of the sport

“As I write this in 2024 Sky still have the rights to show the most Premier League games, but
now there are multiple broadcasters who also have rights to show various games throughout a
season, TNT (formally known as BT) also have rights to show games most infamously the
12:30 slot on Saturday afternoon, and finally Amazon have the rights to show a load of
midweek games as well, which they show on their streaming service Amazon Prime”

“The Premier League has concluded deals with Sky Sports and TNT Sports for five UK live
packages and with BBC Sport for the free-to-air highlights package. All three agreements will
cover the four-year period starting Season 2025/26 and are the largest sports media rights
deals ever concluded in the UK”

"Sky Sports were awarded live rights packages B, C, D and E, covering a minimum of 215
live premier league matches per season, which will include more than 140 matches played at
weekends, evening matches on Fridays and Mondays, and full coverage of three midweek
match rounds. For the first time, Sky Sports will also broadcast all 10 matches on the final
day of each season"

"TNT Sports were also awarded live rights package A, covering 52 live premier league
matches per season, including exclusive coverage of matches played at 12:30pm and full
coverage of two rounds of midweek fixtures"

"Amazon prime have also thrown their hat into the ring in order to get some rights to premier
league football, Prime members in the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of man, can watch 20
premier league matches each season on prime video with no additional fees"

Conclusion

“In conclusion I think football has for sure come a long way since September 1937 when the
first game was aired, but I don’t think its all been for good, especially since 1992 when the
premier league was launched as I think football has lost that authenticity that it used to have,
like for example VAR has in my opinion completely ruined the sport as you can’t even
celebrate a goal properly and it has led to more referring errors than there ever was before,
which has also led to fan unrest”

“Also the role the football media have played in the slow breakdown of English football has
been quite severe, as the vast majority of pundits have decided to back the referees and the
PGMOL (which is the body responsible for referring games in English football) rather than
give them the fair and right criticism they deserve, I feel like sky sports in particular are
terrible in this regard as their pundits very rarely if ever call them out and accuse football
clubs, manager and even the fans of “moaning” and to just “get on with” the terrible
officiating in this country”

“Lastly as well I think the money that has come into game is both a great but also a bad thing
for the game, as I think it’s great that more money is being put into the grassroots side of it
and that players, managers ETC can finically support their families but I think there is more
bad than good”

“I think this much money in the sport has caused owners and the league itself to become a lot
greedier and they tend to ignore fans and treat us like just customers rather than people who
are fundamental to the running of a football club, especially as football clubs across the
country continue to bump up ticket prices which have led to protests and numerous other
things as well has left a bitter taste for people and unfortunately as more and more money
comes into the game, I think it will come resemble this great sport less and less”