2015/16 Football on the BBC

Gary Lineker and Match of the Day (MOTD) return to BBC One on Saturday 8 August, heralding the start of the new Premier League season and a host of football content across the BBC. Arsenal legend Ian Wright returns to the team and will take his place alongside Alan Shearer, Danny Murphy, Ruud Gullit, Martin Keown and Jermaine Jenas.

MOTD celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, watched by more than 25 million viewers, and the BBC signed a new three-year deal for Premier League highlights through to the end of the 2018/19 season. This forms a big part of the impressive football rights portfolio on BBC television that includes live FA Cup coverage until 2018, the World Cup through to 2022, and regular women’s football.

Mark Cole, Lead Executive for BBC Football, says: “We are delighted to welcome Ian Wright back to the MOTD team to offer his strong opinions and insight alongside Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and our impressive team of pundits. Almost two-thirds of fans follow the Premier League only on the BBC, it really is the nation’s season ticket. We will continue to innovate across our football output and deliver a wealth of content to the biggest audiences on BBC TV, Radio 5 live and across our digital services, as well as providing extensive coverage of the women’s game.”

Ian Wright says: "I'm delighted to be back on Match of the Day. It's been an integral part of my life since I was a child. It is the Holy Grail. I've said before that it's my Graceland and I don't think I've missed one Match of the Day for as long as I can remember.

“There are lots of great football shows but Match of the Day is Match of the Day. None of those other shows have the music for a start! It's iconic and it's a national treasure.

"I want to make sure that I focus on players' brilliance - sometimes you can't defend against brilliance. People talk about the Premier League being a robust league but there's a lot of great technical players here and I get an opportunity to talk about them on Match of the Day."

The MOTD team will continue to set the Saturday night agenda with insightful punditry, new enhanced graphics and analysis tools. Audiences can also enjoy the new live companion MOTD page on the BBC Sport website and App with additional stats and analysis, join the discussion through the MOTD Facebook and Twitter accounts, and take part in interactive votes, including Goal of the Month on MOTD2. Ahead of the season there will be a Community Shield highlights MOTD programme on Sunday 2 August. Then Alan Shearer and Danny Murphy will be in the studio for the opening weekend of the season, followed by Jermaine Jenas and Ian Wright in week two. Sam Allardyce makes his MOTD debut on 22 August, alongside Alan Shearer, while Martin Keown and Ruud Gullit line up for the final show of the month.

There are ten hours of football coverage across BBC TV every weekend, on MOTD2 and MotD2 Extra presented by Mark Chapman, Football Focus with Dan Walker, Final Score with Jason Mohammad and MOTD Kickabout from the CBBC team.

Further expert analysis will come from Kevin Kilbane, Trevor Sinclair, Jason Roberts, Mark Lawrenson, John Hartson, Dion Dublin, Garth Crooks, Danny Mills, Robbie Fowler and Graeme Le Saux. Additional presentation comes from Gabby Logan, Manish Bhasin and Jacqui Oatley. The experienced line-up of MOTD commentators for the season once again includes Guy Mowbray, Steve Wilson, Jonathan Pearce, Simon Brotherton, Steve Bower and John Motson.

The FA Cup had a hugely successful return to BBC screens last season, with viewing figures up by nine million for terrestrial coverage last year and a total of 36 million people enjoying the BBC’s coverage. This season will again see up to 16 live matches and highlights of every round from November, bringing the magic of the Cup across all platforms. Friday night live matches, special Sunday Final Scores, on-location Monday draw shows, extra digital catch-up services and access all areas coverage will continue to give extra prominence to the early rounds. Viewers can also once again enjoy a football-filled January as the third round kicks in, and in May the BBC will again bring wall-to-wall coverage of the FA Cup final throughout the day.

Radio 5 live continues to bring more live radio commentaries than any other British broadcaster with an impressive portfolio of 128 Premier League games, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, Europa League, Home Nations’ internationals, Scottish Premiership and Championship, Football League and women’s football. It is also the place to go for the home nations’ Euro 2016 qualifiers, with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all coming up in the next month.

In addition to live commentary the network brings all the football action and news throughout the week on 5 live Sport with Mark Chapman, Mark Pougatch and Eleanor Oldroyd. 606 returns on weekends with Robbie Savage and Darren Fletcher hosting on Saturdays and Ian Wright and Kelly Cates on Sundays. A special four-way 606 kicks off the season this year on Thursday 6 August, 8.00- 10.00pm, with all four presenters hosting a two-hour show with calls, predictions and discussion.

The 5 live team is led by football correspondent John Murray, commentary from Alan Green, with pundits Danny Mills, Robbie Savage, Mark Lawrenson, Martin Keown, Kevin Kilbane, John Hartson, Pat Nevin, Steve Claridge, Danny Murphy, Jermaine Jenas, Chris Waddle and Graham Taylor.

The BBC’s extensive coverage of women’s football continues, following on from the hugely successful FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada this summer, where all matches were shown live on the BBC with an overall audience reach of 12.6m. The Women’s FA Cup final is being played at Wembley for the first time on Saturday 1 August and is live on BBC One, presented by Jacqui Oatley, with live commentary on Radio 5 live. There will also be live coverage of England’s home 2017 Euro qualifiers on BBC TV and radio.

As the women’s Super League season continues, Jacqui Oatley presents the Women’s Football Show which includes two special programmes on BBC One to capture the end of the season. There will be extended highlights of all the key games after MOTD2 on Sunday 27 September and the final weekend on Sunday 4 October. There are regular shows in the traditional Monday night slot on 10 and 24 August, along with 7 September, with all these shows repeated on Saturday mornings on BBC Two. In addition, Caroline Barker is among the presenters of live commentary on seven further matches this season on 5 live sports extra’s Super League Show.

Pundits across the programming come from a wide range of current and former professional players, with Sue Smith, Lucy Bronze, Claire Rafferty, Natasha Dowie, Casey Stoney, Steph Houghton, Fara Williams, Alex Scott and Kelly Smith all having featured last season.

The BBC Sport website offers fans an extensive service including a weekly round-up of the best of the goals action, on-demand clips plus all the news and interviews. The website also features live text commentary on key matches and a regular exclusive column from England and Chelsea Ladies’ Eniola Aluko.

Across the entire football portfolio the BBC Sport website and App will offer more live coverage than ever before, with a bespoke live text commentary service for every Premier League and Home Nation international match, plus the biggest Champions League, FA Cup, Scottish Premiership, Championship and women’s football matches.

Daily football coverage across BBC Sport’s digital and social channels also includes leading news and analysis, as well as popular features such as Lawro’s Predictions and the Gossip Column, while fans can set team and goal alerts via the BBC Sport App from over 150 teams in the English and Sottish Leagues.

New features for this season include My Premier League Life, a personalised history for fans of the 2015/16 Premier League teams which launches on 7 August, and the Premier League predictor game, where fans can challenge the predictions of Mark Lawrenson.

There is also a wealth of content and ways to engage with programmes via BBC Sport’s social media accounts, which now have over 10m Facebook fans (7.6m - BBC Sport; 2.9m – BBC MOTD), over 5m Twitter followers (4m @bbcsport; 1.4m @bbcmotd) and 2.6 million followers on Google+.

BBC Local Radio stations in England continue to provide in-depth coverage of all their local teams. Their loyal and informed sports teams deliver commentary on every game of around 70 league teams to their listeners, ranging from Premier League giants like Manchester City and Spurs to National League sides like AFC Telford and Wrexham. The teams cover around 1,500 matches during the season, along with news, phone-ins and previews shows.

BBC Sports News will bring all the results, stories and interviews of the season across TV and radio.
Audiences on the BBC World Service will continue to enjoy the most comprehensive coverage of the Premier League available worldwide, Champions League and FA Cup on Sportsworld – and Alan Green presents World Football, bringing the biggest football stories from around the world to our global audiences.

BBC Get Inspired will continue to support and promote participation in football, working with the FA and the Premier League this season. Its #BigHelpOut campaign, in partnership with Join In, aims to get 10,000 new people volunteering in sport to help support the grass roots game for all ages and genders.

NB: Barb Data - nearly 2 in 3 (64 percent) follow the Premier League solely via the BBC Based on Individuals 4+, 15+ consecutive minute reach, 2014/15 English Premier League season includes programmes from Wednesday 6 August 2014 - Sunday 31 May 2015.