Ford Super Sunday

Infobox Television
bgcolor = #D6D6FF
show_name = Ford Super Sunday


caption =
format = Sports
camera =
picture_format = 576i (PAL) (1992-2005) 1080p (HDTV) (2005-)
audio_format =
runtime = Variable
creator =
developer =
executive_producer =
starring = Richard Keys
Andy Gray
Martin Tyler
Rob Hawthorne
Alan Parry
Ian Darke
Jamie Redknapp
Geoff Shreeves
Dion Dublin
narrated =
opentheme = (2000-01) Glorious by Andreas Johnson(2001-02) Lovin' Each Day by Ronan Keating

(2002-03) Carnaval de Paris by Dario G

(2004-) The Time is Now by Moloko
endtheme =
country = UK
network = Sky Sports
first_run =
first_aired = August 16, 1992
last_aired = present
num_episodes =
website = http://www.skysports.com/football
imdb_id =
tv_com_id =

Ford Super Sunday is Sky Sports' flagship live football programme, televised most Sundays throughout the Barclays Premier League season on "Sky Sports 1". It has been presented since its debut in August 1992 by former TV-am host Richard Keys, alongside a variety of guest match pundits. From the 2005-2006 season, former Liverpool player Jamie Redknapp joined the show as a regular pundit. For the majority of its run, the commentary team consisted of Martin Tyler and former Scotland striker Andy Gray, although since early 2005, commentators such as Ian Darke, Alan Parry or Rob Hawthorne occasionally commentate the match with Gray, so as to lighten Tyler's workload - recent big matches such as those involving Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea have been commentated by Darke and Gray rather than Tyler and Gray.

Innovation

The first match shown on "Ford Super Sunday" was between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool on August 16, 1992, a match Forest won 1-0. This first broadcast featured a digital on-screen graphic (DOG) throughout the game showing the score and match time. It was the first time a UK broadcaster had done such a thing and despite a few initial complaints DOGs now part of coverage of virtually all televised sports worldwide.

Broadcast times

In the first couple of years of the programme, "Ford Super Sunday" - the title due to major sponsorship by the Ford Motor Company - used to start at 2pm, giving viewers two hours buildup before the slightly untraditional kickoff time of 4pm, as opposed to Saturday kickoff at 3pm. Eventually, Sky decided this was a bit too much, and decided to start the programme at 3pm instead. From the 2004-05 season, some Super Sunday coverage started as early as 1pm if two live games were shown that day. From the 2005-06, coverage began at 3.30pm if only one live game was shown.

Since then, "Ford Super Sunday" has mostly shown the Premiership's biggest match of the weekend, although occasionally due to the amount of times each club have to be shown by Sky Sports, or an impending UEFA Champions League match in midweek (in which case clubs will often play on the preceding Saturday), a lesser match is shown. Sky always makes the first choice of potential live matches each weekend, and normally will put that game in the 4pm slot unless police concerns necessitate an earlier start. The highest viewing figure for a Super Sunday match was between Manchester United and Arsenal in 2003 where between 1.87 million and 2.47 million watched (the exact number is unconfirmed).

The advent of pay-per-view football between 2001 and 2007 saw "Ford Super Sunday" sometimes led in by a game shown on Sky's "PremPlus" channel. Beginning with the 2004-2005 season, PPV matches were moved to Saturdays at 5:15pm, and an extra slot was given to "Ford Super Sunday". The show then started some weekends at 1pm, with the first match kicking off at 2pm, followed by the next match at 4:05pm. However, this led fans of teams in the first match to have their buildup mostly ignored in favour of the teams in the second match, which was often the bigger match. As a result, starting in the 2005-2006 season, the first game was brought forward to 1:30pm to allow a dedicated buildup to that match, leaving half an hour from 3:30pm to build up the second game starting at 4pm. Sometimes, the first match and pre-game coverage will begin even earlier, particularly for local derbies.

Commentators

This is the current list of regular commentators on the programme.

* Martin Tyler
* Andy Gray
* Ian Darke
* Rob Hawthorne
* Alan Smith (former Arsenal player)
* Ray Wilkins
* Alan Parry

Television contract

"Super Sunday" is scheduled to run until the end of the 2009-2010 season at the earliest. Sky has lost its monopoly on broadcasting the Premiership from 2007-08 to Setanta Sports as a result of a European Commission recommendation. [ [http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1549166,00.html European Commission recommendation] Media Guardian] However they have retained the rights to all 4pm kick-offs as part of their renewed £1.4 billion contract. [ [http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/news/article362329.ece New football contract details] The Independent] Sky continues to air some of the early-Sunday games, but Setanta also has a share of that package (on top of its deals for 5:15pm kick-offs on Saturday and 8:00pm on Mondays).

References