Match of the Day bosses hail 'fantastic success' despite losing 10% of audience

Match of the Day has seen its weekly BBC One and BBC Two audience drop by 10% this season, but BBC director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski has hailed the overall brand performance

BBC director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski believes Match of the Day has achieved "fantastic" results despite a 10% drop in its traditional television audience. Kay-Jelski maintains that overall viewing numbers have increased thanks to enhanced digital content.

The BBC's iconic football programme, which has been a staple since 1964, went through a significant transformation this season following Gary Lineker's departure as main presenter.

Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman now rotate presenting duties across Saturday and Sunday evenings. Recent statistics revealed that the combined weekly audience for both programmes stood at 6.88 million viewers, representing a decline of 770,000 compared to the August to December 2024 average.

However, the BBC now provides comprehensive highlights via its iPlayer platform, which has delivered a 21% increase in digital viewership. This means that whilst the BBC One and BBC Two Match of the Day broadcasts have shed just over 750,000 viewers, they've attracted twice that figure through digital channels.

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Speaking at the FT Live event, Kay-Jelski said: "Yeah, it's been going great because the numbers overall of the brand - because we added this year the clips on top of all the other great work we've done with the traditional programme - we're hitting 20 or 21% more people overall. That's fantastic.

"I'm now sitting here worried that I'm getting my numbers wrong! But I know it's up by a significant. We'll take that."

The decision to replace England legend Lineker as the familiar face of the world's longest-running football programme initially sparked considerable criticism. However, a younger audience now consumes the highlights via their mobile phones, tablets and laptops, with matches becoming available later the same day and ahead of Match of the Day's broadcast.

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The highlights frequently run for up to nine minutes, with the same package shown on Match of the Day accessible online.

Kay-Jelski added: "We're all living in this very, very, very different media landscape now where most of us are saying things first on our phone anyway, and we're all swiping and swiping and swiping on the same tiny little screen.

"But we're not competing against who we're competing for before. BBC might have thought traditionally it was up against ITV or Sky or various other broadcasters as well. That's what we're not.

"We're in a race to not be swiped up against people sending me holidays or clothes companies, or two for one chicken breasts on sale from the supermarket or football teams or athletes.

"We need to be cleverer and better and engaging people, all of us, in order to compete in a far wider landscape than it's ever been before."