ESPN Classic (UK) - BBC-produced Programming

BBC-produced Programming

During the first three years of the channel sporting action from the BBC was featured extensively. However, this deal expired in mid 2009 and was seemingly not renewed as for the next eighteen months the channel did not feature any sport produced by the BBC. Therefore, sports such as rugby league, golf, athletics, darts and snooker were not shown on the channel nor were events such as domestic cricket prior to 1999 (the year that the BBC lost the rights to show live cricket), Wimbledon tennis, the Olympic Games and football coverage to which the BBC had the exclusive rights, which had included showings of 1970s and 1980s editions of Match of the Day under the title of "The Dead Good Match" with the opening and closing titles removed, and some editions were truncated, with only one of the matches covered in a particular programme being shown. One exception had been BBC-produced coverage of rugby union's Five Nations tournament shown during the 2011 Six Nations Championship.

In March 2011, a new deal between ESPN and the BBC was signed which provided ESPN Classic with access to around 80 hours of footage. However, this was far less than under the previous agreement which had given the channel access to around 630 hours. However, the new deal meant that previous ESPN-produced programmes based on the BBC archive, such as the darts series Bellies and Bullseyes, were once again shown on the channel along with new programmes, such as athletics series Solid Gold - Team GB and other one-off programmes, and a compilation of top Grand Nationals. This new deal with BBC Sport coincided with a new look for the channel, the first new look since ESPN UK launched in summer 2009.