- Soccer Night
Soccer Night was a British regional television football programme produced by
ITV plc regions in England and Wales between August 2004 and May 2008. The late night magazine show, focusing onFootball League clubs, was introduced for the 2004-5 season to replace the long-standing Sunday afternoon highlights programmes owing to cutbacks by ITV plc.occer Night regions
Variations in programming
Wales Soccer Night/Soccer Sunday
"Wales Soccer Night" (produced by ITV Wales) was axed in December 2005 in response to high viewer demand for the return of a full highlights programme on Sundays as opposed to the magazine-based format on late Thursday nights. "Soccer Sunday" returned on
15 January 2006 with extended highlights of Cardiff, Swansea City and Wrexham matches. "Soccer Sunday" is presented by Jonathan Owen (a local actor and assistant producer at ITV Wales) with match commentary provided by Bob Symonds and Phil Duffell.The programme was extended to an hour in February 2007 and incorporated goals from all other Football League games. ITV West sports editor Jed Pitman presented the newly expanded programme. The new format was dropped at the end of the 2006/7 season and "Soccer Sunday" returned to its original format. Pitman left the programme at the end of the year and was replaced by Jonathan Owen.
ITV Wales lost the rights to show highlights of Wrexham's matches when the club were relegated to the Blue Square Premier league at the end of the 2007/8 season. This is due to
Setanta Sports possessing exclusive rights to theFootball Conference leagues.Hancock's Half Time
"Central Soccer Night" and "London Soccer Night" were replaced in 2006 by "Hancock's Half Time", a pan-regional show produced from Central's studios in Birmingham and presented by
Nick Hancock &Sarah Jane Mee .The programme was axed during the 2007/8 season and replaced by a revival of "Central Soccer Night" in the Midlands.
ITV London chose not to produce a replacement programme.Axing
The various "Soccer Night" programmes in England were axed in May 2008 as part of further cutbacks in regional output. Goals from local Football League matches are due to feature in ITV regional news programmes during the 2008/9 season. After which, ITV will lose the rights for Football League highlights to the BBC.
"Soccer Sunday" (Wales) is set to continue with coverage of
Cardiff City andSwansea City throughout the 2008/9 season.
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