Match of the Day to begin Salford broadcasts

November 5, 2011   ·   0 Comments

Match of the Day will begin broadcasting from it’s new Salford home at MediaCityUK this Saturday 5 November at 10.30pm on BBC One. 

Match of the Day will share a studio with Football Focus, just as it did in London and as part of the move north, the show will now be shot in high definition.  Other changes to the show will include a new set of on-screen graphics, lighting and and chairs replacing the old sofas.

The new studio space has been used by BBC presenters Dan Walker & Colin Murray to present pilot versions of Match of the Day in the run up to the move.

Series producer Ian Finch said of the new set : “It’s been designed so it can break down easily, be shipped out, brought back in and put back together really quickly,”

“That keeps the costs down because we only have to pay for the studio for two days as opposed to a whole week as we did in London.”

BBC Presenter, Dan Walker on new Match of the Day set in Salford

Andrew Clement, football editor, says the new set looks ‘terrific’ but is keen to point out that the programme is primarily about football and not the production aspect.

Clement told Ariel : “There’s a lot of sensitivity about which teams feature where in the programme, we’re well aware of that and try to strike a balance between editorial and a knee-jerk reaction to put [current champions] Manchester United out first, which is not the intention by any means.”

“You’ll find a different raft of guests on Match of the Day 2, we can start to plunder more guests from the north west…I guess we’ve got a slightly larger pool of talent to choose from in this area so that’ll feel different.”

He added that the MotD team were wary not to make the show too north-centric: “Our job is to tell the story of what’s happened on the day…we are still broadcasting to the nation as a whole.”

Gary Lineker, Mark Lawrenson and Alan Hansen will appear on the first Match of the Day in Salford this Saturday at 10.30pm on BBC One.  

Tags: Alan Hansen, BBC Sport, Colin Murray, Dan Walker, Gary Lineker, Match of the Day, MediaCityUK, Salford