Final Score

Early days

Final Score had been part of the BBC's long-running programme Grandstand as far back as 1958. The football results appeared on a device dubbed 'the Teleprinter', with each character of the results displayed one-by-one. In the early days, the presenter stood next to the Teleprinter with a camera pointed at the actual printer. The results would come from the Press Association (PA), who appointed a correspondent to attend each match and report back the half-time and full-time scores to its offices in London. The PA would then use the technology of the day to provide a feed to BBC Television Centre. The Press Association provided the vidiprinter results service until Opta Sports took over the contract for the 2013–14 season onwards.^[2] The host of the main Grandstand programme used to provide commentary on the scores as they came in to try to reflect how each result affected the league, which meant meticulous preparation was necessary.

After the majority of the results came in, the scores would then be collated and announced as the 'Classified Football Results' in alphabetical order starting with the highest leagues first. Remarkably, only three people have regularly read the football results on the programme: Len Martin (from 1958 until 1995), Tim Gudgin (from 1995 until 2011) and Mike West since 2011. Gudgin read the results for the last time on 19 November 2011, then retired at the age of 81. He cited the BBC's decision to move the programme from London to Manchester as one of the reasons for his departure and the difficulty of travelling from his home in Hampshire, particularly in winter.^[3] The classifled results were then followed by the pools news and score draws and then the league tables, although the pools news element has been dropped in recent years due to its decline.

Whilst football was always the mainstay of Final Score, news and results from other sports, such as rugby union, and in the early days, racing were also included. A brief version, usually lasting for 5 to 10 minutes, was aired during the summer when football was out of season.

Changes

Technology has gradually improved and by the 1980s a live shot of the actual Teleprinter had been replaced by a computer screen version, at which point the Teleprinter became referred to as 'the Vidiprinter'. However, the modern-day vidiprinter used by the programme still emulates the original typing system. There are now Goalflashes throughout the afternoon for every match played in the English and Scottish leagues, the Conference, Welsh Premier League and Northern Ireland.

Modernisations

During its last few years there was no longer a main presenter for Grandstand, so from the start of the 2001–02 season Final Score was broadcast as an individual programme with Ray Stubbs as the regular presenter^[4] and Mark Lawrenson providing comment on the results as they came in. At this point, Final Score became a football-only programme. The half time round-up remained part of Grandstand until the start of the 2004–05 season when an afternoon-long version of the programme was launched. Initially called Score Interactive, the programme is broadcast from 14:30 on the BBC's interactive service, the BBC Red Button, and provides a rolling mix of scores, reports and punditry. By this time, the transmission time on BBC One had been extended and was now starting at 4.30pm rather than when the full time whistles were beginning to sound.

In November 2007 a midweek version of the programme was introduced. Rather than being a programme in its own right, it is a simulcast of BBC Radio 5 Live with graphics and vidiprinter. Audio options were occasionally made available for BBC Local Radio commentaries of games involving Championship sides, but this was removed when the BBC decided to make the Red Button service a 'single feed' to all broadcast platforms in October 2012.^[5] The midweek version is shown when there were primarily Premier League or important UEFA Champions League matches taking place.^[6][7] It is a Red Button and Online exclusive, so therefore does not appear on BBC1 or BBC2.

When the BBC regained the rights for the FA Cup in 2014–15, the programme would be renamed FA Cup Final Score when the competition is the main focus, including a modified logo featuring the FA Cup trophy and Sunday broadcasts which show the key incidents from the day's games. Although centering on the FA Cup, there are also updates from matches in other domestic competitions that are taking place.