The BBC has downplayed the latest figures showing that Match of the Day has seen a significant drop in viewership, losing over 10 per cent since Gary Lineker’s departure. The former Leicester and Tottenham forward left the British broadcaster at the end of the previous season.
Lineker, who had been the face of Match of the Day for an impressive 26 years, left his role in May. Despite being slated to stay on with the BBC and host their coverage of the FIFA World Cup in 2026, an agreement was reached for him to exit earlier than planned, without any payoff.
His departure came after he shared an anti-Semitic rat emoji on Instagram, which proved to be the last straw for the broadcaster. They had previously refrained from sacking him despite his repeated testing of their social media guidelines. Mark Chapman, Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates have stepped in to fill Lineker’s shoes, forming a rotating roster for the 2025/26 season and beyond.
They are joined by Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney, who has come on board as a new pundit. Since the commencement of the new Premier League season two months ago, the BBC’s flagship football programme has seen its viewership fall from 2.68 million to 2.39 million, according to the Telegraph.
This represents a decrease of 10 per cent from the previous season. However, it is suggested that some viewers have migrated to the broadcaster’s new online highlights on BBC iPlayer.
In response to these new figures, the BBC stated: “We don’t judge success based on overnight ratings in an on-demand world. A significant portion of the Match of the Day audience now watches on BBC iPlayer, the UK’s fastest growing streaming, video on demand platform.
“This isn’t a decline. It’s adapting to changing audience behaviours as we all should be. Match of the Day is reaching more people across multi-platforms.”
In a potentially risky move, the BBC has also begun posting Premier League highlights on its own website more than two hours before Match of the Day airs, which could further diminish audience numbers.
Sources at the BBC have revealed that the clips have been viewed by an average of 1.7 million people each week. These changes were implemented after Alex Kay-Jelski, who took over as director of sport last year.
Even before Gary Lineker, the show’s longest-serving host, left, Match of the Day’s viewership had been on a decline. During his final season, from August to October, there was a drop of more than eight per cent from the 2.92 million viewers recorded during the same period in 2023.
The dip in Match of the Day’s ratings is consistent with the overall decline in television viewership. This season, the show has managed to attract an average of 34.8 per cent of the television-watching population, which is an increase compared to the same period over the previous two years.