The interview with the Reedtz brothers on the other thread, in which they talk about watching English football on Danish team on a programme called Tipslørdag, got me thinking.

Just the other day I read a WSC article about a show called Tipsextra, which broadcast live English football on Swedish TV at exactly the same time Tipslørdag was on the air in Denmark (1969 to 1995) and also gave English football cult status there. To put it into context, the Football League did not televise any live matched at this time and would not do so until the mid-1980s, fearing a further drop in crowds. So it's highly likely that the first Notts match ever to be broadcast live was on one of these channels. As I'm a bit of an anorak I did some digging.

According to this website, Notts' first appearance on Tipsextra (and probably also our first ever league match to be broadcast live) was a 1-1 draw away to Aston Villa in late 1973. We had to wait until early 1976 for Meadow Lane to grace Swedish TV screens, when we lost 2-1 to Blackpool.

We had already had a televised FA Cup match some time before - a 1-0 humiliation at home to Bath City way back in 1959 (commentated by Ken Wolstenholme, who would also commentate on England's World Cup win). So our miserable form in front of the TV cameras started very early...

It just goes to show, how one thing can lead to another. This is a great find! 

I wished there was more football on the TV, from Championship to the National League. I used to always watch Setanta Sports back in the day, I have limited interest in Sky. Fingers crossed Amazon might go further than the Premier League.

@Chris I wouldn't mind seeing a bit on German TV. A pipe dream

When you look at it today it's amazing how many matches there were without any coverage at all. In 1985 TV contract negotiations broke down and there was no football on TV whatsoever for half a season. If you weren't at the ground to see a goal, you'd missed it. Unimaginable now, even at our modest level.

Notts didn't have a live league match broadcast in England until 1992, when a 1-0 defeat (of course) at Birmingham was shown on Central. That's 19 years after our debut on Swedish TV.

Thanks to this brilliant website for the info and for occupying me for an hour or so!

I never knew overseas nations had early Football League coverage, it does make you wonder why we don't [other than Sky].

i wonder if things like this now could help with our overseas support like the italian magpies? i think the national league should look into the streaming options that the football league does.

20 hours ago, liampie said:

i wonder if things like this now could help with our overseas support like the italian magpies? i think the national league should look into the streaming options that the football league does.

That's a joke! Because of the extremely restrictive TV deal with BT Sports, highlights for Saturday matches aren't available until Monday, which is ridiculous in this day and age. To put that into context, the highlights for Bundesliga, Bundesliga 2 and third division matches are shown on free-to-air national TV (channel 1) and hour and a half after the final whistle goes, yet I have to wait two days to see footage from a tin pot match in England. Why? Like me, the Italian Magpies have the option of Pies Player, which is also also operated by the EFL but doesn't offer live streaming thanks to the stupid TV deal with BT.

Returning to the topic, Tipsextra was of its time. At that time the Football League was against televising any football at all because they thought it would affect crowds. This wasn't an issue in Sweden though - most of the English season took place during the Swedish winter break. It was really popular and contributed to the popularity of English football over there. But nowadays TV and the internet are saturated, and all kinds of obscure leagues can be seen if you know where to look.

BT Sports sounds like a company choking the life out of the National League, imagine if they got the Football League coverage!

I wished BT Sports would do more games in the National League, they could afford to choose several games and then you wouldn't have to wait.

I can't wait for Notts to get out of this.

It's an interesting fact, football on the TV in the UK just drains match attendances unless its a big game.

If it's aired to fans overseas I'm all for it, but Meadow Lane would empty even more this season if BT Sports or someone else aired live games. The club could put on a £5 to little effect in getting people into the turnstiles.

Football on tv is mainly higher up leagues, always will be.