In 1996–97, newly promoted Leicester City

In 1996–97, newly promoted Leicester City achieved top flight survival for the first time since 1986 by finishing ninth and also winning the Football League Cup to end their 33-year trophy drought.^[7] Middlesbrough had been relegated from the Premier League in 1997 two years after promotion Sony VAIO VPCF11AGJ Battery

(though only through a points deduction) and were promoted back at the first attempt, and in their first Premier League campaign following relegation they finished ninth in the Premier League and only narrowly missed out on UEFA Cup qualification.^[8] Sony VAIO VPCF11AHJ Battery

Sunderland were promoted to the Premier League as Division One champions with a new record of 105 league points in 1999, and marked their return to the top flight by finishing seventh and only missing out on UEFA Cup qualification on goal difference.

Charlton Athletic's return to the Premier League as Division One champions for the 2000–01 season was marked with a ninth place finish – their highest for some 50 years.^[10] Sony VAIO VPCF11JFX/B Battery

In 2001–02, Blackburn Rovers returned to the Premier League two years after relegation and marked it with their first Football League Cup triumph, and a late surge in form following the trophy win took them clear of the relegation zone to a secure 10th place finish.^[11] Sony VAIO VPCF11M1E Battery

Manchester City returned to the Premier League in 2002 a year after relegation by securing the Division One title, and marked their return to the top flight with a ninth place finish – their highest in a decade.^[12] After two seasons of newly promoted clubs either being relegated or narrowly scraping survival, Sony VAIO VPCF11M1E/H Battery

West Ham United finished ninth in the Premier League in 2005–06 and almost won the FA Cup (only missing out due to a late Liverpool equaliser and a penalty shoot out defeat),^[13] while fellow promoted side Wigan Athletic enjoyed an even more remarkable season. They were rarely outside the top five in the first half of the season, Sony VAIO VPCF11MFX/B Battery

and then reached their first major cup final – the League Cup final – which they lost to Manchester United. They eventually finished 10th in the final table.^[14]

Reading reached the top flight for the first time in their history for the 2006–07 season and finished eighth – narrowly missing out on UEFA Cup qualification.^[15] Sony VAIO VPCF11S1E Battery

Hull City reached the Premier League for the 2008–09, the first time they had ever appeared in the top flight and all the more remarkable considering they had begun the decade almost bankrupt in the league's basement division. An excellent start to the season saw them level on points in third place with the leading pack of Liverpool and Arsenal in mid October, Sony VAIO VPCF11S1E/B Battery

though their season gradually fell away from December onwards and they ended up surviving by just a single point.^[16]

Stoke City returned to the top flight at the same time as Hull's promotion, having been in exile for 23 years, and returned in reasonable style with a 12th place finish.^[17] Sony VAIO VPCF11Z1E Battery

Birmingham City, who had two spells in the Premier League between 2002 and 2008, returned to the elite for the 2009–10 campaign one season after relegation and have secured a ninth place finish, the club's best in decades and one of their highest ever.^[18]

Norwich City returned to the top flight for the first time in seven years, Sony VAIO VPCF11Z1E/BI Battery

a season when the team needed a result against Fulham at Craven Cottage in order to survive, but were relegated straight back to The Championship after a 6-0 defeat. After the 2007-2008 season, the team were relegated to League 1, only to win this league at the first time of asking despite an opening day 7-1 record league loss to Colchester United. Sony VAIO VPCF11ZHJ Battery

The season after in 2010-11 Norwich were back amongst the elite gaining the second automatic promotion spot, with many pundits tipping the team for immediate relegation. However, they were consistent for most of the season, never being in any real danger of relegation, before finishing the season in 12th position. Sony VAIO VPCF127HGBI Battery

Swansea City also returned to the top flight at the same time as Norwich's promotion, having been playing below the top division since their relegation in 1983, and were also in danger of leaving The Football League itself in 2003, only for a 4-2 win over Hull City on the final day at The Vetch to confirm their survival. Sony VAIO VPCF137HG/BI Battery

Two seasons later in 2004-05 the team won League 2, under the guidance of Kenny Jackett, before following this up three seasons later, by winning League 1 under Roberto Martínez gaining a club record 92 points in the process. In the 2010-11 season Swansea finally won promotion to the Premier League being the first Welsh team to do so, Sony VAIO VPCS111FM/S Battery

under Brendan Rodgers, after beating his former team Reading 4-2 in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium.

The season proved successful for the Welsh team, despite being heavily tipped by many pundits to be relegated. They returned in reasonable style finishing in 11th position, only one goal away to being in 10th position. Sony VAIO VPCS115EC Battery

Their season seen surprise wins over Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool. The team also despite being newly promoted, scored the fastest goal of the 2011-12 season, when Andrea Orlandi scored within 24 seconds against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a 4-4 draw at the Liberty Stadium, a match that also confirmed Swansea's place in the 2012-13 Premier League season. Sony VAIO VPCS115FG Battery

Second season syndrome is a downturn in form suffered by a team in their second season after promotion, having performed relatively well in their first season. In Football League, Swansea City were a notable example of that so-called syndrome. Once they got promoted to old Division One in 1981-82 and led the league before finishing 6th, Sony VAIO VPCS117GG Battery

but they were relegated following season and in the next three years they were crashed into Division Four and narrowly avoided relegation to the Conference. Swansea City were able to return to top flight only 28 years later, now competing in the Premier League. Another notable example was Ipswich Town, Sony VAIO VPCS117GGB Battery

who were promoted to the Premier League after a five-year exile and finished fifth in 2000–01, qualifying for the UEFA Cup, but were relegated a year later. In 2005–06, for instance, newly promoted West Ham United and Wigan Athletic finished ninth and tenth in the Premier League (it was Wigan's first season as a top division club) Sony VAIO VPCS118EC Battery

and were runners-up in the FA Cup and Football League Cup respectively. The following season, however, they narrowly avoided relegation with respective 15th and 17th place finishes. In 2006–07, Reading were playing top division football for the first time in their history and finished eighth in the Premier League, Sony VAIO VPCS119FJ/B Battery

with only a defeat on the final day of the season preventing them from qualifying for the UEFA Cup. A year later, however, a drastic loss of form in the second half of the season saw them dragged from mid table to occupy the final relegation place, and they were relegated on the last day of the season. Sony VAIO VPCS119GC Battery

Another example is Birmingham City, who after securing ninth position with over 50 points, were then relegated in 2010–11 after suffering a horrific downturn in form despite claiming the League Cup. Indeed, this season saw a surprisingly high number of points sending people down, with West Ham United finishing bottom with 33 points, Sony VAIO VPCS11AFJ Battery

which would have secured 17th place the previous year, and Birmingham and shock 'new-boys'Blackpool both going down on 39 points. This could in part be attributed to burn out newly promoted or under resourced clubs lack the strength in depth of larger established teams leaving them more vulnerable to injuries of key players and exhaustion from lack of rotation allowing players to rest. Sony VAIO VPCS11AGJ Battery

English football on television has been broadcast since 1937, and since the establishment of the Premier League in 1992 it has become a very lucrative industry. As of the 2007-08 season, television rights for the 20-team Premier League are valued at close to £1bn each season. Sony VAIO VPCS11AHJ Battery

Based on July 2007 exchange rates, this is only marginally less than what American football's 32-team NFL receives from its TV contracts.

The BBC started its television service in 1936, although it was nearly a year before the very first televised match of football was screened – a specially-arranged friendly Sony VAIO VPCS11AVJ Battery

match between Arsenal and Arsenal Reserves at Highbury on 16 September 1937.^[1] This was followed by the first international match, betweenEngland and Scotland on 9 April 1938, and the first televised FA Cup final followed soon after, on 30 April the same year, between Huddersfield Town and Preston North End.^[2] Sony VAIO VPCS11J7E/B Battery

In October 1946, the first live televised football match was broadcast by the BBC from Barnet's home ground Underhill. Twenty minutes of the game against Wealdstone were televised in the first half and thirty five minutes of the second half before it became too dark. Sony VAIO VPCS11M1E/W Battery

However, coverage of football television did not expand and for the next two decades the only matches screened were FA Cup finals and the odd England v.Scotland match. The first FA Cup tie other than the final to be shown was a fifth round match between Charlton Athletic and Blackburn Rovers on 8 February 1947, Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E Battery

but matches were sparing and only games in London could be broadcast, for technical reasons.

The advent of floodlighting led to the creation of the European Cup, designed as a midweek cup competition for the champions of European nations, in 1955. Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E/B Battery

The newly formed British television station ITV saw televised football as an ideal way of gaining a share of the audience from their only rival broadcaster, the BBC. The BBC meanwhile, started showing brief highlights of matches (with a maximum of five minutes) on its Saturday-night Sports Special programme from 10 September 1955, until its cancellation in 1963. Sony VAIO VPCS11X9E/B Battery

The first games featured were both from Division One - Luton Town v Newcastle United and Charlton Athletic v Everton, Kenneth Wolstenholme and Cliff Michelmore were the commentators.^[4]

The BBC had a new highlights programme from 1964 - Match of the Day. Sony VAIO VPCS123FGB Battery

Originally shown on BBC2 and intended to train BBC cameramen for the forthcoming 1966 World Cup the format was a success and has remained on British television in some form to this day. The first game saw Liverpool beat Arsenal at Anfield.

An early attempt at live league football was made in 1960-61, Sony VAIO VPCS125EC Battery

when ITV agreed a deal worth £150,000 with the Football League to screen 26 matches; the very first live league match was on Saturday 10 September 1960 between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers at Bloomfield Road. The match kicked off at 6:50 pm with live coverage starting at 7:30 under the title The Big Game. Sony VAIO VPCS128EC Battery

A major blow to the TV moguls was the absence of big box office draw Stanley Matthews through injury, and the game ended 1-0 to Bolton in front of a half-empty stadium.^[5]

However ITV withdrew from the deal after first Arsenal and then Tottenham Hotspur refused them permission to shoot at their matches against Sony VAIO VPCS129GC Battery

Newcastle United andAston Villa respectively, and the Football League demanded a dramatic increase in player appearance payments.^[3] ITV showed the Nat King Cole Show instead, while ironically both matches received highlights coverage from the BBC on Sports Special. Sony VAIO VPCS12C7E/B Battery

However ITV moved again into football, albeit tentatively, in 1962 when Anglia Television launched Match of the Week, which showed highlights of matches from around East Anglia. The first match shown was Ipswich Town's 3-2 defeat at the hands of Wolves at Portman Road on 22 September 1962.^[6] Sony VAIO VPCS12L9E/B Battery

Tyne Tees Television in the North East of England began broadcasting local matches soon after under the title Shoot. League football was soon to gain a nationwide audience once more. In 1964, the BBC introduced Match of the Day - initially broadcast on the new BBC2. Sony VAIO VPCS12V9E/B Battery

The first match was Liverpool's 3-2 victory over Arsenal at Anfield on 22 August, and the estimated audience of 20,000 was considerably less than the number of paying customers at the ground. At the time BBC2 could only be received in the London area, although by the end of Match Of The Day's first season it could be sampled in the Midlands. Sony VAIO VPCY115FGS Battery

The programme transferred to BBC1 in the wake of England's 1966 World Cup win and at last could be received by television viewers across the UK.

There was live coverage of World Cup football on UK screens in 1954 and 1958 - however only selected matches were available. Sony VAIO VPCY115FX/BI Battery

In 1954, Kenneth Wolstenholmeprovided commentary on the few televised matches for BBC from Switzerland - including the quarter-final between Hungary and Brazil. A thunderstorm over the Alpscut off the picture and many irate viewers wrote in to complain that the BBC had pulled the plug.^[7] Sony VAIO VPCY115FXBI Battery

The 1958 tournament in Sweden saw a greater range of matches thanks to the new Eurovision Network; the BBC and ITV both screened matches, although the networks had to overcome opposition to the coverage from the Scottish FA, who were worried that attendances at Junior football matches might be hit.^[8] Sony VAIO VPCY118EC Battery

The 1962 World Cup in Chile was covered in delayed form by the BBC with film having to be carried by air via the United States back to Britain. Matches were generally seen three days after they were played, though every match was covered by the BBC with commentary. Sony VAIO VPCY118GX/BI Battery

With intercontinental communications satellites in their infancy and videotape a new advance, the first tournament to gain widespread international live coverage was the 1966 tournament, which was held in England. The tournament, which England won, increased the popularity of the sport. Sony VAIO VPCY119FJ/S Battery

With more football viewers than ever, Match of the Day thrived - switching from BBC Two to BBC One to reach a wider audience. ITV's regional coverage had also expanded during this period with London weekend company ATV launching Star Soccer in October 1965, Sony VAIO VPCY11AFJ Battery

Southern Television's Southern Soccer and ABC's World of Soccer also began to appear regularly in the TV Times Sunday schedules. London Weekend Television's The Big Match started in 1968, and eventually the entire ITV network's football coverage would be broadcast under its title. Sony VAIO VPCY11AGJ Battery

The demand for football grew through the 1970s and early 1980s, and the decision to start screening live league matches was almost inevitable; a deal was struck for the start of the 1983-84 season and the first live league match since 1960 was screened on ITV, between Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest, on 2 October 1983. Sony VAIO VPCY11AHJ Battery

Spurs would also feature in the BBC's first live league match at Manchester United on a Friday night a few weeks later.

By the late 1980s the value of live TV coverage had rocketed; while a two-year contract for rights in 1983 had cost just £5.2m, the four-year contract exclusively landed by ITV in 1988 cost £44m, a fourfold increase per year. Sony VAIO VPCY11AVJ Battery

There was now a situation where live football was on TV almost every Sunday afternoon from about November onwards, as ITV screened top-flight football most weeks and the BBC had the rights to the FA Cup that occupied other weekends.

With top flight football proving particularly lucrative, Sony VAIO VPCY11M1E/S Battery

in 1992 the clubs of the Football League First Division voted to quit the league en masse and set up their own league, the Premier League. They eventually opted to agree a deal with Sky Sports rather than ITV or the BBC, meaning leading live top flight football was no longer available on terrestrial television. Sony VAIO VPCY11S1E Battery

ITV continued to show second tier matches on a regional basis for a time and also later on its unsuccessfulITV Digital platform.

Coverage of Premier League now dominates football on English television, especially in financial terms; Sony VAIO VPCY11V9E/S Battery

the contracts agreed between the league and broadcasters BSkyB in 1992 and 1997 were worth £191.5m and £670m respectively. Sky were also able to show more live games than previously, with several games live on many matchdays (originally Sundays and Mondays). However, Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/BI Battery

the European Union objected to what it saw as a monopoly on television rights and demanded the 2007 contract be split into separate packages of 23 games; eventually Sky won four of the six available packages, with the other two were taken by Setanta Sports. Setanta went bankrupt in 2009 with its packages taken over by ESPN. From 2010/11, Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/G Battery

Sky have five packages and ESPN one. The top tier still has a presence on terrestrial television in highlights form onMatch of the Day.^[9]

From the 2009/10 season, live coverage of the Football League returned to British terrestrial television for the first time since 2001 with the BBC securing 10 live Championship (second tier) games per season, Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/L Battery

as well as Football League highlights after Match of the Day. Sky also showed live lower league football while Setanta also showed large numbers ofConference National games before the channels demise.

There is also extensive coverage of numerous Cup competitions. Sony VAIO VPCY218EC/P Battery

Every match in the Champions League (formerly European Cup) is available either on ITV or Sky Sports while ITV is also the primary broadcaster of the FA Cup with two live games per round while Sky and the BBC show the League Cup. Five, ITV and ESPN show the Europa League with even the Football League Trophy getting live television exposure on Sky Sports. Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/L Battery

The Premier League holds an exclusive contract with broadcasters British Sky Broadcasting. Some public houses install foreign satellite television decoders hardware to enable customers to watch live Premier League games in their establishment.

The Premier League believes that this is illegal under copyright law. Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/P Battery

The European Court of Justice is currently looking into whether the EU law on the free movement of goods should be applied to the decoder cards.

Karen Murphy, a publican who had been prosecuted for using a Greek satellite provider at a public house in Portsmouth said: Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/SI Battery

"The fact is (section) 297 is to prevent fraud and nothing to do with territorial fragmentation, and does not seek to protect the interests of the Premier League,".^[10]

Ms Murphy was charged under s297(1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA), in that on two occasions she: ‘…Sony VAIO VPCF-11JOE battery

dishonestly received a programme included in a broadcasting service provided from a place in the United Kingdom with intent to avoid payment of any charge applicable to the reception of the programme.’^[11] Sony VGP-BPS13 Battery

In February 2011, advocate Juliane Kokott of the European Court of Justice gave her non-binding opinion that any block on the use of cheaper foreign satellite TV breached EU single market rules.

Each weekend as many as five Premier League games will be moved to be shown on Sky Sports or ESPN. Sony VGP-BPS13/B Battery

The main kick-off times for TV games are 12.45 and 5:30 pm on Saturdays, 1:30 and 4:00 pm on Sundays, and 8:00 pm on Mondays. Other games may also be moved to Sunday if one of the teams involved played in a Europa Leaguefixture on a Thursday. Sony VGP-BPS13/S Battery

Sky will almost always show a Saturday 12:45 pm as well as a Sunday 4 pm game, typically following a Sunday 1.30 pm kick off as part of a Super Sunday. Sky aim to show their best game of the weekend in the 4 pm slot, but police restrictions on local derbies mean this is not always possible. Sony VGP-BPS13A/S Battery

Premier League games scheduled for midweek may also be picked for live broadcast by Sky on Tuesday or Wednesday nights.

ESPN typically broadcast live Premier League games at 5.30 pm on the Saturday, while Sky typically broadcast a live Football League game at the same time. Sony VGP-BPS13B/S Battery

Each broadcaster is subjected to restrictions on the number of times they can show a team live per season to ensure fair distribution of TV revenue, after 1995-2000 saw 90 percent of Saturday games involving Manchester United. Sony VGP-BPS13S Battery

All kicking off at 3 pm on a Saturday, the traditional British kick-off time, may not be broadcast live on television in Britain, with the exceptions of the FA Cup Final and the Scottish Cup Final. This is to ensure attendances at lower league games taking place at the same time as Premier League fixtures that might otherwise be broadcast on television. Sony VGP-BPS13AS Battery

To avoid this blackout, the last day of the Premier League, when all ten games must kick off simultaneously, is always played on a Sunday.

Live radio broadcasts are permitted, both nationally and locally; these may be simulcast on the internet, depending on the broadcaster. Sony VGP-BPS13A/B Battery

Viewers outside the UK can still watch these games live on foreign broadcasters, thus creating somewhat of a grey market within the UK with viewers able to subscribe to or watch streams of foreign channels.

The Premier League and Sky maintain that, while grey market viewing of games is not illegal on the part of the viewer, Sony VGP-BPS13B/B Battery

it is illegal for anyone (such as apublic house) to make such services openly available. This has not in the past lead to heavy fines for public houses in the United Kingdom which have shown 3:00 games in their establishments. More recently, the legality of such fines has been disputed, Sony VGP-BPS21A/B Battery

and a number of Crown Court cases have been reported in which publicans successfully challenged the Premier League's position.^[13]

In recent years, Sky Sports has shown 3 pm games on tape delay on their Football First show, either in full or as extended highlights. Sony VGP-BPS21/S Battery,Sony VGP-BPS21B Battery,Sony VGP-BPS21 Battery