This is a timeline of the history of BBC Sport.
1930s and 1940s
1936 2 November – The BBC opens the world's first regular high-definition television service, from Alexandra Palace.
1937 21 June – The BBC broadcasts television coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships for the first time.
1938 2 April – The BBC covers The Boat Race for the first time. 30 April – The BBC broadcasts television coverage of the FA Cup for the first time.
1939 1 September – The BBC Television Service is suspended, owing to the imminent outbreak of the Second World War.
1940 to 1945 Television is closed for the duration of the Second World War.
1946 7 June – BBC Television broadcasts resume.
1947 8 February – The BBC broadcasts the FA Cup fifth round match between Charlton Athletic and Blackburn Rovers, the first FA Cup match other than a final to be broadcast.
1948 1 May – The BBC broadcasts the Rugby League Challenge Cup final for the first time. It did not broadcast the event again until 1952 and began annual coverage in 1958. 29 July–14 August – The London Olympic Games is televised and the BBC broadcasts extensive live coverage.
1950s 1950 The BBC broadcasts commentary on a Formula 1 race for the first time, airing on radio with highlights on TV.https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/f3d6ac71bc8f435fb1ef4042d32af170?page=7
1951 The BBC broadcasts horse racing for the first time when it televises races from Ascot.End of an era as BBC loses racing coverage to Channel 4
1954 8 April – The first edition of Sportsview is broadcast. 16 June - 4 July – The FIFA World Cup is broadcast by the BBC for the first time with selected matches shown live. 30 December – The first BBC Sports Personality of the Year is awarded.
1955 23 April – The 1955 Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Clyde is the first final in Scotland to be televised live The BBC broadcasts golf's Open Championship for the first time.
1956 The BBC broadcasts racing's Glorious Goodwood for the first time.
1958 21 May – The Inaugural BBC Sportsview Trophy takes place, bringing greyhound racing to television. The BBC shows the event every year until 1997. 10 October – The first broadcast of multi-sport Saturday afternoon television show Grandstand is broadcast.
1960s 1960 26 March – The BBC broadcasts live coverage of The Grand National for the first time.BBC Genome Project - BBC Television listings 26 March 1960 1 June – ITV and the BBC both broadcast The Derby, as it was a "protected event" which could not be broadcast exclusively on either channel. However, the rest of the Epsom events, including The Oaks, are broadcast exclusively on ITV. 25 August – The BBC shows live coverage of a non-UK Olympic Games for the first time.
1964 23 June – Wimbledon: Match of the Day is broadcast for the first time, featuring "recorded highlights of today's outstanding match."BBC Genome Project - BBC2 listings 23 June 1964 22 August – The first broadcast of Match of the Day takes place. It is shown on the recently launched BBC2.
1965 2 May – Sunday Cricket is broadcast for the first time. The programme, which runs throughout the afternoon on BBC2, features full coverage of a match "played under knock-out rules".BBC Genome Project - BBC2 listings 2 May 1965 6 October – The first edition of the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy is broadcast, bringing rugby league to television screens on a regular basis for the first time. The competition is designed specifically for television.
1966 11–30 July – The BBC and ITV jointly host coverage of the 1966 World Cup. This arrangement continues to this day for both the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championship. The first edition of Rugby Special is broadcast, showing weekly highlights of rugby union matches.
1967 1 July – Regular colour television transmissions begin on BBC2, starting with the Wimbledon tennis championships.
1968 12 September – Sportsnight replaces Sportsview.
1969 23 June – The BBC once again becomes the exclusive broadcaster of the Wimbledon Championships. Since 1955 the BBC had shared coverage of the tennis tournament with ITV. 23 July – Snooker tournament Pot Black launches on BBC2. It is used as a way of showcasing colour television which had launched on the channel two years earlier.
1970s
1972 4 November – Grandstand ends at approximately 3:50pm. It is followed by an episode of the 1969 Western series Lancer. Then, at approximately 4:40pm, Final Score airs as a separate programme, hosted by the same presenter as that of Grandstand earlier in the afternoon, the programme being on air in time for the vidiprinter sequence.
1973 20 January – Grandstand, once again, becomes an afternoon-long programme. Sportsnight moves from Thursdays to Wednesdays. The BBC covers the World Snooker Championship for the first time, albeit in very limited form.
1974 August – Lunchtime preview show Football Focus launches. It is broadcast as a segment within Grandstand. ITV had been broadcasting its own lunchtime football preview programme for the previous six years. The BBC shows darts for the first time when it covers that year's British Open.
1975 9 August – Sportscene is broadcast for the first time, mainly to show highlights of Scottish football although the programme also covers other sports. 16 August – The first edition of Scoreboard is shown on BBC1 Scotland. It is an opt-out from Grandstand intended to provide deeper coverage of the day's Scottish football news.
1977 1 June – The BBC shows The Derby for the first time in three years.BBC Genome Project - BBC1 listings 1 June 1977 The race, and the rest of the Epsom meeting, is shown on ITV. 12 September – The BBC broadcasts the US Open tennis tournament for the first time but coverage is restricted to next day highlights of the men's final. It also does the same in 1978.
1978 Ski Sunday is broadcast for the first time, thereby bringing skiing to television screens in the UK outside of the Winter Olympic Games for the first time. 6–10 February – The BBC shows live coverage of the inaugural BDO World Darts Championship. Later in the year the BBC shows the first edition of a new tournament - the BDO Gold Cup. 17-29 April – The BBC shows daily coverage of the World Snooker Championship for the first time. 7 May – The first edition of Grand Prix is broadcast when the BBC provides highlights of the 1978 Monaco Grand Prix. London Weekend Television wins exclusive rights to all league football coverage for ITV in a move termed "Snatch of the Day". Although the Office of Fair Trading blocked the move, the BBC is forced to allow ITV to take over the Saturday night slot in alternating seasons, beginning with the 1980-81 season.Tim Bradford When Saturday Comes, London: Penguin, 2005, p.882-83
1979 January – The BBC shows brief highlights of the inaugural World Indoor Bowls Championships, and has aired the championships ever since, with the level of coverage expanding over the years. 6 June – The BBC shows The Derby for the last time until the year 2000.BBC Genome Project - BBC1 listings 6 June 1979 June – The BBC broadcasts the AEGON Championships tennis tournament from Queen's Club for the first time. 18 December – The final BBC2 Floodlit Trophy takes place. The programme ends due to financial cutbacks at the BBC.
1980s 1980 The BBC shows daily live coverage of the World Snooker Championship for the first time. Match of the Day moves to Sunday afternoons for the 1980–81 season and again for the 1982–83 season.
1981 29 March – The BBC covers the inaugural London Marathon, although it was not until 1984 that the BBC broadcast the event live and in full. 17 May – Sunday Grandstand launches. It broadcasts during the summer months on BBC2.BBC Genome Project – BBC2 listings 17 May 1981 The programme includes weekly coverage of Sunday Cricket which had been shown on BBC2 since 1965. 7 June – The BBC broadcasts coverage of the French Open for the first time. Coverage is restricted to finals weekend. The BBC expands its coverage of darts when it shows the first edition of the British Professional Championship. It shows the event until it decides to cut back its coverage of darts in 1988.
1982 3–9 October – As part of its coverage of the 1982 Commonwealth Games, the BBC broadcasts a two-hour breakfast programme Breakfast with Brisbane.
1983 16 December – The BBC televises a live Football League game for the first time as part of a new joint BBC-ITV deal to show live league football.
1984 6 January – The BBC and ITV show regular live FA Cup matches from the Third to the Sixth rounds for the first time. The first ever live game from the FA Cup on the BBC in the earlier rounds is the Third Round tie Liverpool v Newcastle 28 July–12 August – BBC Television broadcasts the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. Due to the Games taking place in Los Angeles, the BBC stays on air into the night to provide live coverage of the major events. The BBC is the exclusive broadcaster of the event after an industrial dispute meant that ITV was unable to show the Games.
1985 The BBC loses the rights to UK athletics meetings to ITV.
1986 12–13 April – The BBC shows live coverage of The Masters golf event for the first time, showing coverage of the final two rounds. Autumn – The BBC launches regional versions of Rugby Special so that each nation can receiver fuller coverage of games from their country. 19 November – As part of the BBC's new daytime television service, a Wednesday afternoon sports programme, Sports Afternoon launches.BBC Genome Project - BBC2 listings 19 November 1986 The programme broadcasts on Wednesday afternoon during the winter months BBC2 from around 2.35pm until 3.50pm although it is sometimes extended when live sport is being shown.
1987 22 May-20 June – The BBC shows mostly recorded coverage of the first Rugby World Cup. This is the only time the BBC has ever shown the competition - ITV has held the rights ever since. 9 October – Sports Afternoon is renamed Sport on Friday. As well as a change in broadcast day, the programme now runs for 90 minutes, beginning slightly earlier at around 14:15, although it is sometimes extended to show additional live coverage.
1988 The BBC shows a live First Division football match for the final time as coverage of football's top division moves in its entirety - both live and recorded - to ITV for the new season. Consequently, Match of the Day ends as a weekly programme. Summer – The BBC announces that it will end all coverage of darts apart from the World Championships. ITV follows suit later in the year. 17 September – The BBC starts to use a BBC Sport ident at the beginning of all sports coverage and this is broadcast for the first time at the start of the first programme covering the 1988 Olympic Games.TV Ark: Branding | BBC Sport This is also the first time that the BBC shows the Olympic Games live and in full, providing more than 12 hours of live coverage each day. Previously the BBC had only shown live coverage of the major events with no more than six hours of live coverage each day. The BBC becomes the sole broadcaster of the FA Cup, and Match of the Day, which now only broadcasts on Cup weekends, is renamed Match of the Day: The Road to Wembley.
1989 7 January – BBC Scotland launches an extended Saturday teatime results programme. Rather than opting out of the last few minutes of Grandstand, the programme, called Afternoon Sportscene, runs for the entire duration of the time allocated for the day's results, starting between one and five minutes before the network's English counterpart Final Score begins. January – The BBC televises the Australian Open for the first time. However it is a one-off and does not cover the event again until 1995.