Scorebars / scoreboard OSGs - history, firsts and lasts

When did TV channels start to screen a continuous reminder of the score on live sport – and how did it evolve? That's the subject of this thread.

By its nature, the use of a near-constant scoreboard on TV was aimed at more casual viewers. Until the 1990s, only a few graphics would usually appear during a football game – The Football Attic explains how World Cup graphics evolved in this era. Other sports differed slightly, but the scorebar was one of the biggest visual changes in sports coverage. Nowadays, some score-bugs are aimed at the most dedicated fans and are completely bewildering to outsiders.

The received wisdom is that Sky Sports invented it in 1992, but there had been innovations elsewhere – in Australia, World Series cricket made heavy use of graphics. From 1981 onwards, the score popped up in the corner whenever a run was scored in WSC. It wouldn't add up to a large proportion of game time, no more than a quarter. Maybe 50% if England were bowling.

Australia v Pakistan, 14.01.1982 / Australia v West Indies, 11.02.1984 (watermarks removed)


Snooker also had frequent score updates at important points in a frame (e.g. in the 1985 final).

(UPDATE) This thread has determined that Sky didn't invent it. There was a scoreboard in 1983/1984 on Channel 4 basketball, for about 90% of game time. (Thanks Closedown)

A few questions for anyone who isn't bored yet:

– When existing channels added the scorebar, was it mentioned on-air?
– Was a continuous score graphic attempted anywhere else before '92?
– When was the last live UK football game without the score staying onscreen? (By choice, rather than an error.)
– First use of scorebars in any other sport / in other countries?
– First use in highlights/MOTD
– Your favourite designs?
– When would a decent-looking scorebar/clock have first become technically feasible?

Below (split to avoid one gigantic post) are some of the first games in the '90s to employ the device, found using YouTube videos and game info from the excellent ITV Carousel and a Digital Spy thread. More info and corrections would be appreciated.

So, the idea later spread to American football as the "Fox Box", in 1994:



which brings us to:

SKY SPORTS

Apparently, the original Sky scorebar was an Australian executive's idea:


A tad selfish? But it went ahead, with graphics seemingly supplied by a Sega Mega Drive:

Leeds v Liverpool, Charity Shield, 08.08.1992





The following week in the new Premier League, a clunkier look. The clock was reset to 00:00 at half-time and the words "SECOND HALF" added:

Man City v QPR, 17.08.1992






The next weekend, the background box was removed, leaving only tiny text that was nearly the same colour as the pitch:

Liverpool v Arsenal, 23.08.1992



The next night, something a bit clearer...

Southampton v Man Utd, 24.08.1992



And finally they added a border box, creating the basic template that lasted for the next few years:

Ipswich v Spurs, 30.08.1992



Surely the only time a channel has used four designs in one month in the same league!

Sky was still using the above early in the 1993-94 season, then at some stage they turned it yellow and added (or rather reintroduced) their branding, "SKY"/"LIVE".

Bayern v Norwich, 19.10.1993 / Blackburn v Aston Villa, 11.04.1994



(Screenshots from TJS Sports/Footballondvd/TJS/TJS/sp1873/TJS on YouTube and Dailymotion)
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ITV

ITV's main football in 1992-93 was Rangers' Champions League run, English regional coverage, and the League Cup. Nobody seems to have tried copying Sky's idea during that season, although on networked games ITV did print reminders of the score a bit more frequently.

The last known 'DOGless' ITV games were a crazy pair in May 1993 – Poland v England in Chorzów, and the playoff final. Shame they didn't pioneer Taylor's Shout-Out as a regular half-time feature.



In the summer of 1993, the regions and network started to add scorebars. The first use might have been on England-Germany schoolboys (05.06.1993), or Man Utd-Arsenal (25.07.1993, Granada/LWT), but YouTube has opted out of those.
A week later, LWT displayed the score during the Makita tournament games with Chelsea, Ajax, Spurs and Lazio. Like most scorebars of the era, it was switched off after every goal:

Tottenham v Lazio (LWT), 31.07.1993





The nationally networked games soon followed:

Kispest Honvéd v Man Utd, 15.09.1993


Then they flicked an ITV Sport logo into the corner

Netherlands v England, 13.10.1993


before choosing a more compact look.

Sheff Wed v Man Utd, 02.03.1994


Granada and Yorkshire added their own designs in 1993-94, but Central doesn't seem to have used scorebars regionally until the following season:

Bolton v Forest, 26.09.1993 (Gran.) / Barnsley v Grimsby, 07.11.1993 (YTV) / Swindon v Port Vale, 14.08.1994 (Cen.)



Central's reluctance is a bit surprising, as Central was producing nationwide coverage with the graphics at the time. Either someone in charge didn't like it, or they were afraid that their viewers wouldn't.


(Screenshots from sp1873, cestrian81, VintageWednesdayVids, BWFC, Cartonboy, & Swindon-Town-FC on YouTube)

BBC

The BBC waited until after ITV, but their first scorebar was a design that stuck.

The new graphics came in gradually on BBC live games in autumn 1993. They displayed the clock continuously in the tense last 10 minutes of Norwich v Bayern Munich (03.11.1993) and some of Wales v Romania (17.11.1993).




(Screenshots from TJS Sports/BarclayBoy59ers, and Paulo Bastos/viowardog)

(Without having access to a full video, it's safe to assume the BBC didn't put any scorebar on the game in San Marino that night. If they had done such a thing, AND cut off the coverage while England failed to qualify for the World Cup, the mock outrage would have actually melted down Fleet Street.)

But a week later, their first scorebar – on Norwich v Inter Milan in the Uefa Cup.

Norwich v Inter, 24.11.1993 / second leg 08.12.1993
http://s26.postimg.cc/ahd1761rc/1993_11_23_Norwich_Inter.jpg
http://s26.postimg.cc/j0wf4xa3s/1993_12_08_Inter_Norwich.jpg

And it's a fine look. It fitted in well with the existing BBC Sport graphics, the yellow text a reassuring reminder of 1970s sitcom end credits, and it included the BBC logo right from the start, without chopping and changing. If only Martin Lambie-Nairn hadn't pointed out that the italics didn't quite align with the old BBC logo. Even after the Lambie-Nairn cull of the italics, this was the BBC's basic layout for football for the rest of the decade.

Scotland v England, 13.11.1999
http://s26.postimg.cc/58i09ajc8/1999_11_13_Scotland_England.jpg

(Screenshots from Miguel Rios and sp1873)

CHANNEL 4

Ah, Football Italia was great. No scorebar though.

Inter v AC Milan, 07.11.1993



Live clips from C4 games are quite scarce online. (DS has some Football Italia game lists here and here.)

Does anyone remember what the first C4 score graphic was like? The OSG in 1995 included a quirky colour "4" logo, but no clock apparently.

Inter v Vicenza, 27.08.1995 (warning, loud)

(Screenshot from Footballondvd)

I find it odd MOTD don't retain the clock when showing highlights, yes it would keep jumping forward of course, but it would aid understanding the chronology of the goals and major incidents?

I remember the 1994 sky sports scorebar, only because it was the first time I saw one and secondly the sky live logo hid the smaller Sky logo embedded in the scorebar graphic, you could only see it for a second or two during the highlights and never during the live coverage.

I think it was Alistair McGowan who once made the comment, that before the Score box, people used to come into the room, look at the game and ask whoever was watching "What's the score?"

Now, they come into the room, point to the top of the screen and go "Is that the score?"

No way a Mega Drive could do that. Even the 32-bit video game systems didn't have anti-aliased text.

As is PlayStation 2 - which utterly lacked anti aliasing due to a bug disabling the feature on final development hardware.

Great stuff, this. There was one brief change to this style, mind - in the autumn of 1998 they had the scoreline on the right of the screen for a few matches because it clashed with the very shortlived BBC1 DOG on digital TV. When they dropped that after a few weeks, they moved it back.



In 2001/02, the ITV Digital season, the ITV regions had a handful of live Division One games, and I remember Granada's first match didn't have a scoreline or clock, which seemed a bit primitive. I think they got one for the second one but I'm sure there was also one where they had a scoreline but no clock. I remember hearing Football Italia on the C4 was the first highlights show with a scoreline, but The Premiership on ITV in 2001 was the first major show to use a scoreline on highlights. MOTD in 2001-04 was fairly inconsistent with whether it did or didn't (in fact that period probably had more changes in BBC Sport graphics than ever, they changed them quite frequently), but MOTD had one when they returned full time in 2004.



Not really, I think what we have now where they quickly flash up the time is a better compromise. It's supposed to look like a seamless package, rather than just jumping about between bits, and it certainly makes no difference as to seeing what the exact time is. If you're watching in the ground you don't see it, either, so it's hardly that essential.

You'll note all the other broadcasters also obscure the clocks if they're showing highlights of matches where the scoreline is burnt into the picture, like the Europa League and World Cup qualifiers.

This is the sort of thread TV Forum was made for.