This week's Radio Times is a Premier League preview
Your complete TV guide to the new season - including full fixture list and pundits' predictions.
This week, we mark the start of the English Premier League and the continuation of the Scottish Premiership.
Yes, I realise it feels like it was only yesterday that the football season finished and I appreciate that not everyone likes sport. This summer, some of you have made that clear in your correspondence to me - and I have to include my own parents in that particular postbag. But bear with me on this.
As our sport columnist Simon Barnes points out, the Premier League is watched by more people than any other country's domestic league. On average, every match commands a global audience of well over 600 million people, and TV audiences for football in England have held steady over the last 10 years, which is more than you can say for drama, the news or even soaps over the same period.
I welcome the return of football, even if it has changed enormously since I watched my first match at a long-defunct stadium in east London. I vividly remember when the opposing team's striker was tackled in mid-flow, the man behind shouting, "Get back on yer feet, £100 a week man."
Even then that figure would have been a bit behind the times, but the amount of money involved in football these days has transformed the game.
If, like me, you'd welcome a return to a simpler time, then don't miss our chat on page 20 with the silver fox himself, Des Lynam. He tells us what it was like being the face of Match of the Day and shares his views on the modern game.
And for readers who won't be tuning into live football, highlights or any other sports, there are plenty of other programmes to get excited about this week. They just won't be washed by half a billion people...
The Premier League Preview issue of Radio Times magazine is out now – subscribe now.
Also in this week's Radio Times:
- Five young British performers are about to discover just how hard it is to become a K-pop idol
- Will David Mitchell’s puzzling new drama prove to be the next Morse?
- He’s living with cancer, but Sam Neill is thrilled to be back in court for The Twelve
Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
