Eddie the Eagle is now part of a disappearing TV era: the is dropping Ski Sunday after nearly 50 years, ending a Sunday-afternoon fixture that first debuted in 1978. The decision lands as the broadcaster says changing audience behaviours and savings pressures are forcing a review of how it delivers sports coverage.
Since its debut in 1978, the programme had become a winter sports calendar regular. Its final presenters were Ed Leigh and Chemmy Alcott, and the show’s long run helped turn alpine skiers including Franz Klammer, Konrad Bartelski and Michela Figini into household names in the UK.
Sam Fonteyn and Nicholas
The programme’s identity was tied to Pop Looks Bach, the theme tune composed by Sam Fonteyn and recorded for the Hawkes Music Library in 1970. Nicholas, his son, captured how personal that connection remained in one line: “So he’d often be sitting there watching and suddenly say, ‘That’s mine!’ He was always delighted when it was on TV and watched avidly, even when it was on that Barbara Woodhouse programme [1980’s Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way, for which he also wrote the theme].”
That kind of attachment matters because Ski Sunday was not just a rights package or a title on a schedule. It was a familiar brand built around a recognisable tune, a fixed slot and presenters viewers came to know over time, which is exactly what gets lost when a broadcaster trims a legacy show instead of refreshing it.
Alex Kay-Jelski on rights
Alex Kay-Jelski, the head of sport, has argued that the broadcaster can still matter without showing live sport. He said the has audio rights to Formula One but not video rights, yet still reaches “millions and millions and millions of people” through reporting, live pages and digital video.
That line sits uneasily beside the Ski Sunday decision. On one hand, the is saying relevance no longer depends on owning the live picture; on the other, it is cutting back one of its longest-running winter sports fixtures, which suggests the savings pressure is pushing it away from the kind of appointment viewing that used to define sport.
Tuesdays and Sport
On Tuesday, Sport said it must continually review how it delivers value for licence-fee payers and serves audiences across all platforms. The broadcaster’s own explanation is blunt: “Since its debut in 1978, Ski Sunday has become an iconic part of the winter sports calendar, bringing the excitement, drama and beauty of the action on the snow to audiences across the UK. Changing audience behaviours and the tough financial decisions needed to meet savings requirements mean Sport must continually review how it delivers value for licence-fee payers and serves audiences across all platforms. This decision forms part of that process,”
What winter sports coverage, if any, replaces Ski Sunday is not stated, and that is the real takeaway for viewers: the has chosen to protect flexibility over continuity, leaving a gap where a nearly 50-year brand used to sit.
