Why don't they show Football in 4:3?

Just watching the Chelsea match. Even on the terrestrial broadcast, it's amazing the big amount of black around the edges of the screen.

Why do they insist in showing football in widescreen? Surely it would make more sense to show it in 4:3 and then it wouldn't look so odd. The picture isn't even centred.

Good for us non-widescreeners though. We get it full screen!

They probably are showing it like that because the channel they are taking the feed from probably don't have widescreen yet.

I'm watching it on a analogue broadcast on a 4:3 TV and i'm getting a tiny non-centred picture.

Someone's arcing incorrectly for analogue - this should be a 12F12 match... i.e. the 4:3 picture should fill the whole screen. UTV have it right - surely the rest of the ITV network aren't showing this 4:3 picture arced to 14:9 so your picture is surrounded with black?!

You sure about that stabby? Which service and transmitter are you watching it from?

Just checked on ITV1 (Wales alledgelly) and it's fills the 4 x 3 telly whereas on digital its still 4 x 3 but with some annoying black bands down either side!

I'm watching it on Channel from the Fremont Point transmitter. I'm Guessing that this feed comes from Meridian though.

AH, you've just mentioned the 'C' word - need I say anymore?

LOL fair point

A related sort of question... why do they show all the matches on Match of the Day on Saturdays in 4:3, but on Match of the Day 2 on Sundays they show the matches in letterbox (I'm not sure what ratio it is sorry!). It seems a bit wierd that there should be a difference. Surely it makes sense for all of the football to be in Widescreen at least, if possible?

yellow.

BBC Sport normally transmits 4:3 centre cut out (12F12) on analogue and 16:9 (16F16) widescreen on digital... with the exception, like you say, of MotD2 which is deep letterbox (16L12) on analogue apparently to set it apart from its BBC1 variant... makes it look "different"... even the astons and graphics are specifically not 4:3 safe.

I personally think that all programmes look better in 16:9 even on a 4:3 television. I don't mind those black bars on the top of the screen.

AFAIK Channel now rebroadcast the digital satellite feed of ITV1 Meridian and where necessary, insert their local adverts/programmes in place of Meridian's. The feed you see on analogue is simply the DSAT feed, set to 16:9 Letterbox and zoomed in to 14:9, so where 4:3 sport feeds (from foreign broadcasters) are broadcast in a 16:9 frame on digital, you see the broadcast on analogue as a 4:3 image within a 14:9 frame.

This doesn't apply to any of the other ITV network regions because they broadcast a separate (4:3 centre cut-out) feed for all sport programmes on analogue.

Hope this makes sense. I'm not a professional but just picked up this from years of reading forums including this one!