[2] Tyldesley's first television opportunity came during the 1986 FIFA World Cup at ITV, when the producers decided a London-based standby commentator was required should any technical problems occur.
[6] In 1987, he began to work on Sportsweek, a late-night Granada Television sports programme featuring Elton Welsby and Robert McCaffrey.
[16] Granada also utilised Tyldesley as a presenter and commentator in their coverage of Roses cricket,[17][18] whilst he became part of the ITV network team as a reporter on Saint and Greavsie.
[6][21] His first live ITV commentary was in October 1991, when a dispute between Atlético Madrid and a Spanish TV company knocked their match with Manchester United off the air and second half coverage of Tottenham Hotspur v FC Porto was shown instead.
[24] Tyldesley received an offer to join the BBC's sports department in London in the summer of 1992, a need for new voices driven by the return of Match Of The Day to a weekly slot after the acquisition of rights to show highlights of the new Premier League.
Because of the pre-eminence of John Motson and Barry Davies, he only commentated on four live matches in as many years with the BBC,[6] and in 1996 he was offered a chance to return to ITV.
[30] The move occurred so close to the start of the season that he was billed in newspapers[31][32] and the Radio Times[33] as the BBC's commentator on the Charity Shield, though Tony Gubba covered the game instead.
His regular co-commentators, after Atkinson's resignation in 2004, were David Pleat, Jim Beglin, Andy Townsend, Glenn Hoddle and Ally McCoist.
This decision sparked public controversy,[citation needed] but later that year, he joined CBS Sports to be their lead commentator for the UEFA Champions League.
Amongst his other broadcast activities, Tyldesley has been a regular voice on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeway and has been host of the International Electronic Games Conference at the Edinburgh Festival on two occasions.
He also provided commentary for Championship Manager 2,[42] the last in the franchise to feature verbal analysis, and the PlayStation video games This is Football[43] and FA Premier League Stars 2001.