The BBC regularly broadcast sports programmes with an outside studio team, occasionally from two or three separate locations.

Outside Broadcast members held a meeting in April 1958, and Cowgill further detailed his plans taking timing and newer technical facilities into consideration.

"[3] The show was one of the most recognisable on British television, dominating Saturday afternoons on BBC1 and covering nearly every major sporting event in Britain, such as the FA Cup Final, Wimbledon, the Grand National and the University Boat Race, as well as major international events like the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, the Commonwealth Games and the FIFA World Cup where the Grandstand name would be used - eg Olympic Grandstand and World Cup Grandstand.

This meant Grandstand was a key part of the BBC's Saturday afternoon schedules, as the time the programme was on the air did not count towards the 50-hour a week restriction on normal broadcasting hours.

[citation needed] Between the main live sporting events being shown on the day in the mid afternoon a brief segment was shown where the programme went around the football grounds just prior to the 3pm kick-offs with the on site commentators announcing the team line ups and pre match news.

Only two people regularly read out the classified results on Final Score when it was part of Grandstand: the Australian Len Martin (from the first programme until his death in 1995) and Tim Gudgin (from 1995 until Final Score was separated from Grandstand in 2001 – he continued to read the classified results until 2011).

Whilst football was the primary focus of Final Score, news and results from other sports, such as rugby union and, until 1987, racing, were also included.

[citation needed] A shorter version was aired during the football close season, and stand-alone shorter editions of Final Score, which did not include the vidiprinter sequence, were broadcast on bank holidays when, despite a full football programme taking place, BBC1 generally did not broadcast an edition of Grandstand.

Live coverage was mostly racing during the early part of the programme and rugby (both codes), kicking off at either 14:30 or 15:00 which was timed and centred into the programme to avoid any clash with the final football results which would come in after 16:40, with the minor pre-recorded sporting items mostly proceeding the main event in the early afternoon.

Its on-air time was a later five-hour slot, so as to be able to provide coverage of the day's F1 Grand Prix race or the conclusion of the Sunday League Cricket matches which were carried over from the previous afternoon-long cricket match which had been part of BBC2's summer Sunday schedule since 1965.

[citation needed] At the same time, Final Score also become a programme in its own right, running from 16:30, meaning that Grandstand only broadcast between 13:00 and 16:30.

[11] This had been hinted at by the dropping of the "Grandstand" title from the BBC's coverage of the major international sporting events, like that year's Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games.

[13] Hosts included Peter Dimmock, David Coleman, Frank Bough, Des Lynam, Steve Rider, Ronald Allison, Clare Balding, Sue Barker, Barry Davies, Dougie Donnelly, Harry Carpenter, Harry Gration, Tony Gubba, David Icke, John Inverdale, Hazel Irvine, Gary Lineker, Craig Doyle, Roger Black, Helen Rollason, Ray Stubbs, David Vine, Alan Weeks and Bob Wilson.