RhysJR post_id=75553 time= user_id=1340 Wrote:Pretty deccent figures for the YouTube streams, just before half time there was 29 thousand watching Netherlands v. Germany and 9.5 thousand watching Sweden v. Poland.
That's a bit better than the hundreds watching C4's Paralympic streams. Guess in the case of football people probably hunt out streams anyway so having them officially available for free will find an audience.
Just highlights though how anti-competitive selling even friendlies collectively by UEFA is now.
RhysJR post_id=75553 time= user_id=1340 Wrote:Pretty deccent figures for the YouTube streams, just before half time there was 29 thousand watching Netherlands v. Germany and 9.5 thousand watching Sweden v. Poland.
Up to 45 thousand and 15 thousand respectively in the second half.
A weird quirk to the sublet highlights rights is that BBC Wales and BBC Scotland have rights to competitive and friendly matches, whilst BBC Northern Ireland only showed competitive matches.
And a surprising but welcome decision for ITV's highlights to open with Portugal v. North Macedonia rather than England and/or the other home nations friendlies.
Rdd post_id=75494 time= user_id=1409 Wrote:I thought the “Week of Football” concept was meant to stop exactly this scenario though? Last night there were only two games and none in Uefa-land on Sunday.
Considering the friendlies all seem to be centrally controlled by UEFA now you'd have thought they'd have scheduled the week so that the World Cup Qualifiers aired on a dedicated night and the friendlies on the other nights around them.
Brekkie post_id=75613 time= user_id=976 Wrote:Considering the friendlies all seem to be centrally controlled by UEFA now you'd have thought they'd have scheduled the week so that the World Cup Qualifiers aired on a dedicated night and the friendlies on the other nights around them.
Although, of course, the reason Wales and Scotland were playing friendlies last night was because their intended qualifier was postponed. And a lot of friendlies last night were arranged depending on who did or didn't need to play qualifiers, so they were already pretty frantic in terms of logistics without having to move days as well.
Sky to make the Women's Cricket World Cup final on Saturday night/Sunday morning free to view on YouTube and Pick (and also on Sky Showcase). An unexpected surprise to see it be shown on Pick considering a) the time of the match (guess the end will be at a good time around 9am onwards though) and all the other England matches in the tournament so far (technical issues aside) have been shown on YouTube anyway.
https://twitter.com/SkySports/status/150...fbceQpwDfg
As was previously discussed, the FIFA World Cup finals draw is today at 17:00 BST from Qatar (live across BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Red Button and elsewhere). A rather random presenting trio have been confirmed in former USA international Carli Lloyd, familiar face from the BBC and BT Sport Jermaine Jenas and presenter Samantha Johnson, who seems to be FIFA's go to presenter for draws. Mark Chapman is down to host
the BBC coverage with guests Alan Shearer, Efan Ekoku, James McFadden, Julien Laurens and Tim Vickery with Jonathan Pearce on commentary.
The pots are outlined below: England in Pot 1, Wales/Scotland/Ukraine in Pot 4. No more than two, but at least one, European team can be drawn in each group and no more than one team from the other confederations can be drawn into the same group.
![[Image: FIFA-World-Cup-Qatar-2022_Final-Draw-pot...uality=100]](https://digitalhub.fifa.com/transform/f8c270ee-ea84-4a6c-b907-87ee1ab8dd99/FIFA-World-Cup-Qatar-2022_Final-Draw-pots?io=transform:fill,width:1400&quality=100)
FIFA's press release detailing the presenters and draw assistants:
https://www.fifa.com/tournaments/mens/wo...final-draw
Not sure why the BBC need five pundits just for a draw.
Thought they'd have used some famous Qatari footballers for the draw like..., well, you know....
I think this is true, though the date has made me slightly uncertain and I do hope it isn't true...
The Times' Stuart Fraser is reporting that Sky have outbid Amazon Prime to the rights for the tennis' US Open from next year, after previously ditching the sport completely. First reaction, it will be sad if Prime have lost the rights as their broadcasts (aside from a few technical hiccups that have been less noticeable as the years have gone) has been excellent; secondly, quite the turnaround from Sky to start investing in rugby union and now tennis again after cutting all ties with those sports over the last five years or so.
https://twitter.com/stu_fraser/status/15...1166496768
Brekkie post_id=76138 time= user_id=976 Wrote:Not sure why the BBC need five pundits just for a draw.
Thought they'd have used some famous Qatari footballers for the draw like..., well, you know....
I had edited out from the BBC announcment, but Tim Vickery and Julien Laurens are billed differently to the other three so will I imagine appear briefly and probably remotely. They would probably have a bit more expertise on the many of the nations involved than the ex-footballers mentioned but there we are.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/608...ztOWq8diCQ
For the second point, well quite.
There are two ex-footballers from the wider Arab world involved which is the best they can do most probably.
RhysJR post_id=76140 time= user_id=1340 Wrote:I think this is true, though the date has made me slightly uncertain and I do hope it isn't true...
The Times' Stuart Fraser is reporting that Sky have outbid Amazon Prime to the rights for the tennis' US Open from next year, after previously ditching the sport completely. First reaction, it will be sad if Prime have lost the rights as their broadcasts (aside from a few technical hiccups that have been less noticeable as the years have gone) has been excellent; secondly, quite the turnaround from Sky to start investing in rugby union and now tennis again after cutting all ties with those sports over the last five years or so.
https://twitter.com/stu_fraser/status/15...1166496768
That is a surprise - though I repeatedly forget that Amazon has the tennis outside the US Open to be honest. Did watch the semi-final of Indian Wells but that was pretty much the first thing I'd watched since the US Open finals. I guess though the US Open is timed well for picking up the non-football fan at the beginning of the football season who might then continue with their subscription having watched a couple of games alongside the tennis too.
Not so surprised at the rugby union returning - Sky closing their dedicated department at a time they had no continuous rights never really ruled them out of the SANZAR rights, plus there are enough independent producers around for any UK rights they pick up too. That said I think the unions now produce the feed themselves anyway.
I hope the ATP and WTA does not go back to Sky. Sky Sports is a very expensive monthly subscription and if you subscribe via Virgin you won’t get any red button coverage anyway. The cheapest possible subscription is more then three times what Prime currently costs
Good point about the extra court coverage. That's very straight forward with Amazon - not so much with Sky. Thought it was a bit cheeky that not only have they scrapped the Weekly pass option on NOW TV but if you get a daily option, which many might do for F1, you don't get access to the "bonus streams".
Such a shame that the pre-draw 'entertainment' has been relegated to the Red Button. 17:35 the first ba;ll to be drawn apparently.
Mark Chapman presenting the BBC coverage from the secondary green screen BBC Sport studio (the one from the Winter Olympics etc.) with Alan Shearer, Efan Ekoku and Julien Laurens also in the studio. The night background of Doha looks very nice in the studio.