The Sport Thread

[RhysJR]

And got to admire the attention to detail in the World Rugby Sevens graphics using the flag of Great Britain rather than the Union Flag/flag of the United Kingdom (England, Wales and Scotland merged at least temporarily to cut costs and N. Ireland part of the whole Ireland team)

I never even noticed that the Cross of St Patrick wasn't part of the Great Britain Flag there until you said, gold star my friend.

It took me until the fourth day of action to notice! :lol: :lol:

Who is the host broadcaster there? That scorebar is very NBC-like (and very unlike the usual stuff from World Rugby which outside of the RWC tends to be very dated looking stuff).

Rupert Cox when signing off last night thanked "our production company Sunset+Vine" and this endboard at the end of the coverage adds a few more logos to that.

[Newshound47]

https://twitter.com/scottygb/status/1442602049737302016

BBC look likely set to lose the rights to the London Marathon.

I am not sure if the commitment to Athletics has been dropped this year as it seems like it had more with the Great Manchester Run was on BBC one yesterday as I am sure some years that has only been on BBC2.

I would say Channel Four might well be more interested than ITV. Through both would have to build a presenting and production team from scratch for just one day unless they go for further athletics rights, If I remember rightly ITV gave up bidding for the Boat Race as the cost of doing that when they had the rights was too much hassle

[RhysJR]

Really confsed by the BBC strategy with athletics and athletics staretegy on UK TV in general.

In the last year, the BBC have given up (maybe not the right phrase) on the UK Championships but have gained the rights to all the Diamond League and are showing the majority on the main channels. Then they're losing the London Marathon. I guess costs may be the factor here, but the strategy seems a bit scattergun.

I would say Channel Four might well be more interested than ITV. Through both would have to build a presenting and production team from scratch for just one day unless they go for further athletics rights, If I remember rightly ITV gave up bidding for the Boat Race as the cost of doing that when they had the rights was too much hassle.

The next broadcaster having to produce the whole thing like the BBC do would be a real barrier to getting anyone else but I guess independent producers produce world feeds for other marathon globally? Don't think anyone will be rushing to have a six hour programme one Sunday a year in April either but Hugh Brasher does mention it is a well loved and well known event (how much is that to do with it being on BBC One every year without fail though?). Agree Channel 4 would be liklier than ITV and as we all surely can remember the last time able-bodied athletics was on Channel 4 it was an enormous success and there was nothing but praise for their presenter so what could possibly go wrong...

I am not sure if the commitment to Athletics has been dropped this year as it seems like it had more with the Great Manchester Run was on BBC one yesterday as I am sure some years that has only been on BBC2.

Browsing through the BBC website, although it usually in the middle of May rather than September, it's more often than not on BBC Two rather than BBC One (last on One in 2017 from what I can work out). Usually a secondary host (Ore Oduba and JJ Chalmers amongst those named) present rather than Gabby Logan as well so you can view this year as quite an upgarde on previous years. Though I am getting the impression that Gabby's workload in general is getting a bit bigger these days, not often in her BBC years as she had a reguar weekly gig like Scrum V before plus her work for Amazon covering most of November and December.

[Brekkie]

I really can't see there being much interest elsewhere for the London Marathon and it isn't exactly a crown jewel event. Yes, it's been a fixture of the BBC for 40 years (and has a banging theme tune) but it's never exactly trouble the ratings.

The only reason I can see ITV or C4 being interested is if like Soccer Aid and Stand Up to Cancer they can build some primetime programming around the event in the build up, and I suspect the London Marathons main reason to look elsewhere would be to give more commercial exposure to their sponsors.

[Steve Williams]

I'm reminded here of the bit in Roger Mosey's book where he did an interview as Head of Sport and said all it took was for a sporting event to start the bidding process for the papers to start writing headlines like "BBC Could Lose Open Golf". And the very next day the Evening Standard reported that under the headline "BBC Could Lose Open Golf".

[RR]

Re the BBC and athletics - I seem to recall they have the full rights to both the domestic events and the Diamond League - and they got those for free as no one else was interested, but the issue is paying for coverage - the overseas Diamond League events (and possibly the two UK legs) come with coverage to a high standard. The UK events don't, and the BBC doesn't want to pay to cover it. Thus pictures are available, but not to BBC Broadcast standard.

[william]

I really can't see there being much interest elsewhere for the London Marathon and it isn't exactly a crown jewel event. Yes, it's been a fixture of the BBC for 40 years (and has a banging theme tune) but it's never exactly trouble the ratings.

The only reason I can see ITV or C4 being interested is if like Soccer Aid and Stand Up to Cancer they can build some primetime programming around the event in the build up, and I suspect the London Marathons main reason to look elsewhere would be to give more commercial exposure to their sponsors.

It's quite a lot of hassle for whoever takes it on. Both the organisation and the amount of airtime it needs. I'm finding it hard to imagine how they might do the coverage significantly differently, other than, as you mention, greater plugging of sponsors.

I was disappointed a few years ago when 5 Live gave up their dedicated coverage of it.

[madmusician]

https://twitter.com/scottygb/status/1442602049737302016

BBC look likely set to lose the rights to the London Marathon.

I am not sure if the commitment to Athletics has been dropped this year as it seems like it had more with the Great Manchester Run was on BBC one yesterday as I am sure some years that has only been on BBC2.

I would say Channel Four might well be more interested than ITV. Through both would have to build a presenting and production team from scratch for just one day unless they go for further athletics rights, If I remember rightly ITV gave up bidding for the Boat Race as the cost of doing that when they had the rights was too much hassle

A bit OT but that tweet from Scott Bryan (who’s usually great!) has annoyed me. The BBC did not ‘lose key Olympic sports’ - that’s just not true! They lost the right to show more than two simultaneous streams from the Olympic Games.

You might argue that what I’m saying is just semantics (as, by not being able to show more than two simultaneous streams, the BBC missed out on showing live coverage of some key moments from the Games) but surely Bryan’s wording implies that Discovery had exclusive rights to said sports which is simply incorrect.

The Olympics rights situation is a complex one, but this kind of mis-reporting (or clumsy use of language as in this case) doesn’t help the public’s understanding of it.

EDIT: Unless the error is mine and I’ve totally misread the tweet! Does he actually mean that the BBC are losing other competitions from key Olympic sports (outwith the Games themselves?). If so, I’d missed that and sorry Scott!

[RR]

The Guardian now has a similar story:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/s...ights[url][/url]

As ever, they get the story wrong re the Olympics -

its coverage of the Tokyo Olympics was less comprehensive than in previous Games after it sub-licensed its rights from Discovery

- in actual fact for 2021 it licensed rights to Discovery (in return for the opposite next time).

[Brekkie]

The Guardian report is also classic tabloid nonsense.

HEADLINE: "BBC to lose London Marathon rights"
STORY: "BBC favourite to retain London Marathon rights"


As for athletics the viewer is probably better served with live diamond league coverage than events with the UK Championships, though a relative lack of strength in depth in the British squad and the loss of some of the big international names hurts both given Usain Bolt had been carrying international profile of the sport for so long. More widely though it does appear the BBC are happier to air sub-broadcast standard events online rather than cover UK championships themselves.

[Steve Williams]

I would say Channel Four might well be more interested than ITV. Through both would have to build a presenting and production team from scratch for just one day unless they go for further athletics rights, If I remember rightly ITV gave up bidding for the Boat Race as the cost of doing that when they had the rights was too much hassle

I really can't see there being much interest elsewhere for the London Marathon and it isn't exactly a crown jewel event. Yes, it's been a fixture of the BBC for 40 years (and has a banging theme tune) but it's never exactly trouble the ratings.

Well, the status of the London Marathon as far as the papers are concerned is dependent on what happens to it, if the Boat Race is anything to go by. If they lose the rights, it's a major sporting event and it's a complete disaster for BBC Sport. If they retain the rights, it's a minor sporting event that nobody else cares about. That's how it works.

[Robertclark125]

It's actually 25 years since ITV last covered domestic athletics. Back then, when negotiating a new deal, ITV had the Formula one contract starting in 1997, and I understand, ITV offered, what was then the British Athletics Federation, a highlights package, a week after the event, in case it clashed with F1. The other part of ITV's aspect was, there had been some, but not much british success at Atlanta 1996, the Olympics. And, ITV felt that the product had been devalued, and hence they offered a lower bid.

You're not going to pay 12 for something, if you can get it for ten. Anyway, looking at the London Marathon, organisers can say it attracts over 30'000 fun runners, which it does. But, while they form a great part of the race, the reality is, the main focus is on the elite athletes, and the event for them is circa 2 hours 15 minutes.

[RR]

It's actually 25 years since ITV last covered domestic athletics.

Long gone are those days when the top British athletes were household names. At one point some of the biggest European events were on both ITV and BBC - when we only had three or four channels.

[Michael]

Oops. BT stadium-studio talkback over a nonexistant break. Static image of a goalnet now subbing for ads on BT 3

[Robertclark125]

Whether this is related to the Redbee situation I don't know, but there was a loss of pictures, on BTS3, from the Porto v Liverpool match. Happened a few times, and picture break up. All seems normal now.