The Sport Thread

[RhysJR]

[Rdd]

Surprised no Irish channel picked that up if DAZN were making it available.

[RhysJR]

[RhysJR]

[Rdd]

That’s odd, that’s not their normal sport graphics (although, having said that it’s generic URC graphics for most rugby they cover now).

 I had wondered what had happened to the AIL play off coverage, it used to be on RTE and I missed that it had gone over to TG4.

[Steve Williams]

Not quite as newsworthy as Chris Kamara's departure, but this afternoon was Garth Crooks' final appearance on Final Score and, seemingly, BBC Sport. I know he's not done much in recent years, but a bit of an end of an era as he started in the Des era and I think Lawro is now the only one remaining from that period, apart from Gary of course.

[Brekkie]

Was a weekly fixture for a long time but noticeably been featured less in recent years.

See BT have a rare Saturday night match and rare Big 6 game this late in the season with Liverpool v Tottenham tonight. I guess it was moved from lunchtime due in part to the final round of Championship games and partly to stop Klopp moaning about a 12.30 kick off, even though they played Tuesday rather than Wednesday.

[TWO ident]

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned but ITV providing only minimal build-up to the FA Cup Final next weekend with coverage starting at 4pm, BBC the usual 4-5 hours of Football Focus-style panel discussion. So no return to the days of Grandstand and World of Sport competing with each other in terms of length of coverage, as was to be expected.

[Brekkie]

ITV have live racing before hand, then begin at 3.45pm, with news after at 7.30pm. BBC have MOTDx, MOTD Top Ten, FA Cup Rewind and FA Cup: Road to Wembley before breaking for the news with main coverage starting at 4pm. Pointless is at 7.15pm with a Eurovision special, but with BBC2 clearly scheduled to take it in the event of extra time.

I suspect even if ITV offered to pay every viewer £1000 they'd still get beaten at least 2:1 by the BBC. Ultimately they'll still sell a nice chunk of advertising for an audience likely to fall between 1-2m.

When was the last time that the BBC and ITV simulcast the final and did the BBC always outrate them?

[News Engineer]

When was the last time that the BBC and ITV simulcast the final and did the BBC always outrate them?

1988 was the last BBC / ITV simulcast. Not sure on the ratings.

[TMD_24]

Sky Sports have won a BAFTA for the coverage of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

https://twitter.com/f1broadcasting/statu...va15F4OK1w

[Brekkie]

Any news on if Eurosport will air any coverage of the French Open on Quest?

[Rdd]

How bad a deal the Heineken Cup FTA coverage arrangement is illustrated by the semi finals. Three French teams and one Irish, and the Irish and U.K. (who also sells advertising in Ireland) free to air broadcasters are left with the all-French clash. Presumably BT has some sort of “first pick” rights to reserve a top game for pay TV, but VMTV has got to show two games involving Irish teams (as it happens, both of the Leinster-Bath pool stage games) out of a possible 8 fixtures. They’ll get the final of course which may involve Leinster if they beat Toulouse.

Elsewhere we got the second penalty shootout (place kicking competition to be correct) in the history of the competition (in the history of professional rugby union possibly?) in Munster v Toulouse yesterday, so some rare graphics wheeled out we possibly won’t ever see again (the first and last up until now was Cardiff v Leicester back in 2009).

[RhysJR]

How bad a deal the Heineken Cup FTA coverage arrangement is illustrated by the semi finals. Three French teams and one Irish, and the Irish and U.K. (who also sells advertising in Ireland) free to air broadcasters are left with the all-French clash. Presumably BT has some sort of “first pick” rights to reserve a top game for pay TV, but VMTV has got to show two games involving Irish teams (as it happens, both of the Leinster-Bath pool stage games) out of a possible 8 fixtures. They’ll get the final of course which may involve Leinster if they beat Toulouse.

Elsewhere we got the second penalty shootout (place kicking competition to be correct) in the history of the competition (in the history of professional rugby union possibly?) in Munster v Toulouse yesterday, so some rare graphics wheeled out we possibly won’t ever see again (the first and last up until now was Cardiff v Leicester back in 2009).

To add insult to injury for us in UK/Ireland, France tv get to show both semi-finals and one of the Challenge Cup semis (Toulon v. Saracens). Not sure how beneficial it is for anyone, travelling fans especially, to have only a week between the quarters and semis either.

The place kicking competition (to give it its far less catchy official title) also meant that build-up (if there was any) and a lot of the first half of Leicester v. Leinster being shown on BT Sport Extra. Coverage ended rather quickly after the shoot-out and, despite the twwo and half hours between kick-off, BT Sport 2 still joined the Leicester match half an hour late.

So, the semi-finals next weekend...
NB Times are local time, meaning matches take place at 12:30, 15:00 and 20:00 BST.




Am I right in thinking there's no deal in place (for the full or the FTA coverage) for next season at the moment?

---

Elsewhere, it seems COVID is still having a major impact on Chinese sporting events.

Late last week saw the cancellation of the Asian Games that was supposed to be in Hangzhou in early September. The Diamond League athletics events in Shanghai and Shenzen have also gone, with exsisting events in Poland filling the gap.

(PS Diamond League season starts on BBC Two from Doha on Friday)

Doubts must be growing for other events too (not sure what other majore events are left in China this year though), though the F1 has already been cancelled for this year and the WTA tennis already boycotting China.

[Rdd]

Am I right in thinking there's no deal in place (for the full or the FTA coverage) for next season at the moment?

No, none announced at any rate. There’s been at least one unconfirmed report that BT have renewed which I can’t quite find at the moment. Whatever about Channel 4, I would be surprised if VMTV renew at the current terms, it can’t be rating very well for them with few matches involving Irish teams.