The Sport Thread

[Brekkie]

Who do Premier Sports have presenter wise for football? I think domestically they only have some Scottish Cup (or League Cup) rights.

[Steve Williams]

Premier Sports live sport schedule says they will be showing Poland v. Wales next Wednesday (with only 10 minutes build-up) but none of Wales' other three matches are mentioned, unlike the others of Scotlans, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

https://www.premiersports.com/sports/lives2

Yes, all very strange - as you suggest, they have mentioned extensively they have Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, and apparently there's a trailer which features all three of those nations prominently. But there's no mention of Wales in their press releases, although as you say, Poland vs Wales does appear to be in their schedule. Even if they're not showing them exclusively because they're on S4C as well, presumably they are showing them exclusively in English, and also they do broadcast in Wales, so you would think they might consider it worth mentioning. Totally baffled by the whole thing.

Who do Premier Sports have presenter wise for football?  I think domestically they only have some Scottish Cup (or League Cup) rights.

They have first choice rights to the Scottish Cup and exclusive rights to the League Cup, so with Scotland matches as well they will have a lot of Scottish content, they'll be second only to Sky and be broadcasting pretty much every week. For their existing Scottish content they poached pretty much the entire BT Sport SPL team led by Darrell Currie.

[Rdd]

Eoin McDevitt does the Premier League for them, I’ve also seen Graham Little (who is mainly employed on the URC) do football, they might be candidates for ROI and NI games respectively. The URC is still going of course, with its three week playoffs still to run in June, and Ulster, Leinster, and Munster are all still in contention which might tie up the latter.

[BcastCornwall]

UEFA kicking off the tender process for UCL, UEL and UECL rights in the UK from 2024-2027 imminently. Huge test on values especially as the last PL auction was cancelled. WBDBT might in my view have a fight on their hands for these this time around especially considering the move of UEFA Nations Football recently.

[Brekkie]

Suspect they're expect the changes to the format to benefit them financially but that probably adds a bit of risk for broadcasters. I think it makes the group stage far less interesting with placing Top 8 or between 9th and 24th in a league not as interesting as having to get top 2 in a group of 4. Can't see there being many must win games in the final group games.

[RhysJR]

[RR]

Re Wales - the Premier Sports schedule now goes out to the time of the second game against Holland, and they do have it - albeit on Boxnation (a channel they run but which I don't think is available in HD anywhere, and is also for historic reasons part of a BT Sport subscription at least on same platforms, as well as a Premier Sports subscription). It is on 7:35 to 9:40 - so again not the longest programme covering a home nation's match.

[RhysJR]

Re Wales - the Premier Sports schedule now goes out to the time of the second game against Holland, and they do have it - albeit on Boxnation (a channel they run but which I don't think is available in HD anywhere, and is also for historic reasons part of a BT Sport subscription at least on same platforms, as well as a Premier Sports subscription). It is on 7:35 to 9:40 - so again not the longest programme covering a home nation's match.

From what I've seen/heard, Premier Sports often have no presentation for matches in the URC that are also shown on S4C or BBC Wales so this approach might have extended to international football too by the looks of it. Premier Sports did have exclusive English language commentary of Pro14/URC matches that was also shown on S4C up until near the end of last season, but this season all matches on S4C have also had English commentary via the Red Button so that maybe a possibilty for the football?

S4C's coverage on Wednesday now listed 16:40 until 19:00.

[dvboy]

A few technical gremlins on Eurosport's Roland-Garros coverage today, mostly sound-related.
Alize Lim didn't present the start of the day today, Alex Corretja took her place, not sure why.

[Michael]

So any games that can't be shown on the Premier suite of channels....just won't be shown?

Speaking as someone who follows Sweden, I see Norway v Sweden is on PS1, but no Sweden v Slovakia on Jun 2nd, or Sweden v Serbia on 9th June. Used to be able to watch all those games on Sky Sports red button / bonus streams. Significant downgrade. What were UEFA thinking?

[JAS84]

Probably preferred more money over a better service for the fans.

[Brekkie]

I suspect they'll be online via their Premier Sports Player. The press release does imply they'll show over 400 games live, which pretty much covers all the Nations League and Euro Qualifiers.

https://www.premiersports.com/sports/foo...eague-live

C4 have a half hour preview of the Nations League next Thursday at 11.05pm and have begun promoting their coverage of the game against Hungary now - but in a fairly standard football match trailer rather than having a promo campaign which might grab a bit of attention.


A certain irony as well that UEFA persist with this in a format in which teams are in small groups of 4, which gives great fixtures for those in the top leagues, but those further down the pyramid like Northern Ireland end up with weaker fixtures than if they arranged their own friendlies. With rights seemingly sold till 2028 I doubt the format will change much until then but if they do deem the CL changes to be a success I wouldn't be surprised to see some changes, certainly outside the top 16 teams, in the future.

[thebigdog2022]

talkSPORT have signed a deal with Cricket Ireland to broadcast their 2022 summer fixtures against India, New Zealand and South Africa across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Unfortunately they have no Test Matches scheduled this year only T20 & ODIs with games taking place in Dublin, Belfast & Bristol.

Interesting last paragraph on the press release
Along with talkSPORT’s online coverage in the Republic of Ireland, talkSPORT is also linking up with its sister stations, FM104 and Q102 in Dublin, 96FM and C103 in Cork, Live 95 in Limerick, LMFM in Drogheda and U105 in Belfast, so listeners can hear extended coverage, with live guests, highlights and player reaction.

https://talksport.com/sport/cricket/1113...t-ireland/

[Si-Co]

Quick question about radio, if I may:

I understand that test cricket is covered by Radio 4 LW. Is this the same coverage as Radio 5 Live Sports Extra?

I ask because my dad likes to listen on Radio 4 LW but his transistor radio is past its best. Not sure whether to buy him a new one with LW or with DAB - few seem to available with both.

[Steve Williams]

I understand that test cricket is covered by Radio 4 LW. Is this the same coverage as Radio 5 Live Sports Extra?

Yes, it's the same coverage. But on LW it has to stop for the shipping forecast.