The Sport Thread

[Steve Williams]

Didn’t they produce ESPN UK’s Premier League output or it might have just been the match production? 

For their first season, ESPN did contract out the match coverage itself to Sky Sports, though they had full editorial and creative control (or rather IMG did, who produced their coverage). That was mostly because they'd got on air in absolutely record time, and from their second season they did it themselves.

[Brekkie]

Much better commentary on the BBC Wales highlights but post-match under umbrellas in the pouring rain not a great choice audio wise.

[Jon]

Who did produce the England coverage?

IMG as mentioned in the press release posted earlier in the thread.

[RhysJR]

[bkman1990]

I forgot to mention that RTÉ2 in Ireland had used John O'Shea and Didi Hamann for analysis for their coverage of Armenia vs Republic of Ireland on Saturday lunchtime. Peter Collins was the presenter for the match on RTÉ2. Darragh Maloney and Stephen Kelly were on commentary. Tony O'Donoghue was pitchside reporter/interviewer for the match in Armenia.

RTÉ's match coverage of the U-23 qualifier for the ROI Vs Bosnia & Herzegovina at Tallaght Stadium on Friday night had Claire McNamara as presenter. Alan Cawley and Richie Sadlier were there for analysis. George Hamilton and Kenny Cunningham were there for commentary. Darren Frehill was pitchside reporter/interviewer for the match at Tallaght.

[Brekkie]

[RhysJR]

[Ericak]

[RR]

Elsewhere, Sky have agreed a 'new multi-year' agreement with global rights holdes Warner Bros. Discovery to continue to broadcast the PGA Tour. Interesting that Discovery have agreed this with Eurosport and now BT Sport as rivals to Sky and this will probably not see a launch of GOLFTV in the UK, unlike most of the rest of the continent. Should also keep competition low for any other rights such as the DP World Tour/European Tour too. For Sky, a golf channel without the premiere tour would be a little pointless for most so this is good news for them.

https://www.skysports.com/golf/news/1217...-agreement

Another sports contract where they don't say how long it is, but it includes the following:

Sky Sports Managing Director, Jonathan Licht, said: "We're thrilled to continue our partnership with the PGA Tour. The extended deal cements Sky Sports' place as the home of golf in the UK and Ireland and means our customers will be able to follow the key live action on the Tour for years to come."

[Brekkie]

Need the Sky Sports figures for full context but with all the stories in the last couple of weeks about football now being more popular than rugby in Wales those figures are around half the figure of some of the bigger rugby games in recent years.

[Rdd]

Very surprised at that sub license but presumably WBD have run the numbers and are happy to take the money from Sky rather than try and use it as a subscription driver for the soon to be merged BT / Eurosport.

[RhysJR]

Another golf story is that the new Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf have announced their broadcast team and coverage.

Live coverage will be on the event's website, Facebook and YouTube channels, as well "on a global roster of leading premium and free-to-air broadcasters providing coverage in 138 territories around the world" that "will be made available later this week on LIVGolf.com". The tournament starts in less than 72 hours so not announcing broadcasters doesn't sound particuraly promising. Seriously doubt any broadcaster of note in the UK would want to be involved due to that hatred of the event within golf and the wider implications of a Saudi-backed sporting project, but worth noting that FreeSports have showed the Saudi-backed Asian Tour this year, including its first event outside of Asia near Newcastle last week.


The broadcast innovations (below) don't sound amazinly innovative on first glance. The live scoreboard thing is allready done by most mainstream broadcasters and tracers are also used often throughout other golf broadcasts (maybe they'll be used more frequently?).

 LIV Golf’s shotgun start will feature the 12-team, 48-player field teeing off all at once, and more than 50 cameras will capture every moment from start to finish. The broadcast will present views from 16 different towers, drones, and mobile steady cameras, with tracer technology highlighting the action throughout the course. Fans will also hear the sport like never before through more than 60 microphones incorporated from tee to green on every hole, including player and caddie mics that will bring fans inside the competition. Meanwhile, on-screen graphics will showcase innovations to the viewing experience while keeping fans updated in real time on the teams and individuals leading the field. Additional modernizations to the broadcast will be unveiled throughout LIV Golf’s inaugural season.

And to the commentators. Quite a surprising lead voice in Arlo White, who was most recently NBC's lead Premier League commentator (it is heavily rumoured/all but confirmed that Peter Drury will take up that position from next season, leaving the world feed). Jerry Foltz has also left NBC (Golf Channel) to become the lead analyst. Dom Boulet (who covered last week's Asian Tour event with the likes of Dougie Donelly), Su-Ann Heng and Troy Mullins ("as an on-course reporter and social influencer for LIV Golf") complete the on-air team. Not that different to a standard broadcast by the looks of things, bar the addition of White. Probably a positive they haven't tried the route of bringing in social media stars to attract a new audience like a start-up new player would often do.

A few offscreen names mentioned in the press release too, including David Hill, who I'd presume would be best known in the UK for being part of the foundation of Sky and Sky Sports.

https://www.livgolf.com/news/liv-golf-an...for-global

[RhysJR]

BoxNation has lost coverage of the UEFA Nations League coverage of Austria v. Denmark. Message on the bottom of the screen updated to say there has been a power outage at the stadium.

[Brekkie]

Very surprised at that sub license but presumably WBD have run the numbers and are happy to take the money from Sky rather than try and use it as a subscription driver for the soon to be merged BT / Eurosport.

It would have fitted better on the merged product too - I could see how it might be problematic having a weekly commitment on Eurosport itself but then again most their content is in the daytime and nowadays having part of it on streaming only isn't the issue it once was.

I do think though sometimes when Eurosport buy rights it is with one eye on selling them on too - they undoubtedly got the money back on the Olympics from selling on the PSB rights - even in countries where they had a free to air outlet they've generally onsold the linear rights.    Others though like the French Open they've kept for themselves across Europe.

However, I do wonder if selling the odd thing on is with competition concerns in mind - it isn't yet being raised as the issue it should be but at some point it will be noticed that local broadcasters are locked out by European wide deals and whether as such the likes of Discovery are too dominant in the European rights market.

[RhysJR]