The Sport Thread

There's so much wrong with Inside Sport I don't know were to begin.

As has been mentioned, the scheduling is poor and surely someone somewere spotted the second edition was possibly going to clash with live sport on another BBC channel. It would have made much more sense to launch the show in the build up to a major sporting event or over the summer, it just seems lost and confused in the schedules now.

Then there's the focus on Gabby Logan. I said before it will probably be renamed The Gabby Logan Show before too long, the trailer just seems to be about her and much of the publicity is based on her and childish lines like "Gabby Logan - a woman inside sport". Yes she's a good presenter and recognised by, um, football fans but is she popular enough with the public to be the centre-piece of the show? If someone like Ray Stubbs was presenting and the show had a lot more relaxed atmosphere I could see it working in a Top Gear style, with viewers not interested in Sport tuning in anyway.

At least we have had one good moment, Steve Bunce or whatever you call that pundit who ends up on ALL these doomed shows subtly winding up Gabby for not wearing her suitbelt. She was not amused, and neither am I.

One amazing thing I've noticed about the snooker:

They're perfectly capable of filling up the afternoon sessions with copious inserts of a trick shot artist, reactions and comments from all over the place and other general interesting shenanigans, yet can make the evening session viewing as dull as ditch water as there's no sign of any of the filler material that goes out during the afternoon. Steve Davis and John Parrott might talk the talk in the studio during the intervals but its been pretty clear for a while now neither of them look as if they want to be there.

Saw a bit of Inside Sport for the first time the other night - only a bit mind - when two of the three features turned out to be football related, I turned off. Although the relegation issue warranted it's place, David Beckham certainly doesn't - not at the expense of discussion of other sport anyhow.


It seems such a poor show though - all sat around a tiny desk It's more like something you'd expect on News 24 than on BBC1!


Really, if this is what they axed Grandstand for, it's appalling!

If you go the Aerial Shots feed on the BBC Website, you can hear talkback (I think) from the BBC studio if you turn up your speakers really high...

Only saw a bit of the match build up on BBC1 today - hosted by Des Lynam none the less!

Just watching the network coverage of the NW200 - great to see coverage of the race, at least Coleraine Borough Council's sponsorship banners are getting plenty of prominence

I see BBC NI have also nicked Steve Parrish, who used to turn up on UTV's coverage in the past few years.

That's no surprise seeing he is their regular MotoGP commentator, more a case of UTV nicking him for the past umpteen years Most say him and Kevin did an excellent job as usual seeing they already knew the results, although I did miss the banter of the live streaming.

Just caught the end of the Conference play-off after the NW on Sky Sports News! Busy weekend of course, and in a wierd way that might have meant more viewers wishing to watch SSN but they can't because it was needed to broadcast live sport! At least someone remembered to create a new DOG... Are they still planning another sports channel?

RTS Sports Awards: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a58454/in-full-rts-television-sports-awards-winners.html


Hazel Irvine wins the presenter award, C4 Racing - Cheltenham Gold Cup won the programme of the year while the judges award went to Grandstand.

Almost a repeat of the infamous Aggers TMS "leg over" hysterics just there on Sky Sports News, giving the results of a horse race in which "We'll Come" won, "Gongidas" came second and "Fondled" came third, need I say more! Dave Jones couldn't speak for 5 mins, brilliant!

Moving rapidly onto the RTS, apparently Mr Mosey wasn't in attendance to see the Beeb get a kicking and Grandstand picking up a special judges award. Ha!

Queens Club tennis this week - interestingly now the "Artois Championship" rather than "Stella Artois". Is this their choice, or has something to do with alcoholic sponsorship forced a change?


Also, annoying scheduling on Saturday - coverage of the semi-finals begins at 12.55pm on BBC1 and then shifts to BBC2 for the last 45 minutes at 4.40pm while BBC1 show things such as Just for Laughs and Weakest Link repeats.

Now, it's more than likely they'll be finished by then anyhow, but even if it's just there incase the event overruns, it seems stupid shifting it to BBC2 for no good reason.

More likely the promotion of the Artois family of brands.

Knew there was something else too - Five had snapped up the rights to Italian Football.


The main deal is for highlights, though they have live rights too - so I'd hope they use them. I bet they find a way to get them on Five US.


They need a decent presenter though - not Colin Murray or John Barnes. Hopefully James Richardson, who hosted coverage with C4 and has followed Football Italia around the various satellite broadcasters, will be poached - and possibly then used for their UEFA Cup coverage too.


Interesting though Five declined to comment on it - why I don't understand!