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Sky win all 4 Premiership LIVE rights until 2006-2007

BBC get Highlights from ITV (August 2003)

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SM
smw
Digifiend posted:
Looks like they'll have to redistribute them - don't be so happy MOTD fans, the BBC may yet lose the highlights but gain live matches. ITV needn't look so glum. Stupid PL! Serves them right if they're forced to take BBC and ITV's lower bids!


I doubt that their will be a change with the rights to the highlights, the problem that the EC have is with Sky picking up all the live rights. To be fair to the PL Sky obviously did bid more for each set of rights than anyone else so they should get the rights to show them. I also can't imagine the EC having the power to do anything to change what has happened.
KA
Katherine Founding member
Brekkie Boy posted:

Re: F1 - does the BBC need another motorsport? They have British Superbikes and World Superbikes, while this year they've picked up MotoGP, where instead of screening live coverage like C5, they pack it into 30minutes of highlights.

Do you happen to know how long the average Superbike or World Superbike race is? Is it of comparable length to a Grand Prix?
AR
A:R:I:S:E
Okay this is my area of expertees when it comes to television, so I'll clear up a few points of uncertainly.

1.Athletics- ITV covered what was known at the time as the "Golden Four" meetings during the 1990s, as well as the domestic meetings at weekends now covered by the BBC. ITV used to give prime time coverage to "Golden Four" meetings, with the first hour shown live on ITV, and at around 9pm coverage switched to Channel 4. Coverage was introduced by Jim Rosenthal with commentary from Peter Matthews, Alan Parry, Steve Ovett and others. In the late 1990s when ITV's historic relationship with Channel 4 ended, ITV's coverage of the Golden Four became limited with the complete abolition of live coverage leaving only late- night highlights. The Golden Four has since expanded and has become the Golden League, the live rights to which are held by Sky Sports, with old ITV commentators Peter Matthews and Alan Parry transferring to Sky, although the BBC are allowed to show very brief highlights some days later in Grandstand. The absence of Golden League athletics in my opinion leaves the BBC's athletics portfolio looking quite weak with a commentary team lacking any significant authority without a David Coleman or Peter Matthews type figure there.

2. Channel 4 Cricket- Coverage has deteriorated noticably this season, with the abolition of the live, 1 hour long Cricket Roadshow on Saturday mornings, replaced with the half hour long and pre- recorded Cricket Show. Channel 4 have very little live one- day cricket which is a far greater audience puller than test cricket, which is a weakness for them. They also wish to negotiate the hours of play for test matches with the ECB this Winter which which will see the abolition of the tea break and play ending at around 5:30pm, leaving Channel 4 free for their usual early evening schedule, which will by then include The Simpsons. In recent times the highlights programme has also been shortened and often put very late at night. The BBC have shown remarkably little interest in re-gaining the rights to live cricket, which is perhaps a reflection of Greg Dyke's attitude, as when he was head of ITV Sport in the 1980s he said "What's the point in me buying cricket? Nobody ever watches it!". This leaves the very real possibility that the next time the cricket contracts are up for re- negotiation cricket will be completely wiped from terrestrial television, with Channel 4 rapidly losing interest in the sport, as they have done with so many other sports in the past.

3. Formula One- Hardely the most thrilling sport to watch in recent seasons, nevertheless don't look back on the BBC years with rose-tinted spectacles. In the 1980s coverage was regularly interrupted by other sports, and ITV have actually done a great deal to improve coverage. The BBC would often show the race and leave shortly afterwards, whereas ITV, for all their faults, go a great deal further to explain the complexities of the sport in detail. ITV are unlikely put an over- enthusiastic bid in next time, due to disappointing audience figures recently.
TW
TWO ident Founding member
A:R:I:S:E posted:

2. Channel 4 Cricket- Coverage has deteriorated noticably this season, with the abolition of the live, 1 hour long Cricket Roadshow on Saturday mornings, replaced with the half hour long and pre- recorded Cricket Show. Channel 4 have very little live one- day cricket which is a far greater audience puller than test cricket, which is a weakness for them. They also wish to negotiate the hours of play for test matches with the ECB this Winter which which will see the abolition of the tea break and play ending at around 5:30pm, leaving Channel 4 free for their usual early evening schedule, which will by then include The Simpsons. In recent times the highlights programme has also been shortened and often put very late at night. The BBC have shown remarkably little interest in re-gaining the rights to live cricket, which is perhaps a reflection of Greg Dyke's attitude, as when he was head of ITV Sport in the 1980s he said "What's the point in me buying cricket? Nobody ever watches it!". This leaves the very real possibility that the next time the cricket contracts are up for re- negotiation cricket will be completely wiped from terrestrial television, with Channel 4 rapidly losing interest in the sport, as they have done with so many other sports in the past.


A very bleak view of the future. Whilst I cannot fault Sky for providing full, uninterrupted coverage of the cricket, their coverage is, as it is with most sports, very bland with not the same humour or character as BBC, or dare I say it, even Channel 4. And more importantly it is a subscription service, which means the majority of the population will be unable to watch any live cricket at all Sad (I believe home Test matches are still in the 'B' category which means that highlights must be shown on terrestrial).

Damn the government for changing it so that live cricket doesn't have to be shown on terrestrial. Despite the TV companies' worries cricket is still THE summer sport and certainly in the top 5 sports in the country, so still deserves terrestrial coverage. It all started when neither the BBC nor Channel 4 would show highlights of the Ashes or World Cup.

BTW to the person that said the Beeb used to stop at the scheduled end of play - that is 45 mins more than 4 have been showing in some matches.
NW
nwtv2003
A:R:I:S:E posted:
3. Formula One- Hardely the most thrilling sport to watch in recent seasons, nevertheless don't look back on the BBC years with rose-tinted spectacles. In the 1980s coverage was regularly interrupted by other sports, and ITV have actually done a great deal to improve coverage. The BBC would often show the race and leave shortly afterwards, whereas ITV, for all their faults, go a great deal further to explain the complexities of the sport in detail. ITV are unlikely put an over- enthusiastic bid in next time, due to disappointing audience figures recently.


Though people will hate me for saying this but I do agree with him, I do think that the coverage that ITV provides is excellent IMO. Though the ad breaks is a major problem which needs to be sorted is the only thing which really let's ITV's service down. Though the presenters are good, Martin Brundle on the grid before the race starts is usually a funny thing to watch. ITV do care about the F1 really, as they do bother about it when a race has to go out during GMTV's airtime, something which ITV has always managed to do, they show higlights twice, 11.45pm on a Sunday isn't the best time, but 7.00pm on Mondays on ITV2 is a good idea. Plus they have also bothered to show the friday qualifying, though I agree it isn't as intresting as the proper race it's still a good thing to show on a Friday late night. One of ITV's major problems is that they have to show the main stuff on the one proper channel to get the viewers in. Though ITV should go back to how it was, say like it was in the late 1990's where the major sports are..

- UEFA Champions League (They do a good job of that)
- F1 (Ditto)
- Rugby Sevens/ World Cup.

One of ITV's major problems was that they blew too much on the Premiership Highlights and to be honest it did affect the quality of other programmes.
KA
Katherine Founding member
nwtv2003 posted:
Plus they have also bothered to show the friday qualifying,

Yes, at a time when the majority of the populace are asleep.....
AR
A:R:I:S:E
Incidentally, those of you who are wildly embracing the return of premiership highlights to the BBC should bear in mind that Greg Dyke has been responsible for the production of a football programme before. It was LWT's "The Match" which ran across the ITV network on Sunday afternoons between 1988 and 1992, which many critics ridiculed (though I WASN'T one of them! Live top flight football on terrestrial TV every Sunday afternoon seemed difficult to spoil). Jim Edwards' TV Website has a clip of Dyke talking about the programme and Elton Welsby's presenting style.

One question we should ask is where does ITV Sport go from here? There is a huge question mark over whether they intend putting in a serious bid for F1 next time around, and the same goes for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, although we can expect decent coverage of this year's tournament, which will include Nigel Starmer- Smith, who has joined ITV from the Beeb.

When Brian Barwick became head of ITV Sport he said he wanted ITV to focus on 6 key sports: Football, Rugby Union, Snooker, Formula 1, Basketball and Boxing. Well, 5 years on and snooker has been dropped completely (although the World Snooker Association are as much to blame as anyone!) as has basketball (good!). Barwick promised a big boxing comeback on ITV, although this disappeared after a few Shea Neary fights, though it was good to hear Reg Gutteridge commentating again. Although ITV brought us coverage of the Tour De France, Mr Barwick needs to consider which direction he intends taking ITV Sport in during the next few years.

Personally, I'd focus on 2 key areas. Firstly- boxing. ITV's boxing programme in the 1990s- The Big Fight, gave superb live coverage of almost all of Britain's top class boxers of the time, it also had what I consider to be one of the greatest TV theme tunes of all time. To bring back this Saturday night flagship and to give Britain's under- exposed top class boxers live terrestrial TV coverage would more than compensate for the loss of premiership highlights.

Secondly- Snooker. ITV's coverage of The Charity Challenge, The Nations' Cup and the Champions' Cup was, to begin with, excellent (latterly coverage was cut down and highlights were put on very late at night). ITV's commentary was a breath of fresh air, there again, anything is an improvement on John Virgo, plus Russ Williams proved an excellent presenter. Snooker has enjoyed a ratings revival on the BBC recently and audiences for May's World Championships were very healthy indeed, and are in a bracket attractive to advertisers. Though the World Snooker Association needs to get its own house in order first, even Sky barely cover snooker these days, because there are so few tournaments to cover!

I still can't believe ITV covered the Tour De France, if "World of Sport" was still going I might have understood..........
WI
william Founding member
TWO ident posted:
A:R:I:S:E posted:

2. Channel 4 Cricket- Coverage has deteriorated noticably this season, with the abolition of the live, 1 hour long Cricket Roadshow on Saturday mornings, replaced with the half hour long and pre- recorded Cricket Show. Channel 4 have very little live one- day cricket which is a far greater audience puller than test cricket, which is a weakness for them. They also wish to negotiate the hours of play for test matches with the ECB this Winter which which will see the abolition of the tea break and play ending at around 5:30pm, leaving Channel 4 free for their usual early evening schedule, which will by then include The Simpsons. In recent times the highlights programme has also been shortened and often put very late at night. The BBC have shown remarkably little interest in re-gaining the rights to live cricket, which is perhaps a reflection of Greg Dyke's attitude, as when he was head of ITV Sport in the 1980s he said "What's the point in me buying cricket? Nobody ever watches it!". This leaves the very real possibility that the next time the cricket contracts are up for re- negotiation cricket will be completely wiped from terrestrial television, with Channel 4 rapidly losing interest in the sport, as they have done with so many other sports in the past.


A very bleak view of the future. Whilst I cannot fault Sky for providing full, uninterrupted coverage of the cricket, their coverage is, as it is with most sports, very bland with not the same humour or character as BBC, or dare I say it, even Channel 4. And more importantly it is a subscription service, which means the majority of the population will be unable to watch any live cricket at all Sad (I believe home Test matches are still in the 'B' category which means that highlights must be shown on terrestrial).

Damn the government for changing it so that live cricket doesn't have to be shown on terrestrial. Despite the TV companies' worries cricket is still THE summer sport and certainly in the top 5 sports in the country, so still deserves terrestrial coverage. It all started when neither the BBC nor Channel 4 would show highlights of the Ashes or World Cup.

BTW to the person that said the Beeb used to stop at the scheduled end of play - that is 45 mins more than 4 have been showing in some matches.


I think the key thing there is that the BBC would almost certainly provide a full interactive service for cricket, so assuming they decided to bid, win the rights back, and put coverage on BBC1/2; then everytime they went off to news/weather (and probably during Wimbledon, capacity permitting), they'd provide uninterrupted coverage on DSAT and Freeview.

I think there's a greater chance of the BBC bidding next time round that many people seem to think - there has been something of a renaissance in BBC sports rights of late after all.

Incidentally - just tried out the BBCi "Score Interactive" thing - not sure if anyone else did. Was a live stream of the vidiprinter used during final score, and (presumably) was available from 3pm onwards.
Note Goal Rush on ITV1 has been shortened, and is not on ITV2 at all anymore.

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