The Sport Thread

http://www.a516digital.com/2017/07/new-free-to-air-sports-channel-to-launch.html?m=1

New sports channel from the minds behind Setanta Sports and Premier Sports to launch in September.

It will be the first sports channel to launch on Freeview since Front Runner joined the service in October 2016 (and subsequently left last month due to the costs of running on DTT). Hopefully this is third time lucky...

Placeholder is on LCN 95; and it will be running on COM8.

About Euro 2017:




A few more updates - evidently it's done well enough to increase coverage from "at least one" knockout match FTA, to "all of them":
- http://www.womensfootball.eu/forum/index.php/topic,8370.msg84720.html#msg84720

The international intrigue is how UEFA will manipulate the 5pm/7.45pm slots to suit the big TV nations. For the quarter- and semi-finals, the venues are known, but the times can be swapped at a few days' notice! (Another case of "they'd never treat men's football that way...") Germany's QF is on Saturday primetime, which afaik didn't require any funny business. Sunday QFs not yet decided.

This video of the tech in the WTA MCR may be of interest to some here:

(They take in the clean court feeds and add off-tube commentary, before distributing again.)

Formula E: North One will become joint-host broadcaster with the existing company (Aurora), presumably from next season.

Source: http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2017/july/aurora-and-north-one-named-as-host-broadcasters/

It's reported that Austrian TV did treat men's football that way (moving a men's CL qualifier earlier for yesterday's match), but it was scheduled at least a week ago. A quarter-final between England and France now looks likely...

So the BBC have revealed the details of the coverage of the US PGA next month:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/40738368?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_sport&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=sport

Basically the entire coverage is on the 'red button'. Rounds 1 & 2 will have a 1 hour slot of BBC Two post Newsnight. For rounds 3 & 4 it will be basically the final 9 holes each night being shown live on BBC Two. It's rather woeful TBH, I hope this is because of the clash with the World Athletics Championships.

Also of note is that the BBC will only be taking CBS's coverage for rounds 3 & 4. That means they will not show the additional 3 hours of coverage that TNT show each day, and which Sky have shown for the past 20+ years.

Whilst it's good to have the tournament back on the BBC it is this inept scheduling that has meant the viewer is better off when it is broadcast on Sky. This poor scheduling will do little to encourage the USGA to bring the US Open to the BBC. With its very restrictive coverage The Masters committee won't be unduly concerned though.

They've already said the coverage is due to the last minute nature of the deal and the athletics champs and that next year it'll get full coverage. No doubt too even with most on the red button it's reach will go well beyond that of Sky. If the US PGA really wanted full commitment from the BBC they wouldn't have left it so late to sell the rights.

Cricket is returning to the BBC slightly earlier than expected for one day only, as part of Test Match Specials 60th Anniversary various TMS commentators, analysts and celebrity fans are taking part in a Twenty20 match on Thursday 24th August 2017 with teams captained by Phil Tufnell and Michael Vaughan. The match is being shown live on the BBC Red Button and BBC Sport Website with live radio commentary on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra.

Also the BBC announced today Jessica Ennis Hill and Ore Oduba are joining the BBC lineup alongside the regular team for the World Athletic Championships from the London Stadium.

WTA TV soft launched today www.wtatv.com

I presume the graphics are also done by perform before sending it out on an encrypted frequency on 7e

Ore is mentioned in the Radio Times' guide to the Championships - which like the Olympics includes a pull-out guide to the entire event, albeit on a much smaller scale. He's going to be the secondary presenter, presenting the coverage after ten o'clock every night which will be a sort-of-highlights show.

Itv sport scoreboard world style looks very weird indeed,