BT Sport - Launch of BT Sport Ultimate

There are three studios, but there may be a non-BT Sport production going on in one of them?

It looks like it's probably Studio 3, which isn't seen (on BT Sport at least) too often. The Goals Show is in 2 as usual for this season (the little mezzanine studio is even smaller than it looks on screen so not great for social distancing) and the Manchester United game is in Studio 1, again presentation not on site in a Tier 3 area.



Because of the old 'lite' package which I think continues in commercial premises (and perhaps Plusnet??) which only gives you BTS1, the main UEFA games are always on 2 and 3.

That's studio 3, which hasn't been used a great deal for BT's football coverage in the past, but has been seen a fair bit on speedway and for external use - most often the NFL show on BBC Two. Last week's Man City game was presented from there too.


The Goals Show would normally either be on the glass bubble mezzanine studio, or behind a desk in studio 2. For social distancing reasons, they're using armchairs and bits of the Score set in 2.


Gary's got the big desk in studio 1, as usual.


It's still possible (though not easy!) to subscribe to BT Sport Lite, so some of the bigger European games are still scheduled on other channels, presumably to encourage people to stump up for the whole package.

[edit] it seems that Blake beat me to it while I was getting those screengrabs.

They wouldn't have done presentation on site even if Manchester wasn't in Tier 3, pretty much all the group stage is presented from the studio (maybe they have done the odd really big game in the group stage at the ground, but very rarely), seemingly based on the idea that it's a big nerve centre that can oversee everything. Sky did the same when they had the Champions League, only going on site in the knockout stage. As mentioned, they were in the same studio for Man City last week, and for Liverpool on Tuesday.



Not really, it's always been the case that the live Champions League games involving British sides are on 2 and 3, with the Goals Show on 1. By putting Chelsea on 3 as well, and a non-British tie on 1, it meant they could carry on with post-match analysis and interviews on 3 without having to dash off for the Goals Show if it was on 1.

Again, it was much like how Sky used to do it, the two English matches were on 2 and Xtra/4 for many years. They do need to offer stuff on all the channels or there's no point in having them all.

Funnily enough in the Europa League it's been the English sides on 2 and ESPN and the Scottish sides on 3, but tonight I see Leicester have been moved to 1 due to some unscheduled hockey on ESPN. But the "main" game is still on 2.

Ah, you're absolutely right. Was getting mixed up with my memories of them often being on site for British teams in the knockout stage and the Europa League where presentation from the grounds happens a little bit more at this stage (and has settled into a routine for the Scottish games, with both presented from the stadium of whoever is at home that week).

Dreadful picture quality on BT Sport Ultimate for tonight's Bundesliga match. Wholly over-saturated and definition washed out. Sadly this is not the first time this has happened. Were they trying to force HDR down non HDR channels.

Has UHD been affected much by COVID. Are HD broadcasts now generally downscaled UHD broadcasts, hence a UHD broadcast wouldn't require extra personnel?

BT Sport have run almost all of the UHD coverage of content for which it would have been expected pre March, with the notable exception of Bundesliga where only two UHD matches have made it to air, both beset by techincal issues. Several others have been EPGd but removed some at very short notice.

EDIT
It should be mentioned that ALL of the UEFACL and UEFAEL emergency finals tournaments in Portugal and NRW Germany were covered in UHD and BT Played them out in this format, if these matches were played as originally planned, only a small subset of these matches would have got UHD coverage.

BT's first season of UHD OBs were run as a separate operation from the HD, but since then the HD has been derived from the UHD. Covid hasn't had any effect on this, though some crew are operating from remote locations where there's more space to socially distance than inside an OB truck.

Now that MotoGP has finished for the year, Champions League have moved up to the 35th floor

As studios go...😍😍😍@btsport pic.twitter.com/HctdWiK2Hg

— Jake Humphrey (@mrjakehumphrey) November 24, 2020

Seems quite a tight space given current restrictions. I thought they had three studios at BT Sport anyway.

Would anyone here with a BTTV Sub using the UHD box consider a subjective assessment of Picture Quality of the BT Sport HD channels over the past month (especially those on the new packages)? I think there's been some 'playing'.