The Sport Thread

..... Premiership Rugby on a stop too wef tonight.

Premiership calls off matches for two weeks despite some clubs keen to play. By @gerard_meagher https://t.co/AzmA5lLLef

— Guardian sport (@guardian_sport) January 11, 2021

The feed itself was actually fine as it was working no problem on Eurosport while BBC had "problems". I think the issue was the feed "to" BBC Online/Two with the BBC commentators, ie the transformed feed for the channel, rather than the global feed produced for other broadcasters.

I’m a bit confused by that article...one reading of it is that PRL are not actually postponing or stopping anything, simply not bringing forward matches to fill the two week gap. The Pro14 are planning on playing at least one make-up fixture during the period.

That's about the size of it... PRL has a 2week break to allow the European games. With those paused, some Premiership clubs are keen to bring the next round of games forward to fill the gap, and create some space later in the calender. DoR's at Exeter & Bristol (top-2 clubs at the moment, it galls me to say) have openly pushed for this.

As it is, PRL have declined to do this.

Australian F1 GP has been rescheduled to 21 November, 'subject to prevailing public health conditions'

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/motorsport/new-target-date-for-australian-grand-prix-november-21-20210112-p56tly.html

Sky to broadcast Extreme E later this year, having signed a one-year agreement. https://www.skygroup.sky/en-gb/article/sky-sports-to-broadcast-off-road-electric-racing-series-extreme-e

Reports again the Six Nations will go behind a paywall following the signing of a funding deal with CVC.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/six-nations-set-go-behind-19609618

Sky Sports Cricket is making use of the Sky Sports News temporary set (used from October to December) - with the same football-themed desk - for the studio coverage of the Sri Lanka - England test.

🏏 Can Jonny Bairstow cement his place at No 3? 🤔@robkey612 believes that without the distraction of keeping, he can - but he still has to prove it in more seamer-friendly conditions.#SLvENG🇱🇰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

📺 Watch 👉 https://t.co/SMbnhqovjC pic.twitter.com/gcWJZ21GlQ

— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) January 14, 2021

Sounds like the commentary is off tube as well, the way Nasser Hussain and David lloyd were talking.

Yes, indeed. All the sky commentators are working from Isleworth apart from David Lloyd who is commentating from home, plus two Sri Lankan commentators working from their homes in SL.

The world feed is using the Sky graphics template but is not being produced by Sky!

Cricket commentators often rotate around broadcasters, they'll do a stint on Sky, then a bit on BBC Radio then often a bit as a guest for the broadcaster from the opposing team's country. That might be possible for those working from home but probably not for those at Isleworth?

BBC TMS are in Salford, at The Oval and at home

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2021/01/bbc-test-match-special-to-cover-sri-lanka-tour-remotely/

I haven't seen or heard any of the coverage, but I assume they are using pairs of commentators/summarisers in the same location to overcome delay issues on the feed that they are commentating from, with those at home doing more of an analyst role than calling it ball by ball?

For TMS there aren’t necessarily pairs in each location - for example Jonathan Agnew, Andy Zaltsman and Ebony Rainford-Brent are each in their respective homes. Aggers is certainly doing ball by ball commentary.

A former colleague told me they’re all working from the same feed source with a known delay (allowing for some latency in each person’s internet connection).

Those in Salford have pictures that are delayed to match the feed to others commentating from elsewhere. So whilst they won’t all be perfectly in sync, it’s close enough that it doesn’t cause a problem.

From what I’ve heard it’s working very well.