The Sport Thread

No he won't, he didn't appear on the World Cup coverage at all on Sundays - Rob Walker did all the bus bits on those days - and wasn't on last night either. So he won't be doring the Sunday of the Open. And I assume they don't need two presenters on the Sunday, they only have them earlier because the programme is ten hours long.

Seems Dan Walker is the 'warm up act' doing morning presentation, then handing on to Hazel Irvine at lunchtime. Once the cut takes place tomorrow evening, the morning involvement will be limited. Final day will be intense and Irvine will want to do the lot.

... and notable that there's no scheduled Open BBC network highlights again, as last year, ESPN having picked up the UK rights to highlights each evening. Last year Setanta having folded there were none.

The ESPN highlights may provide an interesting alternative to the BBC coverage, especially if they're using resources pulled from their US production. In the US, live coverage of the Open is being broadcast EXCLUSIVELY on ESPN for the first time this year, with only highlights being shown on ABC. ESPN are using the BBC's feed, but adding their own bits and bobs as well.

More at http://www.telegram.com/article/20100715/NEWS/7150770/1009/sports

On the BBC's part, its seemingly a continuation of the trend to move away from mainstream highlights programmes (as discussed earlier). However there will be a 30-minute highlights programme on the Red Button. And I would also expect that, at least for the first two rounds, the last hour or so of coverage will feature a round-up of the entire days play. In previous years, they've billed 7.15pm - 8.00pm as 'Today at the Open'.

Also just to note that the BBC have extended their contract to cover the Open until 2016.

Yep he doesn't do Sundays. Not an ideal situation for his chosen career really

Could have been worse - he could have decided to become a vicar! Wonder if his beliefs extend to not watching the action on a Sunday either.

When he has written about his beliefs in the past he has said he doesn't even watch football on a Sunday so he is hard-core.

Bit of a waste of the only interactive stream on Freeview only using it for the "leaderboard" - a 1/4 screen simulcast of BBC2 with the leaderboard around it. That sort of thing could easily be done in MHEG (indeed it used to be when the BBC did a dedicated interactive text service for such events), allowing a completely different video stream on 301.

Presumably they're taking the World Feed, which is much like the BBC programme, but without their presenters or BBC Sport logos on the graphics.

AFAIK the BBC only use the one feed anyway . . . the UK programme doesn't feature BBC Sport logos on the straps, scoreboards etc. And the UK coverage promotes www.opengolf.com as opposed to bbc.co.uk/golf. Similar to the Six Nations and Wimbledon.

I hadn't noticed the non-BBC web address on the leaderboards - but have seen a few differences between the World Feed and what's on BBC Two. For a example, the World Feed is continuing with coverage now, while BBC Two have gone to the day's highlights.

Sorry I meant to say that the BBC only have one 'feed' in terms of the live coverage of play. Of course BBC Two can leave this 'live feed' for their own studio segments/highlights etc.