The Sport Thread

There's an interview with the new man Mike West on tonight's North West Tonight, 17 minutes in. - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b017gdzs/North_West_Tonight_22_11_2011/

Not on the Beeb, though, he did them on ITV for a few years when they had The Goal Rush, and also did them on Setanta. I remember one week on the latter he seemed to be doing them over the phone, which sounded ridiculous. And of course the punter/celebrity efforts were a red button extra way after the "official" read.

The big thing about Tim Gudgin going is not that he did them forever but that it's the end of the announcer who just did that, and was hired purely for their voice and unflappability, as opposed to being a multi-skilling person who has other jobs too, the same as how Moira Stuart was dropped from reading the news on the telly.

BBC extends Six Nations broadcast rights to 2017

Great news it remains free to air although they need a complete refresh of their punditary panel - they ruined the last Six Nations for me. Wish they'd hurry up and sort the Olympics out though.

Elbow compose BBC's Olympic theme

The BBC has won back the right to host the 2015 and 2017 World Athletics Championships.

Well Thank God for that!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/24/bbc-rights-broadcast-world-athletics-championship?CMP=twt_gu

Not too surprising - though didn't think it would be announced so soon. Also considering ITV and C4 (and possibly C5) are also EBU members don't they get a shot too?

Good news all round today then - Elbow's involvement for the Olympic theme tune sounds very promising, and the World Athletics is back in its rightful home. Maybe Channel 4 will see sense and hand back the 2013 Championships to the BBC as well.

Sky will launch a dedicated F1 channel in March - Sky Sports F1 HD.

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/12040/7332332/Sky-Sports-launches-F1-channel

Interestingly it seems that you either have to subscribe to Sky Sports 1 & 2 or Sky HD. It doesn't appear to be available as a separate channel.

And on the day that Sky reveal their plans for 2012, so do the BBC;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/15893254.stm

Meanwhile, the BBC have announced their F1 coverage details for 2012:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/15893254.stm

The key points:
The BBC's 10 live races will include the British, Monaco and season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix. The BBC's first live race will be in China - the third race of the season.
The BBC's live races will follow the same format as previous races - including all practice sessions, Red Button forum and BBC Three highlights shows
For non-live European races, BBC One will show 75 minutes of qualifying highlights and 90 minutes of race highlights at around 5.30pm on Saturday and Sunday
For non-live Far East races, BBC One will show 75 minutes of qualifying highlights at 1.00pm on Saturday, and 120 minutes of race highlights at 2.00pm on Sunday.
All races presented from the circuit - live and highlights
Presentation team to be revealed 'at a later date'.

Interesting that the prime-time Grand Prix in Canada and the USA (if it goes ahead) are exclusively live on Sky. Presumably the BBC will show late-night highlights of these - not mentioned in the article.

The highlights programmes will put a decent dent in the early-evening line-up on BBC One.

And as expected, the Beeb have avoided the two Grand Prix which clash with the Olympics, meaning a big gap of 2 months between live races.