The Sport Thread

I think it will get lost there against the Saturday night entertainment shows. Plus this year there are some big live Rugby World Cup matches involving domestic sides on Saturday nights at that time. A one off for granted, but probably enough to bury it in the first few weeks alone.

The Football League show had a default inheritance from Match of the Day. Its going out to an already captive, post pub audience. A completely different prospect at 9pm.

It'll get a late repeat surely?

I suspect a 10am Sunday repeat will get into the mix. I doubt that the limitations over repeats later than midday on Sunday will be lifted for this deal.

How come at a match in Italy between an Italian team and a Spanish team, ITV were allowed to present from pitch side and interview in the Tunnel with their own backdrop? Can't see the likes of French or German TV getting that sort of access.

They probably should consider scheduling a repeat airing on Spike at the same time Match of the Day ends.

I think a Sunday morning repeat at a more convenient time on Channel 5 is a given as well.

Although in the ITV days they had a 6pm repeat either on the Sunday or Monday.

That's the problem with these highlights deals though - they are so restrictive and just not suitable in todays world. The online rights will be sold separately and I think more so than with MOTD the value here is people being able to find highlights of their teams, so a traditional show appeals. I think the Football League Show appears on demand though quicker than MOTD. With MOTD anyone who misses it on Saturday or Sunday has to wait a couple of days before being able to watch it on the iPlayer so that is just driving viewers elsewhere, and it's not to official online/mobile providers I'm sure.

At the moment the highlights rights demand that Match of the Day can only go on iPlayer from first thing Tuesday morning (so Sky can show all the goals again on Monday Night Football) but that's changing with the new deal and they can put it on iPlayer on the same day. That's one reason why the FA Cup coverage this season has almost all been on distinct programmes, so they can put it up right away.

And with the FA Cup they've been able to put up individual match highlights too, something they can't do with the League.

BBC Sport reporting that the Spanish Football Federation is to suspend all domestic football, in the La Liga and the domestic cup, from 16th May, in a dispute over pools money, and TV deals regulations that the government has recently done.

Rights - Recast

Athletics -
British Eurosport - secures Live Diamond League rights (ex UK events)
BBC - Highlights (plus live UK events)


more details ……..

NEWS on UK.EUROSPORT.YAHOO.COM
07-May-2015 @ 10:57


and ……..

MEDIACENTRE on BBC.CO.UK
07-May-2015 @ 10:59

It is noteworthy that the BBC's Barbara Slater describes the highlights deal as "our biggest commitment in terms of coverage of the IAAF Diamond League on network television", when last year for example, all Diamond League events were shown across BBC Three and BBC Red Button, with Glasgow and Zurich on BBC Two.

But that answers another BBC Three mystery - what will happen to live Athletics coverage on the channel? Answer: The BBC will now only show the UK events live on BBC One/Two with highlights of the other events, also on BBC One/Two.

A shame for the fate of BBC3 but not too big a loss. Suspect the highlights will end up on Saturday afternoons most weeks and probably do better. The Diamond League IMO has never taken off with too many events, half of which don't have the history of some of the classic events in Europe. The 6 - 7 events of the Golden League worked much better and should have been supplemented with a stronger secondary series.