The last thing I'd like to see as a result of these Olympics is more football on TV - whoever is playing. Even with no regular live coverage the BBC feels very football dominant as it is and though I agree this is the perfect opportunity to get more womens sports on to television, IMO that needs to be across a number of Olympic sports rather than focused on one.
I'd be interested in a 2 hour magazine programme called 'Sunday Grandstand', it can be presented in a similar style to Ski Sunday or ITV's rugby union highlights each Sunday on BBC Two. It could feature stuff like the British Basketball League (or thought Sky are rights holders to live coverage), women's football, British Ice Hockey and hockey coverage all from the last week or so plus anything else cheap enough in terms of rights that usually slips under the radar.
On Breakfast this morning, Kelly Smith was basically appealing for more television coverage of women's football. There's a huge opportunity there for the BBC to support a fledgling sport that would get quite a lot of interest and would create more role models for women and girls, isn't getting a lot of commercial interest and therefore would be cheaper to cover than the men's game and other sports. Not that BBC bosses would have been watching, though.
The BBC have shown more women's football than probably every other channel put together in recent years, they showed the Women's World Cup last year including the England matches live on BBC2 and the final live on BBC3 delaying a new episode of Family Guy. They also showed England's last qualifier in June on BBC2 - which must have been a pain in the arse to cover as it was during the Euros so they had to put together a presenting and commentating team from scratch as everyone was in Poland - and they're showing the next one as well next month. In fact they've still shown many of the England games even after they lost the FA rights.
Meanwhile ITV showed one Women's Cup Final in 2009 before the following season it turned up on Sky for some reason who this season flung the penalty shoot-out on the red button as they forgot it could have gone to extra time and had men's football scheduled after it which took priority.
If any channel can't be blamed for the low profile of women's football, it's the BBC. And the fact is that they can't really do much else other thann England matches and the Cup Final because the other games get extremely low attendances.
Exactly - indeed the BBC will probably show more live womens football between now and the 2014 World Cup than they will mens. I think womens football probably need to focus on getting people through the gate rather than looking for more TV coverage.
Handball could be an interesting one - hugely popular in many parts of Europe but practically unheard of here, although extremely well received during the games. How great would it be for a "new" sport to enter the public consciousness as a result of London 2012 - and it would surely cost the BBC next to nothing just to get the rights to something they could show as little as once a year.
I hope too that the BBC return to focusing on live coverage when it comes to minor sports - too much of the coverage in the build up was through reports within the news and on Olympic Dreams which really are no substitute just for handing over a couple of hours of airtime to show those athletes doing what they do, rather than just talking about it.
Exactly - indeed the BBC will probably show more live womens football between now and the 2014 World Cup than they will mens. I think womens football probably need to focus on getting people through the gate rather than looking for more TV coverage.
That's a bit of a silly thing to say. Surely the more awareness is raised of the woman's game through TV coverage the more popular it'll become. The Olympic football proves that.
It's the same as saying Tesco should stop worrying about their advertising spend and they should concentrate on getting customers through the door.
That's a bit of a silly thing to say. Surely the more awareness is raised of the woman's game through TV coverage the more popular it'll become. The Olympic football proves that.
Well, there is a kind of sense to it, if you look at the Conference for example they have thirty live games a season but they're all on Premier Sports which nobody has, and hardly anyone is bothered with live games because they don't know any of the teams or players. Whereas, if they had maybe half a dozen live games and then a regular half hour highlights show on Sky or even the Beeb, it would be better exposure because there'd be a context to it - make the highlights show access all areas so you know who you're watching - and more people would stumble across it because it's on a channel people have. More live games aren't any benefit to the Conference, if anything it just stops people going to the games.
That seems to be the approach the Women's Super League is taking with a regular highlights show on ESPN but only about half a dozen live games. I think we're at the maximum delivery of women's football on TV, otherwise you start showing nondescript league fixtures played in front of about a hundred people, which is no advert for women's football.