Notice Gabby Logan has sunk without trace at the BBC and Matt Smith hosted yesterday's match on ITV1
Hardly sinking without trace. She has a weekly show on Five Live, presents Inside Sport weekly on BBC One for around 6 months each year, and I believe she is one of the main presenters fronting the BBC Olympics coverage. She covered Wimbledon for Five Live last year (not sure if she will again this year) and was involved in the Six Nations...
Also what do we think of the graphics this year. Although I think the blue used is better than the standard BBC Sport blue, I don't think it works with the red MOTD graphics at all.
Can't quite make my mind up on the official graphics - on the one hand they look pretty neat, but on the other a bit dated.
I guess the BBC have gone for red and blue to match the UEFA graphics - although why UEFA went for Blue when the logo is red and green I don't know!
Well, unlike BBC and ITV, RTÉ haven't got to use their own title sequence and instead are just using the official UEFA titles and theme music. No corporate RTÉ Sport style logo - just the full competition logo "UEFA Euro 2008 Austria-Switzerland".
How ITV have got away with not calling the tournament "UEFA Euro 2008" I don't know - I know UEFA excercise a lot of control over the branding of their competitions, especially the Champions' League.
EDIT: To add, British Eurosport are using the official UEFA titles also, but that was probably to be expected...
I doubt that RTE weren't allowed to use their own titles - they probably just didn't bother to make any! You'll notice the BBC and ITV have inserted the generic titles at some points - theres maybe a requirement to use them and RTE decided there was no point making their own as well.
Going back to the lack of use of 'UEFA' - I'm sure the BBC never used UEFA in their Euro 2000 coverage, although times change!
Also what do we think of the graphics this year. Although I think the blue used is better than the standard BBC Sport blue, I don't think it works with the red MOTD graphics at all.
Can't quite make my mind up on the official graphics - on the one hand they look pretty neat, but on the other a bit dated.
I guess the BBC have gone for red and blue to match the UEFA graphics - although why UEFA went for Blue when the logo is red and green I don't know!
I think they look quite like Sky's football graphics of 2 seasons ago.
I think the BBC messed up their forward planning last night with them having to move the Euro 2008 game to BBC2 which bumped Springwatch to a much earlier slot in the process. ITV should really have had yesterday's game.
Also it seems from next week's listings magazines that the Quarter Final schedules are known in advance this year, so there isn't the usual 'Football' and 'No Football' schedules published
Not too surprising really - usually the quarter finals are the time for a scramble for England rights, depending on if they finish first or second in their group. With no England there will presumably no rush to get one particular game and mess about with the viewers. Good thinking by the Beeb and itv
The quarter finals have been pre determined, but the semi-finals haven't, though that's just a case of channels playing out an alternative schedule on Wednesday or Thursday.
I would assume ITV will have first pick of the semi-finals considering they've opted out of the final. It'll be interesting to see as well what ITV schedule against the final - whether they go for Corrie and the big shows, or whether they just concede and put a movie or something on.
Have ITV done something if not against the rules, well in some way taking advantage of them?
This afternoon during the Sweden - Spain game as part of the build up they showed around 60 seconds of a film 'courtesy of Nike', showing Liverpudlians speaking Spanish in tribute to Fernando Torres.
Then in the break preceding the second half the very same film was shown - as a commercial - in it's entirety.
Have ITV done something if not against the rules, well in some way taking advantage of them?
This afternoon during the Sweden - Spain game as part of the build up they showed around 60 seconds of a film 'courtesy of Nike', showing Liverpudlians speaking Spanish in tribute to Fernando Torres.
Then in the break preceding the second half the very same film was shown - as a commercial - in it's entirety.
Doesn't seem too 'fair' to me.
Soccer AM have done this with various football related adverts many times.