Freesports

What was that sport channel which was promised in the early days of Freeview? It even had an MHEG placeholder for ages - even though it never materialised.

That wasn't the ill-fated NTL/BBC Sport channel was it? NTL bought lots of rights and had studios in Feltham (inherited by Arqiva) but then it all fell apart. The studios and some of the rights ended up being picked up by British Eurosport ISTR...

CBM* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBM_TV
which morphed into....er....
Freesport https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/oct/23/broadcasting.digitaltv

Odd to include pictures of an event (the French Open) that won't be on the channel anytime soon.

All the clips are of course from stuff Eir Sport/Premier Sports has the rights to, and I caught NRL, NHL, and GAA (Premier Sports three key properties) in there.

The first day's schedule has been posted on Digital Spy:


https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/comment/87467295#Comment_87467295

On the Limit Sports is a round up of Republic of Ireland tarmac rallying.

FreeSports tweeted that they will be showing 3 live NHL games a week, the season starts in October I believe. I'm not sure how many Premier Sports show every week.

They have the rights for up to 15 live games a week, but - as FreeSports say on their Facebook page - Premier Sports only manage to fit about 12 in live, so there will be 3 left over for FreeSports. Those shown live on FreeSports will be shown on delay (and in HD) on Premier Sports.

Don't know if I'm reading too much into it but I notice their twitter account follows the ATP so I wonder if the tennis coverage will be either ATP Challenger tour, or free to air highlights once Amazon take over Sky's Masters/500 package in 2019.

1 September schedule:
2:30 NASCAR America (NBCSN)
3:30 Athletics: The UK Challenge (as 31/8 7:00)
4:00 BV World
5:00 FIFA Football
5:30 AC Milan Weekly
6:00 NASCAR America
7:00 On The Limit Sports
7:30 NRL Cowboys v Broncos
9:25 The Magic of the FA Cup
10:40 Live NRL Eels v Rabbitohs (Premier Sports simulcast)
13:45 AC Milan Weekly
13:15 Pro Bull Riding - Nashville
14:15 The Magic of the FA Cup
15:30 Cycling Junior Tour of Ireland
16:30 On The Limit Sports
17:00 Cork City Sports
18:00 The Footy Show (NRL - Nine Network)
20:00 The Story of the FA Cup
21:00 The Story of the FA Cup
22:00 NRL Eels v Rabbitohs

2 September:
0:00 World of Free Sports
0:30 The FA Classic Collection
1:00 NRL Cowboys v Broncos
3:00 The Footy Show
5:00 Xiamen Marathon 2017
6:00 Swedish Speedway
8:00 The Footy Show
10:00 FIFA Football
10:30 Live NRL Storm v Raiders (Premier Sports simulcast)
12:30 On The Limit Sports
13:00 Live FEI Nations Cup (showjumping in Dublin)
17:00 On The Limit Sports
17:30 NRL Sea Eagles v Panthers (shown live earlier on Premier Sports)
19:30 NRL Roosters v Titans (shown live earlier on Premier Sports)
21:25 Live Rugby League Toronto v Whitehaven (Premier Sports simulcast)
23:30 One FC (MMA)

There are still the 250s which are available, so it might be that some of the minor tournaments on the tennis schedule might get aired on FreeSports.

Davis Cup (non-British ties) and Fed Cup games still without a home AFAIK.

Davis Cup semis, final and Fed Cup final are a good shout, although the BBC may be showing the Davis Cup online as they have done in the past.

There are six ATP 250 tournaments left this year. Eurosport have St Petersburg. The others are Chengdu and Shenzhen both in the week of 25 Sept, and Moscow, Antwerp and Stockholm all in the week of 16 October.

Some ITF-level tournaments are televised in their home countries for example the finals of the Irish Open in Dublin last month was televised by TG4.