A BBC Sport person said they wouldnt be giving Des Lynam a call. I wonder if he has a bed payed for in the retirement village for all those washed up TV personalities, the bed next to Barrymore!!!
Wonder if the European Union will stick their proverbial in before the matches are shown. I wouldn't be surprised if Sky end up showing fewer matches than they've "won" today. Overall though, think I'm pleased with the result today - don't have Sky (and I'd probably be worried about price rises if I did - can see this being a rip-off for viewers considering Sky have paid roughly the same amount as last time, and for more matches), and v. pleased to see Match of the Day back.
"We're disappointed not to win the highlights, but we bid what the rights were worth to ITV. The market is very different this time round, we had a clear view of the Premiership's value to the network and we bid accordingly. We still have rights to Europe's premier club competition, the Champions League, and the money we'll save on the Premiership will be reinvested in the network programme budget."
Sounds like they didn't bid for live rights either... Nigel Pickard not a football fan???
Good to see the return of Match Of The Day and the highlights on the BBC. The BBC has got some good matches next season now, with the highlights and the cut price FA Cup and, England Internationals. Looks like Des is on his way out though. Would have been good, to have some matches on the BBC (or ITV) though, perhaps the Saturday afternoon games.
I don't reallt understand all this fus about Des. Gary presented the last season of MOTD, if not the last two, and he's done well presenting the live matches too and the BBC still won the ratings battle at the last world cup, so why would they want Des back?
I must say, £100million is very steep... I'm not sure how much ITV bid, but £100million of the license fee is for me, a waste to say that not all that many people watch football highlights - alright, there are viewers in that field but a majority of the people who are really interested get SKY.
I'm glad that the premiership has left ITV1, it leaves more money for the programming budget.
I must say, £100million is very steep... I'm not sure how much ITV bid, but £100million of the license fee is for me, a waste to say that not all that many people watch football highlights - alright, there are viewers in that field but a majority of the people who are really interested get SKY.
I'm glad that the premiership has left ITV1, it leaves more money for the programming budget.
Okay, here's my estimate:
£105m
divide by three seasons: £35m
maximum of 36 weekends per season
= £1m per weekend of highlights???
= £1m per (1hr30) of programming?
So Match of the Day is returning - well the BBC still haven't managed to fill it's slot three years on.
I wonder if the BBC will try and do something revolutionary and screen them at 7pm to boost their evening schedule!!!, although now with live 5.15pm games, I imagine they won't be able to screen them till 7.30pm at the earliest.
The best place would be around 8.15pm on BBC2, repeated on BBC1 at around 11.30pm.
Shame that after the splitting of packages have not had an effect. Although I personally believe that the way they sold rights before was fair - these methods were supposed to stop Sky's monopoly on football rights.
BBC have already said that MotD will be at 10:30pm every Saturday night with a Sunday Morning repeat.
Why mess with tradition! Excellent news. It allows ITV to plow more money into other programming and the BBC get to do what IMO, it does best. Didn't a load of the MOTD technical team move over to ITV though? Wonder if they'll get a returning phone call?
Would have been good, to have some matches on the BBC (or ITV) though, perhaps the Saturday afternoon games.