The Sport Thread

Another difference is, when there is a replay, Sky has a whoosh sound on their replay graphic, BT Sport doesn't.

Yup, and to be fair the old ERC graphics (which for the last two seasons were just Sky's old graphics recoloured) were always slightly differently implemented by other broadcasters. Different kit and langauges and all that. For example where Sky would use animation Canal+ would just abruply remove a graphic.

I think the difference is the Champions League's world feed won't be different depending on which broadcaster is producing the match coverage.

I think the difference is no-one except us really gives two figs.

Pretty much this ^

We would do well to remember this sometimes on this forum

As a matter of interest, when BTS1, 2 or ESPN is carrying material that they don't have rights for the Republic of Ireland, UEFA Europa League for example, do they simply slate the channel or transmit alternate material? Suspect the slate but would like confirmation.

On a Sky box they close the channel with the blue screen and the message This content is not available.(I think that's slating)

Black screen on UPC. ITV4 on the other hand has a caption when blacked out for sports (which is often - they black out all sports programmes rights or no rights! Annoying since satellite viewers are able to watch the same programming (because the channel is free to air) and there is usually no ROI rights holder. The Europa League is the only programming blocked on BT/ESPN and there are no other blackouts of UK programming on any other channel.

I'm not aware of there being a different playout stream for ROI (or, for that matter, commercial customers - as Sky Sports do). Presumably with Sky, they effectively 'unsubscribe' subscribers with an Irish address for the duration of events with UK-only rights.

No, there's no separate ROI versions of the BT Sport channels. Presumably that's something they'll want to look into in the future as a source of revenue (but then again, BT's had a very odd attitude to its Irish operation and I'm not sure what their apparently generous motive for effectively rescuing Setanta is). As mentioned with Sky they use the conditional access system and on UPC they appear to pull the feed entirely. It is as I say only the Europa League that is affected. Strictly speaking, since Setanta hold the ROI rights to all but the first choice games of the Europa League they don't actually need to block the games (apart from the one shown on 3e, which is usually picked by ITV anyway) but I guess Setanta would prefer ROI viewers to watch their coverage (and their advertising, of course!)

Boxing on Channel 5 (8.30pm tonight) comes from a studio you may recognise from elsewhere.

OK TV / Health Lottery?