The Sport Thread

Suspect that the going to a 'non' ad break after every over, is because there is a short 20" commercial going out on Premier Sports, but the ads haven't been loaded in for the split playout on Freesports.

Lost pictures sound like a dropped satellite feed, or when the booked time runs over and no-one extends it out.

Last one sounds like automation got bored of the cricket and fired off the next event. Whoever was minding the coverage at Premier, was more concerned with keeping that on that channel for any paying subscribers watching, than any casually grazing around on Freesports.

Some sad news to report from RTÉ Sport today. RTÉ Olympics analyst & former elite runner Jerry Kiernan had died last night aged 67.

We are very sorry to hear of the passing of Jerry Kiernan.

Jerry finished 9th in the Olympic marathon in 1984, and also coached many of Ireland's top athletes, including Ciara Mageean and John Travers.

May he rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/4FFk2EvMtv

— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) January 21, 2021

https://www.rte.ie/sport/athletics/2021/0121/1191212-olympian-jerry-kiernan-dies-aged-67/

RIP.

I know some people find it hard to throw out old stuff... there were a few tweets yesterday pointing out Stephen Craigan brandishing a BT Sport clipboard on Premier Sports' coverage of the Betfred Cup yesterday.

(It is, of course, mostly the same production team as when it was on BT)

Don't worry, many years ago, a sports reporter who switched from STV to BBC Scotland, was spotted a few months later at a game, wearing an STV sweater!

Still no info on who'll broadcast the England series in India which starts next week and includes 4 test matches, 5 Twenty 20s and three ODIs.
https://wisden.com/series-stories/india-v-england/where-can-england-fans-watch-india-series-on-tv/amp

Although on Radio, it'll be the at times, intolerable Talksport and Talksport2.

Suspect off tubing from London, so at least they'll get a feed, even if it doesn't appear on Sky...
Or BT..
Or Amazon..

According to the i, Channel 4 are the favourites but could end up on Sky or BT.
https://inews.co.uk/sport/cricket/india-vs-england-tv-rights-channel-4-test-series-uk-live-coverage-bt-sport-sky-848462

While I would love it to be on Channel 4 and Free to Air taking us back to 1999-2005, I can't see it.

Yes, seems odd and if they did suspect it would end up largely on More4 rather than C4.

Is it me, or is that report contradictory - it talks of "a bidding war underway, the rights are set to go to one of that trio in the coming days" and then says "most likely outcome will see BT Sport and Channel 4 win a joint bid". Sounds like that means two not three bidders.

To my cynical mind, continued leaks of a bidding war, three bidders, etc., with days to go, sound like the PR from the seller of the rights trying to get a low single bidder, probably Sky, to up their bid, which so far they haven't.

Another report on C4's bid. Presumably a full English language feed is provided with the rights so it's largely a case of retransmitting that and top and tailing it, plus filling the breaks. That in itself still quite a bit to arrange at short notice eve.

Scheduling not too much of an issue as other than Sunday Brunch I don't think there is anything that can't really be dropped with tests beginning at 4am, so done by around 11am. Even Sunday Brunch could be pushed back to an 11.30am start if they didn't move the last session of the cricket over to More4. The One Days and T20s a bit more disruptive to the daytime schedule but at the end of the tour so not last minute, although I suspect Countdown for March is probably in the can by now.

https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/england-v-india-tour-2021-tv-rights-channel-4-sky-sports-bt-sport

A figure of £20m is seemingly the price quoted for these rights, so not exactly small change and I suspect it's a case of none of the bidders offering that.

It’d be nice, but I can’t quite see it either, not a C4 sole bid.

That article, I think, has a mistake. It says that it would be the first time an overseas test has been shown on FTA TV. I’m sure Steve Williams will be able to confirm or correct this, but I believe the BBC had some limited overnight live coverage of one of the Ashes series’ in the mid 80s. I’ve a feeling I read coverage was cut short when England started to do poorly!

Of course highlights of England overseas tours show up in the BBC schedules going back to, I think, the 1970s.

Do Indian based tests suffer the same problem as the IPL - and indeed Indian television in general - with sponsor logos on screen which presumably the UK broadcast would need to obscure?