UEFA Euro 2012

Yes, RTE2 is the sports channel, that's been the case now for about twenty years. I think the reason they did that initially is because RTE2 didn't do very well so they needed to give it a purpose so they decided to make it skew younger and put all the kids and sport programmes on it.

The relationship with BBC1 and BBC2 is completely different because both regularly show sport, whereas RTE1 doesn't. The nearest equivalent to RTE2 in Britain would probably be ITV4 or Five Live. The Beeb wouldn't do sport on Radio 1 or 2 (I know they used to) even though they would get higher ratings, because Five Live is the sports channel. And so is RTE2.

Looks like RTE2 have all the games, so currently on air from 4.30-10.30pm with it every night. Not sure what they do with the final group games.

Of course RTE2 viewers are used to it but I do wonder if for the final if the BBC aired it on BBC2 whether ITV1 would pick up more viewers.

Just show one of them.

http://www.rte.ie/ten/listings/23731633_tv_Euro_2012_Live

Bit of a mess up on the East Opt out from the football. We first had the regional sting with the announcer saying 'You're watching BBC1 in the East, now the BBC News with Huw Edwards and _____' when the sting finished, it cut over to the end of a trailer and we had another sting with the other network announcer saying 'Now the BBC News with George Alighaia'.

By sting, do you actually mean ident?

With the changes to the BBC's channels as a result of DQF, if I was in charge, I'd be seriously contemplating making BBC 2 the home of sport on the BBC. It solves the technical issues of local opting - it solves the majority of scheduling problems - apart from Newsnight, what other fixed points are in the BBC Two regular schedule which couldn't be dropped for a day / week. Even if the BBC got the rights to the Ashes, there wouldn't be that much of an issue with dropping a couple of weeks of the BBC Two daytime schedule. There's other benefits - like MOTD could be run at 10pm every saturday rather than it's current variable late night slot. You could even run a 30 minute "Sportsday" programme at 10pm week nights.

The only real issue I see is audience figures, but I think the reason for BBC Two getting lower numbers is because currently if someone thinks a sport event is on the BBC, they automatically tune to BBC One, don't find it and they either give up or find another source. If BBC Two was publicised and marketed as the home of BBC Sport, then that wouldn't be anywhere as much of an issue.

I can remember a time when BBC 2 was the 'de facto' channel for Cricket and Wimbledon coverage, and of course there was Sunday Grandstand, so yes, a good idea I think to make it the BBC's default sports channel.

Well, as in structure you probably mean the division between RTÉ One and RTÉ Two, its more by age group - RTÉ One is the flagship, and most news and politics, and flagship drama and entertainment programming is on RTÉ One. With RTÉ Two, its generally kids up until 5pm (on weekdays), teens between 5 and 7 and imports and sport after 7. The general skew of RTÉ One is towards older viewers and RTÉ Two towards younger viewers. Its not really down to a cultural difference between Ireland and the UK at all (there isn't a huge difference in my view, although I live in Dublin) but more a difference in how RTÉ and the BBC divide programming between channels 1 and 2.

As an aside, one cultural thing this is in Ireland is the phenomeon of older viewers leaving the TV on RTÉ One by "default", only changing the channel if there's something specific to watch. It doesn't seem to hit sport though, and people are well able to change the channel when they do want to, for GAA in particular.



There was an odd occurrence last Sunday, where the Sunday Game was shown on RTÉ One and the opening of the Eucharistic Congress on RTÉ Two. Normally, you'd expect them to be the other way around. However, the Euro 2012 coverage kicked off at 4:45, whereas the final whistle in the second GAA game wouldn't have been blown until about 5:25. RTÉ probably felt it was best to show the entire GAA programme on RTÉ One and the entire Euros coverage on RTÉ Two rather than move the GAA to RTÉ One at half time in the 4:00pm throw in. The GAA wouldn't have been in HD anyway (AFAIK only games in Croke Park are).

Re the final group games, RTÉ will stream the game they don't show on RTÉ Two online. For some reason they don't believe in the red button (although they've belated started using it on UPC to access the RTÉ Player but only in the last month or so). I see the BBC and ITV will be using BBC Three and ITV4 for this, so BBC Three will be an option for most people (though the version of ITV4 on cable blocks all sports programmes).

The Ukraine v France match has been suspended due to bad weather. ITV's feed has cut out a couple of times too.

I wonder what ITV will show if it's cancelled.

Ukraine vs France

Yeeeeah, my bad!

They're showing a re-run of France v England.