The World Cup 2006

The addition of Steve Rider makes that quite a good line up of established presenters. I notice Gary Lineker seems to be presenting nearly all of the live BBC One games, even on days when they show more than one. Ray Stubbs is the back up presenter and Adrian Chiles on highlights.

Well it'll be easier for the BBC to use the main presenter more cos they've got a permanent studio in Berlin overlooking the Brandenberg Gate - so they won't have to travel around as much. They will be at the grounds for the big games though. But ITV will be at the ground for every game - so that's why they need to use more presenters.

I would have thought that the presenters would be at every ground, be it England v Brazil or Paraguay v T&T.

on the bbc world cup promo what years matches are they showing, obviously one from each decade but any world cup experts know which years.

just curious

Well Germany is a big country. Personally i like what they're doing, their studio in Paris in '98 was brilliant. But i don't think they've ever presented from all the grounds in the World Cup - in 2002 both BBC and ITV presented from London.

Anyway in the group stages 5 matches will come live from the grounds, with upto a dozen out of the 32 games throughout the World Cup.

And interestingly, Steve will also be presenting the GP's in Montreal and Indianapolis...

According to this BBC FAQ you need a license fee!

Doesn't look like they will, actually. Plenty of archive and magazine shows, but no live games.

SSN's World Cup Report will also be simulcast on SS1, which will also show nightly World Cup editions of 'You're on Sky Sports'. (EDIT - this relates to a comment in the 'World Cup Scheduling' thread - far too confusing for me )

IMO the Beeb should be using more of Manish Bhasin during the World Cup. He's only down to do three editions of Football Focus. and some of the BBCi forums. I rate him far higher than Adrian Chiles as a football presenter.

Also a little snippet I noticed in the RT listings - the Executive Producer of the BBC's coverage will be no less than Roger Mosey. Never heard of a BBC Director of Sport being involved in presentation at this level.

The odd thing is the IBC for the world cup is in Munich, and the BBC put themselves in Berlin.

Also, ITV are having to spend far more on production costs to present the coverage from the grounds rather than a central base (like in the IBC for example) as HBS charge for studio space at the ground per game.

I notice that both the BBC and ITV are screening a highlights programme every night, often at roughly the same time.


Don't they usually just alternate - usually if BBC screen the evening game, ITV screen the highlights and vice versa.


I know in 2002 they both screened highlights - but then the games were done in the morning and IIRC the BBC had highlights at 7pm and ITV had highlights at 11pm.

Notice Radio Times have got 2 covers this week, one with the BBC presenters on the front and one with ITV's.

The image of Steve Rider next to a football, looks strange. Does he actually know his stuff? I suppose we'll find out. Has he ever covered football before?

Seem to remember him presenting Grandstand/Final Score in the 90s.