The Sport Thread

Formula 1 have announced a change to the start time of the races in Europe this season.
Not only will they start at 10 past the hour - so fans can 'enjoy' more of the atmosphere, but they'll also start 1 hour later. So the British Grand Prix (and in the UK the same time for races on the continent) will start at 14.10 instead of 13.00.
Bet that won't please Channel 4 as on the non-live races, it'll push the running time of highlights into the Sunday evening peak.

The 10-past start is supposed to make it easier for broadcasters so that they don't miss anything if they start their programme on the hour.

There's an exception to the above for the French GP which is later still to avoid a World Cup clash.

I assume that means a head to head clash with the Wimbledon final then.

RTÉ had a setback with the cameras still rolling at Montrose during the ad break including RTÉ commentary at Bordeaux.

They are back on now. Daire said they had suffered technical wobbles in the break. It felt like they didn't want to take one.

Update:

RTÉ2 viewers are being treated to a mix of both french & RTÉ graphics for tonights under 20's rugby match between France & Ireland.

There's no F1 race the weekend of the Wimbledon finals, which is 14-15 July.

The World Cup final will clash with the Wimbledon men's final, but we knew that already anyway.

BBC 2 Wales had Six Nations official gfx for the Women's match between Wales and Scotland, but are now using BBC house graphics for the U20 game.

And the old graphics rather than the new ones.

So, I guess that means the F1 T-5 min sting will now be moved to the top of the hour..

Makes sense in the scheme of scheduling especially for 'poorer broadcasters' who stick to the international feed only.

Think the new US deal is limited to joining the world feed so suspect that's what they had in mind, though suspect most the "atmosphere" Will be replaced by ads. Also helps C4 slightly as they can now screen ads within that hour of the show without airing them in the race.

RTE do that too - presume the Women’s comes under the ambit of the Six Nations Committee but the U20’s doesn’t?

Anyway, today’s the big day when coverage of the men’s senior Six Nations moves to TV3 for the first time. It’ll be interesting to see if they live up to the standards RTE set.

In a way RTE Rugby coverage was probably the best it had ever been the last couple of years after the in my opinion long overdue departure of Tom McGurk and George Hook and addition of people like Ronan O`Gara and Shane Horgan. TV3 have a lot to live up to, their RWC coverage was good but criticised for too many ad breaks and lakk of HD. We will wait and see.