The Sport Thread

Watching the Channel 9 / world feed coverage of A Day at the Drive, a tennis exhibition event in Adelaide.

Todd Woodbridge, presenter, currently chatting to Sam Groth as a pundit in the studio (in Melbourne I think) between matches and they both keep glancing at the camera while talking to each other. I've never seen anyone do that before and it seems really unnatural.

(will be approx 90 mins in) https://youtu.be/CfqGmoTO_Bo

The same event is on Eurosport Player, but without any of the studio audio or commentary, so a bit of a mess.

It's at 98 mins, and yes, that is odd!

The only thing I've seen like it is the pre-match preview the Bundesliga do (in normal times) - the commentators do a pitchside chat, and will look at each other to ask a question then deliver the answer down the barrel of the camera. To me it looks really unnatural, but I've seen it on a few so maybe it's just the style in Germany.

Apparently they do it on Aussie rules coverage too.

Didn't that use to happen on Sky Sports rugby league coverage during the Eddie Jennings/Stevo era?

Yes, it wasn't billed in the Radio Times because it was a last minute thing, but on the night of Wednesday 5th/Thursday 6th January 1983 they did show live coverage of an Ashes test in Australia from midnight, looks like the third day of the fifth test according to Wikipedia. However, as you suggest, they only showed two hours before pointing everyone over to the radio. There are complaints about it a couple of issues later, and the reponse is that it was very expensive to keep satellite coverage going, and given the state of the game at that point, they didn't think it was worth continuing given the size of the audience was going to be very small.

It wasn't perhaps so unusual as in those days they would often join sports in progress or only show extracts of it, with Grand Prix they would often take the start and the first few laps, go off elsewhere and dip in and out of the rest of the race and then join it live again for the last few laps, with highlights later. And there are also letters about that coverage saying they were pleased to see any of it at all as it was a bit of a novelty.

In the past it’s just been the BCCI logo permanently on screen. I don’t remember any obvious blurring / covering taking place.

FA Cup 5th Round TV Coverage

Tuesday 9 February 2020
Burnley v Bournemouth (17:30) - BT Sport 1
Manchester United v West Ham United (19:30) – BBC One

Wednesday, 10 February
Swansea City v Manchester City (17:30) - BT Sport 1
Leicester City v Brighton & Hove Albion (19:30) - BT Sport 2
Sheffield United v Bristol City (19:30) - BBC Sport Website & iPlayer
Everton v Tottenham Hotspur (20:15) - BT Sport 1

Thursday, 11 February
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Southampton (17:30) - BT Sport 1
Barnsley v Chelsea (20:00) - BBC One

Pretty standard fare in the US, and Aussie sports coverage leans a bit more with the product placement etc and the pundits generally look down the camera and the presenter. See Butch Harmon on Sky Golf. He does the same.

The night session was also live on Eurosport 2 with Simon Reed doing commentary.

It was, he was supposed to be joined by Jo Durie but she wasn't feeling well (nothing to be concerned by).

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