2018 FIFA World Cup Russia

A lot of Sky Sports coverage is shirt and tie too, especially the football (or at least the buildup, half-time and wrapping up bits) and a lot of the cricket coverage is too.

From BBC R&D's blog: some technical details about their UHD production , plus some more on Timeline's OB on the SVG blog.

That looks like it might be a UHD Carole Hersee!

Well, sorry to be tedious here, but Sky Sports' football coverage does continue to insist on formal dress for all the participants, on the live games, any highlights shows and of course Sky Sports News. The one occasion they didn't was the ill-advised first incarnation of Friday Night Football, but other than that they've always been suits and ties.

That used to be the case much more for the Beeb and ITV, they would always wear suits for Match of the Day and Grandstand and so on. Though it was interesting to see the clips from the coverage of the 1998 Final during the build-up where Alan Hansen didn't wear a tie, but a disgusting beige linen suit with weird collars. They abandoned the suits on Match of the Day in 2005 (I remember, it caused a bit of a stir), but they still wear them for big live games and finals and the like, as you can see. ITV used to be more formal for longer, certainly under Des and Bob Wilson it was ties all the way, but now they don't ever bother at all.

To complete the set, Setanta never wore ties, and neither has BT, but ESPN always did. I think that was partly because of the influence of their US parent but also because I think they wanted to emphasise themselves as a respectable operation and not some fly-by-night chancers like Setanta.

And that's an extract from my dissertation on ties on football coverage, soon to be published by Oxford University Press.

I don't think I've ever seen a shirt and tie on Sky Sports F1.