The Sport Thread

So thats what happens when we hit 1000 pages. How underwhelming.

1000 pages. We got there. I started the original Sport Thread on the day I signed up to the forum. Suddenly feeling rather old.

Anyway . . . here we go with another 999.

I see Michael Johnson's touchscreen from last year's World Athletics Championships coverage has made its way to the Olympic Stadium where its been hijacked by Colin Jackson.

Doesn't add much to the coverage, but at least they're trying something different - the BBC have been long ridiculed for the rather tedious nature of their athletics coverage. I personally don't get the criticism.

I don't think there's not a lot you can 'do' with athletics. Although the Diamond League are trying by shortening the field events to 'liven things up' for TV audiences. However this means that only the leading 4 competitors get a chance to compete over the full 6 jumps or throws, which reduces the competition and means the leaders have a much shorter time to recover between jumps/throws.

It's a difficult sport to get right for TV audiences, probably to the point where outside the Olympics it'll really only be a sport that appeals to the diehard fans.

Goodness me! To celebrate a new thread, we get scrolling vertical credits from BBC Sport at the end of the athletics.

Can't remember the last time we saw those.

So do we know who SS' lead Premier League presenter is to be post Chamberlin yet? Simon Thomas presented the 'friendly' cup fixture between Celtic and Leicester earlier tonight. Has any formal announcement been made?

Not seen anything announced, and although Digiguide listings don't go quite far enough Sky never seem to list presenters in the programme etail anyway.

Would surely have to be to cater for those who don't take ads. The More4 airing of the racing aired commercial free according to their Twitter, which seemed a bit odd considering the type of ads racing attracts nowadays, even as part of the programme nowadays with picture in picture.

Caught a bit of the Paralympic Athletics earlier too and was very impressed with their hosts - Sophie Morgan and I think JJ Chalmers. One good thing about C4 losing both racing and Formula 1 is they will surely be very keen to keep hold of the Paralympics. On a week to week basis struggle though to see what else they could bid for at the moment.

There are picture in picture ads on C4 Racing?

Yes - just before a race they'll reduce the broadcast picture (literally reduce it on screen) to a window in the top right and play an ad and then increase the picture back to full screen and pick up from where they left off. Be interesting to see if ITV continue the practice.

I think your right on the Paralympics but I do think Channel 4 need to try and invest in other sport whatever that may be after Horse Racing goes to ITV and F1 goes to Sky in 2019.

I also think Channel 4 or another terrestrial broadcaster should try and get F1 highlights for the full F1 season when it goes live to Sky and I can't see why that wouldn't happen with Premier League, Open Golf etc being Live on Sky with highlights on the BBC

I've always liked Sophie Morgan, ever since she appeared on Britain's Missing Top Model in, heavens, 2008 - http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Britain%27s_Missing_Top_Model

One interesting thing yesterday is that Rob Walker was commentating on More4 in the morning and then reporting for the Beeb in the afternoon. Someone on Twitter said that it reminded them of pooled reports during a war. I do know last season Iain Dowie pundited on the live coverage of a Northern Ireland match on Sky, and then also pundited on the ITV highlights of it.

Can't imagine C4 ever having had three live sporting events on one day in the past. More than the BBC!



Well, it's only the Sunday People, but that suggests today that Jeff Stelling will be anchoring the Friday night matches, and I'm sure Stelling will play a prominent role in the coverage - obviously not doing the Saturday games, but surely doing at least one match a week. Apparently also appearing on Fridays, though not as a co-presenter, will be Rachel Riley. Dunno what she will be doing, though. Riley may not be a sports presenter, but is a big football fan and a good TV presenter, plus of course she's worked with Jeff before, so it's no different to Adrian Chiles who wasn't a sports presenter before he did MOTD2.

I wonder if that's to be the case, whether we might see Julian Warren take Soccer Saturday the days after Stelling does Friday Night Football?

I don't think so, I'm sure he could do both. For the last two seasons Dan Walker has done a couple of FA Cup matches on a Friday night and then presented Football Focus from the other end of the country on Saturday lunchtime, and there's only going to be ten a season anyway.

When Stelling was doing the Champions League he was doing that two nights a week, and going abroad as well, so doing two shows in 24 hours shouldn't be too much of a problem if he gets the rest of the week off. Before he had to go away Richard Keys was sometimes working five days a week, from Saturday to Wednesday, with three days of Premier League and then two days of Champions League. I also think Stelling's the kind of person who would happily do Soccer Saturday seven days a week if he could.