The Sport Thread

...And Eurosport


I believe ITV’s deal is exclusive FTA rights, so quite possible one or more of the pay providers will still have it next season.

However, it is getting rather silly now. I suspect some of this year’s broadcasters are only interested because two of the teams are ‘owned’ by British F1 champions (whatever that actually means outside of some free PR).

Formula E is a decent enough series, and has managed to garner a fanbase. Yet most broadcasters don’t seem to have any interest in it. Unless Extreme E somehow manages to pull off something spectacular, I can’t see it fairing any better in the long term.

Did I just imagine that this had been announced previously?

A lot of speculation since the start of the year and an article in the Daily Mail for example but only officially announced by BBC/Sky/FA this week.

UEFA European Qualifiers graphics seem to be more or less the same as for Euro 2020.

More interestingly, Qatar are involved, and will play a full schedule of Group A matches that amount to friendlies, and yet will be treated on screen as full European Qualifiers matches.

They did that with France in the run up to Euro 2016 where they put them in the group that featured 5 teams but was friendlies and Russia were due to be the same in 2018 before the admission of Kosovo & Gibraltar to the UEFA qualification process which stopped that happening.

I’ve not noticed this before on a Sky Sports channel, but France Vs Ukraine on Sky Sports Premier League only has a Sky Sports branded DOG, no Premier League logo. It’s the first time I’ve seen this on SSPL, I know they did this on Challenge last year.

The Under 21's Euros begin today with the group stage, bought forward from June due to Euro 2020+1, with Sky Sports showing the England games with non-England games on their Youtube channel. The knockout games then take place from the end of May.

No surprise but the Telegraph reporting the BBC will present and commentate on the Olympics from Salford.

Amazon to get share of Six Nations. Details ...

It would be a shame as I think the 6 Nations should be a listed event and a shame if any matches are moved to Pay TV but that might not be too bad but where it might cause problems is if the Italy v France match is on BBC One or ITV and a Calcutta Cup Match or Ireland v Wales is on Amazon. Also who gets first pick on the final weekend where 3 games on the same day. It could be that a France v Wales match last Saturday could have been on Amazon with in effect 2 dead rubbers on ITV/BBC.

Also bidding only opened this week so could be an invite for BBC/ITV or especially Sky & BT to raise their bid.

Strongly against any live matches going behind a pay wall but this is probably the least worse scenario. and can see why the BBC/ITV would go for it.

Crucial though the FTA channels have 1st pick for the final round, but also as you say home nations games being on Amazon whilst France v Italy is on BBC1/ITV isn't great either. That could be protected by having a similar split to now but with France and Italy home games on Amazon, but means we'd have lost the crucial France v Wales and France v Scotland games from FTA.


Is a chance Amazon may be happy with the Autumn series alone and secondary rights to the Six Nations itself (highlights, delayed rights etc.) - especially as this is said to be a short term deal of as little as two years. That said it would still be a shame if the only time free to air viewers got to see the All Blacks in actions was every 4 years at the World Cup.

I guess the difference here is Qatar aren’t under UEFA.