BBC Sport

Type	Department of the BBC
Industry	Media
Founded	1988 Olympics and separate division of the BBC in 2000
Headquarters	MediaCityUK, Salford, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Area served	Specific services for the United Kingdom and rest of world
Key people	Barbara Slater (Director)
Services	Television broadcasts Radio broadcasts Online presence
Owner(s)	BBC
Website	www.bbc.co.uk/sport

BBC Sport is the division of the BBC providing sports coverage for BBC Television, Radio and Online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flagship analysis programmes such as Match of the Day, Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Today at Wimbledon and previously Grandstand. Results, analysis and coverage is also added to the BBC Sport Website^[1] and through the BBC Red Button interactive television service.

Due to the public status of the BBC, advertising is forbidden and as a result, sports matches covered by BBC Sport are not allowed to be sponsored, although the present commercialisation of sport makes this almost impossible in practice. In the face of increased competition from its rival broadcasters the BBC has softened its stance and is now contractually obliged to refer to certain competitions by their sponsored name under the terms of broadcasting rights deals.

History [edit]

The BBC has broadcast sport for several decades under individual programme names and coverage titles. Grandstand was one of the more notable Sport programmes, broadcasting sport since the programmes launch in 1958. The BBC first began to brand sport coverage as 'BBC Sport' in 1988 for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, by introducing the programme with a short animation of a globe circumnavigated by four coloured rings.^[2] This practice continued throughout the next two decades. Upon the launch of the BBC News website in 1997, sport was included in the BBC's online presence for the first time.

In 2000 BBC Sport became a separate department of the BBC based at BBC Television Centre in London. As a result, the BBC Sport website was launched, although close ties were retained between the editors of the BBC Sport and BBC News websites. The website contained the details of several sports covered by the BBC, including key sports and other smaller specialist sports.

In 2006, the department gained Mihir Bose in the newly created Sports Editor position to improve the sports coverage. BBC Sport also began to experiment with High-definition television, namely broadcasting the 2006 Football World Cup on BBC HD, as part of larger experiments within the BBC.^[3] Following the official launch of the BBC HD channel, BBC Sport expanded their HD coverage of sport, with Director of Sport Roger Mosey announcing in January 2009 that the BBC's aim "is for all our sport production to be in HD by 2012 at the latest".^[4]

The BBC Sports Centre at MediaCityUK as seen on the BBC News channel, 2012.

In June 2008, an interactive service was launched by BBC Sport on the BBC Red Button service. Available on all major television platforms, the service relayed both sports results and other sport video feeds currently not allocated broadcast time. The best example of this is the BBC's coverage of Wimbledon, where matches on other courts are only broadcast as part of highlights or in full on the BBC Sports website and BBC Red Button.

In 2009, Mihir Bose and Roger Mosey both left to be replaced with David Bond as Sports Editor in December and with Barbara Slater becoming the new Director of Sport in April 2009.

In May 2007, the BBC Trust approved plans for several BBC departments, including BBC Sport, to be moved to a new development in Salford.^[5] The new development at MediaCityUK marks a major decentralisation of BBC departments from London and a key investment in the north of England where BBC spending in the region had previously been low. The department moved into Quay House, MediaCityUK gradually in late 2011 and early 2012 with the first Sports bulletins being broadcast from the new BBC Sport Centre on 5 March 2012.^[6]

Television Sports rights [edit]

Tennis [edit]

BBC Sport currently holds the rights to broadcast the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, the Australian Open and the Queen's Club Championships live and in full on its television platforms. The Wimbledon contract has been held by the BBC since 1937 and the current contract lasts until 2017 making it the longest such contract in the world. The BBC produce over 900 hours of footage that is distributed to broadcasters in 159 different countries.^[7] During the event, all matches are broadcast live either on BBC One, Two or the Red Button service and the highlights programme, Today at Wimbledon, is broadcast after each days play. The BBC coverage for Wimbledon starts daily at 12 noon in the first week and they show coverage of the outside courts before moving to the show courts at 1.00pm. The coverage starts on BBC One at 1.45pm after the News and continues there to 6pm while continuing on BBC Two to 3.30pm until CBBC. After CBBC the coverage moves back to BBC Two until the end of the day where they highlights takes over with John Inverdale. BBC occasionally disrupt the normal schedule if a big match is on such as if Murray and stay on BBC One and move the news to BBC Two or if a big match is on Centre Court and the roof was closed, examples from 2012 is late matches for Murray, Nadal and Federer.

The coverage is presented by Sue Barker with highlights presented by John Inverdale. Additional commentators used for all tennis coverage include Barry Davies, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Jimmy Connors, John Lloyd, Martina Navratilova, Virginia Wade, Sam Smith, Tracy Austin, Greg Rusedski, Tim Henman, Andrew Castle, Lindsay Davenport, Chris Bradnam, David Mercer, Mark Petchey, Simon Reed, Matt Chilton, Peter Fleming, Mark Cox, Liz Smylie, Jo Durie, Louise Pleming, Andrew Cotter and Ronald McIntosh.

The Australian Open is also broadcast on the BBC, primarily through the BBC Red Button although significant matches and matches of interest to the UK population are broadcast on BBC One or Two however from 2012 the coverage has decreased and is now just coverage of the Men's Semi Finals and Final and the Women's Final on BBC One or BBC Two and their HD equivalents. Coverage in recent years has been anchored by Sue Barker, Andrew Castle, John Lloyd and Andrew Cotter. The French Open was broadcast by the BBC usually on the Red Button like the French Open up to 2011 with the finals on BBC Two but ITV gained the rights and covered the tournament in full on ITV4 with weekend coverage on ITV presented by John Inverdale. The BBC covers the AEGON Championships at the Queen's Club, London, and holds the rights up to 2017. Coverage is usually broadcast on BBC Two from 1pm to 5.15pm, with additional coverage on the BBC Red Button streams. Semi-finals and the final are usually broadcast live and uninterrupted on BBC One. Commentators in recent years have included Andrew Castle, John Lloyd, Andrew Cotter, Pat Cash, Peter Fleming, David Mercer and Jonathan Overend. The BBC also shares broadcasting coverage of the ATP World Tour Finals with Sky Sports, showing one match per day including one semi-final and the final which are usually shown on BBC Two. Commentary for the ATP World Tour Finals usually comes from Andrew Castle, John Lloyd and Tim Henman. Until 2009, the BBC broadcast every British Davis Cup tie, with coverage of Friday's singles rubbers shown live on BBC Two, Saturday's doubles rubber live on BBC One and Sunday's singles rubbers live on BBC Two.

Football [edit]

International football [edit]

The BBC hold joint rights to show the FIFA World Cup until 2014 with ITV. A near equal split of group stage and knockout stage games are shown, including a semi final, and the final which is shown on both networks. A similar agreement exists for the European Championship. All games other than the final group games, which clash, are shown on BBC One or BBC Two, plus BBC HD. During those clashing games the game not shown on BBC One is shown on BBC Red Button or on BBC Three. There are also nightly highlights and extensive interactive options.

Currently, all Scotland away games are shown live on BBC Scotland. The BBC also broadcast highlights of all Scotland home matches. This coverage is usually shown on BBC One Scotland or BBC Two Scotland and simulcast on BBC Red Button for the rest of the UK, though similarly it can appear on the nationwide networks. Until 2008 all Northern Ireland games whether Home or Away were shown by BBC Northern Ireland on BBC One NI or BBC Two NI and these were shown from the 1980s right up until 2008. In 2008 the rights transferred to Sky Sports and these were the last of the Home Nations to be shown by Sky but highlights of all home matches are broadcast on BBC NI and some away matches are still shown live but all matches are still broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster. The BBC won back the domestic England and FA Cup contract in 2001 from Sky Sports so showed the England matches until 2005 and then showed all home matches from 2005 until 2008 and all away matches on Sky Sports however the rights transferred to ITV and Setanta in 2008 and now ITV show all home & away matches including friendlys. The only England match that has been broadcast was highlights against Ukraine in 2009 on Match of the Day. Similar highlights arrangements exist for some of the Wales but these are made by BBC Wales for S4C and some away matches are shown by BBC Wales. No matches of the home nations are broadcast nationally now unless its a friendly or a tournament finals match because Sky hold all domestic live rights or ITV for the England matches

Domestic football [edit]

The BBC also show extensive highlights from the Premier League. Match of the Day shows highlights of each Saturday's games while the Sunday games are covered in Match of the Day 2. Football League highlights are shown on The Football League Show after Match of the Day. Football Focus airs each Saturday lunchtime to preview the weekend's games, followed later by up to the minute game reports in Final Score through the afternoon on BBC Red Button and BBC HD and later on BBC One. As the final whistles approach, coverage switches over to BBC One where Final Score continues in England and Wales, with Scottish viewers able to see Sportscene Results at this time for special focus on the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and the other divisions. SPL highlights are shown, also under the Sportscene umbrella on Monday evenings. In Northern Ireland a similar service is available, entitled Final Score from Northern Ireland which starts at 5pm after all the English and Scottish results are in with Gabby Logan and this is usually hosted by Mark Sidebottom or Gavin Andrews . In addition, BBC Sport also provides Scottish matches for the BBC Alba channel's strand, Spòrs. This includes delayed coverage of SPL matches and live Challenge Cup games.

Beginning in 2009, the BBC signed a three-year contract to show ten Championship matches live annually, as well as one leg of each League Cup semi-final exclusively live and shared live coverage of the Final with Sky Sports. It also shows Football League and League Cup highlights shows. The BBC has not renewed the contract meaning that live coverage will revert exclusively to Sky Sports but they kept the rights to the highlights shows so the Football League Show and League Cup Show continued into 2012-2013 season.

Highlights and live coverage of the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup is also shown by BBC Sport Scotland, and on BBC Red Button throughout the rest of the United Kingdom. BBC NI show highlights of the Carling Premiership, Co-Operative Insurance League Cup and JJB Sports Irish Cup on Final Score from Northern Ireland and show Live coverage of the finals of the Irish Cup and Irish League Cup on Match of the Day from Northern Ireland, these are hosted by Stephen Watson usually with Michael O'Neill, Jim Magilton or people from the local game and are commentated on by Jackie Fullerton or Joel Taggart

Presenters [edit]

Radio 5 live and BBC Sport's main studios at MediaCityUK

Match of the Day is anchored by Gary Lineker as has been since 1999. Match of the Day 2 is presented by Colin Murray and has been from the start of the 2010/2011 Premiership season however it has been announced in January 2013 that Murray will be replaced on MOTD2 by Mark 'Chappers' Chapman from August 2013. Murray will continue as a presenter on BBC Radio 5 Live, Darts and NFL for the BBC from the summer of 2013.

Dan Walker hosts Football Focus having taken over at the start of the 2009/10 season. Former host of the programme Manish Bhasin presents The Football League Show, as well as the BBC's League Cup highlights programme The League Cup Show and has done so since 2009. Gabby Logan is the current host of Final Score and also deputises on Match of the Day and MOTD 2 and she took over from Ray Stubbs who went to ESPN in 2009 but it was announced in January 2013 she is stepping down from Final Score as she has not appeared on it much in 2012-13 and will be replaced by the BBC Wales, BBC Rugby Union host and Final Score reporter Jason Mohammad.

Former Radio 1 DJ and sports reporter Mark Chapman deputises for Gabby Logan on Final Score up to the 2013-14 season when she left the programme to concentrate on Rugby, Athletics and entertainment programmes and Manish Bhasin also presents occasional live international fixtures. He is also a regular football host on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Recent former hosts of football on the BBC include:

• Adrian Chiles joined BBC Sport in 2004 and hosted Match of the Day 2 since its creation until 2009, he also hosted the BBC's highlights programmes from big tournaments such as Euro 2008 and the 2006 World Cup. Chiles also presented coverage of the Olympic Games in 2008 and BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2006 and 2007. Chiles left the BBC at the end of the 2009/2010 season and signed with ITV, to front Daybreak as well as leading their football coverage. The rest of the MOTD2 season was hosted by Jake Humphrey after Chiles departure.
• Jake Humphrey first hosted for the BBC in 2006 when he was still at CBBC and hosted Football Focus while Manish Bhasin was at the Cricket World Cup and 2006/07 Ashes Series. He then went on to deputise on Final Score, MOTD and MOTD2 and was the youngest host of MOTD. He then became BBC F1 host when the BBC regained the rights in 2009 but he continued to host Championship Games for the BBC on MOTD Live. However it was announced in late 2012 he was leaving the BBC to become the face of Premier League Football on the new BT Sport channel which will launch in the summer of 2013.
• Ray Stubbs joined BBC in 1990 and was the BBC presenter who hosted MOTD when Lineker or Lynam was unavailable, he presented Football Focus from 1999–2004 and Final Score from 2001 when it became a separate program from Grandstand until 2009. He hosted BBC Darts Coverage from 2000–2009 and BBC Snooker from 2002-2009. He left the BBC to anchor ESPN's newly acquired coverage of the Premier League
• Celina Hinchcliffe who was the first female host of MOTD for an FA Cup edition and also presented the Women's FA Cup Final on the BBC. She is now freelance after the BBC Sport move to Salford and still works for the BBC for Wimbledon and on Radio 5 Live but has also worked for ITV on the French Open.
• Des Lynam - Hosted MOTD from 1989 until 1999 and hosted BBC tournament coverage of World Cup and European Championships from 1980s until 1998 as well as being the main host of Wimbledon, World Athletics and Olympic Games but left the BBC in 1999 to host ITV coverage of FA Cup, Champions League and ITV Premiership.

Pundits [edit]

The BBC's main football pundits are Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer and Mark Lawrenson. They use people for tournaments that they do not use for MOTD like Harry Redknapp, Jürgen Klinsmann and Clarence Seedorf. MOTD2 usually shuffle their pundits more than MOTD and have more current professionals and managers such as Alan Pardew, Brendan Rodgers, Michael Owen and Phil Neville as well as using the BBC Pundits as mentioned above. BBC Scotland use Pat Nevin and many others. BBC NI use local NI footballers like Chris Morgan but for big matches use Jim Magilton, John O'Neill and Michael O'Neill who is now Northern Ireland manager.

Commentators [edit]

The BBC's main commentator is Guy Mowbray. Guy has commentated on the Football League Cup Final with Mark Lawrenson since 2010 and replaced John Motson as the main BBC commentator. He has since gone on to commentate on the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final and Euro 2012 Final, he also commentated on the Live England games on the BBC in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2012. Their other commentators are Jonathan Pearce who was a leading commentator for Channel 5, Steve Wilson, Simon Brotherton who also contributes to BBC Radio 5 Live and recent addition Steve Bower. These are the BBC main men and usually commenate on World Cup and Euros for the BBC with matches being equally shared on MOTD, MOTD2 and International Tournaments up to the Final when Guy Mowbray is the main commentator. The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship saw the retirement of the long-standing and popular commentator John Motson from live television football commentary, though he continues to work on Match of the Day and MOTD2 performs frequent live radio commentary for BBC Radio 5 Live.

BBC Sport Scotland's main commentator used to be Paul Mitchell up to 2010 but since the big matches has been covered by Liam McLeod who covers Scotland Internationals, Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup. In Wales it is Rob Phillips who commentates on Wales matches for BBC Wales and on BBC NI it is Jackie Fullerton who has been their main commentator since 1992 when he moved from UTV, he commentates on Northern Ireland matches, NI Milk Cup Finals, Irish Cup and Irish League Cup Finals. The only NI matches Jackie missed in recent times was in 2004 when he had a heart attack and was replaced by Radio Ulster's Joel Taggart and Michael McNamee commentated on a NI match v Holland in 2012 when Jackie was unavailable.

Summarisers [edit]

The BBC uses summarisers when broadcasting live matches. Mark Lawrenson is the usual choice for big games like the FIFA World Cup tournament or the Football League Cup Final, whilst also summarising on BBC Radio 5 Live for Premier League matches. Mark Bright is also used to summarise live matches in the Football League Championship or at the Africa Cup of Nations. Other summarisers are Martin Keown and Mick McCarthy.

Regional coverage [edit]

Scottish coverage is presented by Richard Gordon, Dougie Donnelly and Dougie Vipond. David Currie presents the Saturday afternoon results programme. Jason Mohammad presented Wales on Saturday until the programme was discontinued at the end of the 2008/09 season. He is now one of the reporters for Final Score. However, he continues to present other Welsh football.

BBC NI coverage is hosted by Stephen Watson and they use Michael O'Neill and Jim Magilton for analysis for NI matches and local Footballers for Irish League Coverage.

2012 European Championship coverage team [edit]

Gary Lineker was the main presenter of the BBC's coverage of the 2012 European Championship from Poland and Ukraine, fronting all major matches including games featuring England. The BBC's nightly highlights show was presented by Match of the Day 2 host Colin Murray. Manish Bhasin presented live games on BBC Three. These presenters were initially based in Salford before travelling to Poland and Ukraine from the quarter finals onwards . BBC reporters from both live matches and around Poland and Ukraine included Gabby Logan, Dan Walker, Jake Humphrey (He was not there 22–24 June due to his F1 presenting role) and Damian Johnson. The BBC brought five commentators to the Euros, these being Guy Mowbray, Jonathan Pearce, Steve Wilson, Simon Brotherton and Steve Bower, who were partnered by co-commentators Mark Lawrenson, Mark Bright, Mick McCarthy and Martin Keown. The BBC's expert panel of Football Pundits included Jürgen Klinsmann, Clarence Seedorf, Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer, Lee Dixon, and Harry Redknapp

Rugby union [edit]

The BBC holds exclusive rights to the Six Nations championship in the UK and does so until 2017. It shows all matches in the tournament live on either BBC One or BBC Two. Coverage of these games is complemented by an interactive service on BBC Red Button. The BBC hold additional rights to the Autumn Internationals for the Irish, Scottish and Welsh sides, as well as highlights of the English team; coverage is again on BBC One or BBC Two.

The BBC held exclusive rights to show the EDF Energy Cup until the 2009/10 season when these rights were acquired by Sky Sports. BBC Wales, BBC Alba and BBC NI holds joint right to show the Magners League, along with S4C in Wales and RTE and TG4 in Ireland. BBC Wales and BBC NI shows matches on Friday evenings and usually BBC Wales coverage is shown across the rest of the UK on BBC Red Button. Highlights from the Magners League are shown in Scrum V on BBC2 Wales and BBC Red Button alongside briefer highlights in Wales on Saturday on BBC One. BBC Sport Wales/Chwaraeon Cymru also produces the Welsh language S4C's coverage of the Magners League and EDF Energy Cup under the Y Clwb Rygbi brand. This is because the BBC is obliged to provide S4C with several hours of programming a week. BBC Two in Wales often shows Wales national rugby union team under-20 Six Nations games, which are also shown on BBC Red Button in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

BBC Sport's rugby union coverage is currently presented by John Inverdale, Gabby Logan and Jason Mohammad. The main pundits used are Jeremy Guscott, Jonathan Davies, Andy Nicol and Keith Wood. For the 6 Nations other pundits are used like Lawrence Dallaglio, Clive Woodward, Martyn Williams, Shane Williams, Chris Paterson, Dan Parks, Serge Betsen and Thomas Castaignede. The BBC's commentary team includes Eddie Butler, Andrew Cotter, Conor McNamara, Brian Moore, Philip Matthews, Jonathan Davies and Alistair Ekeyn. Pitchside reporters are Jill Douglas and Sonja McLaughlan who also have a former professional with them to add comments during the match. Former presenters for BBC Rugby were Steve Rider and Craig Doyle while Bill McLaren was the BBC's main commentator for many years before his retirement in 2002. Nigel Starmer-Smith is another former commentator.

BBC NI coverage is hosted by Stephen Watson or Gavin Andrews with pundits who used to play for Ulster such as Bryn Cunningham and Andy Ward, Commentary is by Jim Neilly and Ryan Constable.

Rugby league [edit]

The BBC covers the Challenge Cup from the round in which the Super League clubs enter. The coverage is shown on BBC One and Two and will usually consist of two matches per round, one on a Saturday and the other on a Sunday. Highlights of the Super League are shown in the Super League Show on Monday evenings on BBC One in the northern regions, which is repeated nationally later in the early hours on BBC Two. Formerly produced by BBC Yorkshire in Leeds, the show is now made at BBC Sport's new studios at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. The National League play-offs are also covered on the Super League Show. From 2009, the BBC will hold the rights to show one England international each year and one non England rugby match per year.

Rugby League coverage was presented by Clare Balding to 2012 and from 2012 was hosted by Mark Chapman. Balding will continue covering sport for the BBC from 2013 but she is now with Channel 4 Racing and there is too many clashes between Rugby League and Horse Racing to continue with League. Ray French was the main commentator until 2009 when he decided to lessen his workload and stay commentating for the BBC but would be the number 2 commentator, Dave Woods is now number 1 Rugby League Commentator. John Kear and Jonathan Davies are the BBC's commentary team while Robbie Paul and Brian Noble are amongst the pundits.

The Super League Show is fronted by Tanya Arnold. Dave Woods is the chief commentator for the Super League Show.

Motor racing [edit]

The BBC covered Formula One for many decades until 1996, initially covering the odd race on the calendar, before introducing in 1976 a programme which followed the entire championship. Formula One was shown under the Grand Prix banner, races were commentated on by Murray Walker, with many co-commentators including James Hunt and Jonathan Palmer. Coverage was expanded in the 1990s, when all qualifying and races were shown live - many with Steve Rider fronting the coverage. The loss of the rights to ITV was seen as an example of the BBC Sport department's decline in the late 1990s, although as with cricket, the BBC continued to broadcast every race live on its radio services.

2009 marked the return of BBC television coverage of Formula One after an absence of 12 years. A five-year deal was announced in March 2008, replacing ITV's existing coverage.^[8] Jake Humphrey anchored the coverage with David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan acting as pundits. Martin Brundle and Jonathan Legard provided the commentary (with Brundle also replicating his famous grid walks seen previously on ITV, while Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie were the pit lane reporters.^[9] Brundle and Kravitz were the only two members of the ITV F1 team who made the move to the BBC F1 team. Legendary commentator Murray Walker, who commentated on F1 for both the BBC and ITV for over 50 years, returned as part of the team, providing analysis and opinion on the BBC's Formula One website.^[10] In 2011 there was a change in the BBC Team: Jonathan Legard was replaced by Martin Brundle as Lead Commentator and David Coulthard joined him in the commentary box.

The red button coverage offered alternate Radio 5 Live commentary from David Croft, Anthony Davidson and Natalie Pinkham and for the 2009 season a CBBC commentary from Michael "Abs" Absalom, Dan Clarkson and Perry McCarthy was available. The red button also offers a split-screen (showing the main coverage alongside an onboard camera view and a rolling leader board) and a rolling highlights package. The Formula 1 Driver Tracker, provided by FOM, was introduced at the 2010 British Grand Prix and is available both online and on the red button. BBC Three plays a role in the Formula One coverage with a one hour highlights programme.^[11] Friday and Saturday's free practice sessions are also shown on the red button.

In the middle of the 2011 season, the BBC announced that it had entered a new deal in which it would share the F1 broadcasting rights with Sky from 2012 until 2018,^[12] including all practice and qualifying sessions in addition to the races. Sky would be able to show all the races live, and the BBC would be able to televise ten of the races live and show extended highlights of the remaining ten on a delayed broadcast.^[13] The announcement was controversial, with early promises that the races would be uninterrupted by commercials^[14] doing little to quell the highly negative reactions from fans and observers.^[15][16] Before the last race of the season the BBC and Sky announced the full plan for 2012, revealing the races which the BBC would be able to broadcast live.^[17]

Sky launched a new channel in March 2012 called Sky Sports F1 and Martin Brundle, David Croft, Ted Kravitz, Anthony Davidson and Natalie Pinkham were poached from the team.

BBC announced that Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard, Eddie Jordan, Ben Edwards and Lee McKenzie would be part of their coverage team in 2012. Later, it was confirmed that Gary Anderson would be joining them as technical analyst. The BBC Radio 5 Live F1 team left for Sky but it was announced on 5 January 2012 that James Allen would return to the commentary box for BBC Radio in 2012 with Jaime Alguersuari and former Moto GP presenter Jennie Gow as pit reporter.^[18]

On 18 September 2012, it was announced by the BBC that Humphrey would leave the BBC's Formula One coverage at the end of the 2012 season, due to personal reasons. He will host BT Vision's Premier League coverage in 2013.^[19] It was then announced on 21 December 2012 that Suzi Perry would be filling the role for the 2013 Formula One season.^[20] The other shortlisted candidates for the role were thought to be Mark Pougatch, current BBC 5 Live radio presenter, and Lee McKenzie, current BBC F1 Pit Lane reporter and deputy host.^[21] On 6 March, the full 2013 Team was announced. Tom Clarkson would join the team as the pit reporter alongside Gow and Mckenzie. Allan McNish would join BBC Radio 5 Live, Replacing Alguersuari. Also, practices would move from BBC Red Button to BBC Two for live races.^{[citation needed]} Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton joined the team writing a weekly column replacing Mark Webber.^[22]

Motorcycling [edit]

In 2003 the BBC won the rights to the MotoGP World Championship. After a successful first season fronted by Suzi Perry, coverage was expanded with more live races, and the contract was extended to the end of the 2013 season. The BBC now shows all MotoGP races, with all qualifying sessions live via the BBC Red Button. From the 2009 season, more coverage is available on qualifying and race days again through the use of the Red Button service.^[23] Jennie Gow replaced Perry for 2010,^[24] but from 2011 former pitlane reporter Matt Roberts becomes host, alongside the original and unchanged commentary team of Charlie Cox and Steve Parrish.^[25] Azi Farni will replace Roberts as pitlane reporter. From 2013 Qualifying will move from BBC Red Button to BBC Two.

BBC Sport has also covered the North West 200 since 2007 on BBC NI with coverage of race day live on BBC Sport NI website and 2 highlights programmes shown on BBC One NI after race day. These are available on the Iplayer and sometimes are broadcast on BBC Two nationally. These are hosted by Stephen Watson who hosts from the paddock and race commentary is usually with Steve Parrish, Keith Huweun, Philip McCallan, Philip Moore and many others.

Olympics [edit]

The BBC's 2012 Summer Olympics studio at the Olympic Park

The BBC holds the exclusive terrestrial rights to show Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympics Games and has shown live coverage of every Summer Olympics since 1960. This long-standing association between the Olympic Games has recently been extended to the 2020 Summer Olympics.^[26] The BBC has always used its top sports presenters to host Games coverage. Past presenters for the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics have included David Coleman, Frank Bough, Des Lynam and Steve Rider with the current presenting team including Jake Humphrey, Sue Barker, Clare Balding and Hazel Irvine.

For the 2012 Summer Olympics, the BBC broadcast live from a studio in the Olympic Park. The Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Games attracted a peak viewing audience of over 27 million viewers (around half of the population of the United Kingdom watched BBC One live simultaneously). This is widely regarded as one of the largest television audiences of all time. 51.9m (90% of the UK population) watched at least 15 minutes of coverage on BBC One. 24.2m (42% of the UK population) also watched at least 15 minutes of coverage on the BBC Red Button.

BBC One covered the 2012 London Olympics from 6.00am to 1.00am taking a break at 1pm, 6pm and 10pm for the BBC News and the coverage at that time moved to BBC Two. First they had Olympic Breakfast with Bill Turnbull and Hazel Irvine or Chris Hollins and Sian Williams. Then Mishal Hussain presented from 9.00am to 11.00am, the mid morning from 11.00am to 1.45pm was presented by Hazel Irvine, Matt Baker or Clare Balding. The afternoon was hosted by Clare Balding, Jake Humphrey or Hazel Irvine from 1.45pm to 4.00pm. Sue Barker hosted from 4pm to 7pm, Gary Lineker hosted from 7pm to 10.35pm, Gabby Logan hosted highlights from 10.45pm to 12.00am and Dan Walker or Olly Foster hosted Sportsday from 12.10am to 1.00am.

BBC Three went 24 hours for the 2012 Olympics and had coverage from 7am to 11pm. The daytime coverage was hosted by Rishi Persad, Sonali Shah or Manish Bhasin while Jake Humphrey hosted from 7pm to 11pm. BBC Red button also had dedicated coverage of 24 Olympic streams on Sky, Virgin and the BBC Sport website while freeview had 2 extra streams on 301 24 hours and on 302 from 7pm to 4am using the broadcast space of CBeebies while it was off-air.

Athletics [edit]

For many years, the BBC has covered the biggest events in athletics, stretching as far back as 1954, when Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile. Lead commentator for many decades was David Coleman, until his retirement after the 2000 Summer Olympics. The BBC covers events such as the Commonwealth Games, the European Athletics Championships, domestic British athletics and mass-participation events such as the London Marathon and the Great North Run. From 2010 following a shake up by the IAAF the BBC won the rights to stream live coverage of each Diamond League meeting on the red button, with the two British rounds and final two meetings live on BBC Two and selected meetings on BBC Three. The BBC lost the rights to the 2011 and 2013 World Championships to Channel 4. However in November 2011 it was announced that the BBC has obtained the TV, radio and online rights to the 2015 and 2017 IAAF World Athletics events,^[27] It was also announced Channel 4 decided to hand the rights to the 2013 Championships to the BBC and will not cover 2013. This was down to Channel 4 saying they wanted to focus on Paralympic Sports and being the home of Horse Racing for 2013. he BBC athletics presenting team consists of John Inverdale, Sue Barker, Hazel Irvine, Gabby Logan, Colin Jackson, Steve Cram, Jonathan Edwards, Denise Lewis, Stuart Storey, Paul Dickenson, Brendan Foster, Andrew Cotter, Ron McIntosh, Mike Costello and Michael Johnson.

Golf [edit]

The BBC holds exclusive UK rights to live coverage to one of the four men's major golf championships, The Open and joint rights to the US Masters, covering Saturday and Sunday's play live and broadcasting highlights of Thursday and Friday's play. Sky Sports show all four days of The Masters live. The BBC's coverage of The Open Championships is extensive with coverage broadcast live and uninterrupted on BBC Two between 9am and 8pm on Thursday and Friday, and on BBC One on Saturday and Sunday. The BBC also cover two other European Tour events held in Britain - the BMW PGA Championship and the Scottish Open, although live coverage of these will finish in 2012 under the new contract negotiated with the European Tour where Sky Sports will hold exclusive coverage but the BBC will continue with highlights of these tournaments.^[28] It also covers the Women's British Open. Highlights of the Ryder Cup and live coverage of the Walker Cup can also be seen on the BBC . Hazel Irvine is the lead presenter on the BBC. The BBC commentary and analysis team includes Peter Alliss, Ken Brown, Maureen Madill, Wayne Grady, Jean van de Velde, Phillip Parkin, Andrew Cotter and Sir Nick Faldo. Jim Nantz has also provided some guest commentatary for The Open Championship in recent years.

Snooker [edit]

The 1960s BBC2 programme Pot Black was arguably the reason for the sport's great popularity over the last 40 years. Snooker produced the largest ever audience for BBC2 with the 1985 World Snooker Championship final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor pulling in 18.5 million viewers just after midnight. The sport always pulls in large viewing figures for the BBC through tournaments such as the World Snooker Championships, the Masters and the UK Championship. The coverage is regularly hosted by Hazel Irvine or Jason Mohammad. The pundits are often Steve Davis and John Parrott with the commentary team consisting mainly of former champions of the sport, such as Ken Doherty, Dennis Taylor, John Virgo and more recently Stephen Hendry. Other commentators are used for longer tournaments such as Willie Thorne, Neal Foulds and Terry Griffiths but they are usually only heard up to the Quarter Finals stage of tournaments. For the Welsh Open, Jason Mohammad or Rob Walker host with Darren Morgan as pundit for important games. Terry Griffiths, Willie Thorne, Dominic Dale and Darren Morgan are commentators This is shown on the BBC Red Button and on BBC 2 Wales.

David Vine was the main host when BBC first showed Snooker in 1978 until 2000 when he retired, David Icke was his deputy when he was unavailable. Icke was replaced by Dougie Donnelly in the early 1990s and Donnelly became main presenter after Vine's retirement for 2 years. Matt Smith was deputy from 2000 until 2002. In 2002 Ray Stubbs and Hazel Irvine took over, Ray Stubbs left in 2009 and was replaced by Rishi Persad who only joined when Hazel missed the 2009 championships because she was on Maternity Leave and Rishi left in 2013 after the Masters and will be replaced by Jason Mohammad at the 2013 World Championships. Ted Lowe was the BBCs lead commentator from the first time the BBC showed Snooker until his retirement in 1996. Clive Everton was then main commentator until his role was reduced in 2009 and has left the BBC in 2012.

American football [edit]

The BBC currently holds the rights to highlights (primarily broadcast on its web site) and live radio coverage of the NFL. Since 2007, the BBC has also broadcast the Super Bowl live on television.^[29]

Jake Humphrey presented their play-off highlights show for the first 2 years with Matt Roberts taking over duties in 2010. Both featured in the Super Bowl coverage for 2010. Current studio pundits include Mike Carlson, Rod Woodson, and Jerry Rice. They also show highlights of the International Series game from Wembley stadium and in 2011 Mark Chapman presented highlights of this which means he may be presenter for the Super Bowl in 2012.

For Super Bowl XLV, Jake Humphrey took over presenting duties on his own, whilst Matt Roberts did the weekly playoff highlights show leading up to the game. Tiki Barber and Mike Carlson were the two pundits for the Super Bowl, and Carlson also did the playoff highlights as well. They took the game feed from Fox Sports, with the commentary from Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Michael Johnson hosted a special Inside Sport programme before and after the game for the BBC.

Since 2012 the BBC aired live weekly radio coverage of the NFL on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and air the Super Bowl on BBC TV and BBC Radio 5 Live in 2012 but Jake Humphrey stepped down and was replaced by Mark Chapman. For the 2012/13 season, the BBC is broadcasting Monday Night Football on the iPlayer and via BBC HD (commencing with the Giants at Redskins game on 4 December 2012; prior to this the broadcast was only available through the Red Button or online). USP Content produces the UK broadcast and simulcasts the ESPN Monday Night Football feed but have since added in 5 Lives Darren Fletcher as host and Mark Chapman will host the 2013 Super Bowl but Colin Murray will take over from 2014.

Other sports [edit]

As well as all of this, BBC shows the BDO World Darts Championships, they have shown this from 1978 to 2011 exclusively and will show it together with ESPN in 2012. Hosts for this have included David Vine in 1978 Peter Purves from 1979–1984, Tony Gubba from 1985–1990, Eamonn Holmes from 1991–1993, Dougie Donnelly from 1994–1999, John Inverdale in 2000, Ray Stubbs from 2001–2009 and Colin Murray from 2010–present. Bobby George has presented as well from 2000–present. The current commentators are Tony Green 1978-2010 and 2012–present, Vassos Alexander 2011–present and Jim Proudfoot 2013–present. Former commentators are Sid Waddell 1978-1994, David Croft 2003–2012 and John Part 1995-2007.

They also cover the Alpine Skiing World Cup under its Ski Sunday banner; and briefly covers sports such as road and track cycling, sailing, badminton, table tennis, squash, equestrianism, gymnastics and other minority sports in an attempt to publicise the type of sports that will make up the forthcoming London 2012 Olympics. Presenters for these sports include Jill Douglas and Phil Jones who often report for other areas of BBC Sport.

BBC Sport regained coverage of the Boat Race from ITV Sport who pulled out of coverage after the 2009 event. A five-year contract was signed by BBC Sport to cover the event from 2010 after last covering the 2004 race. Clare Balding hosts this and commentary came from Andrew Cotter from 2010-2011, 2013- and from Jonathan Legard in 2012. The race is also broadcast on BBC World News.

The BBC also have rights to highlights of the Equestrian from Badminton Horse Trials and Burghley Horse Trials. The coverage is hosted by Clare Balding and if she is unavailable Rishi Persad hosts.

Previous coverage [edit]

Horse racing [edit]

Horse Racing coverage on the BBC had declined in recent years and finished altogether at the end of 2012 after Channel 4 won the rights to the Grand National, Royal Ascot and the Epsom Derby. The BBC had lost many tracks over the years such as the Cheltenham Festival and other Cheltenham meetings went to Channel 4 in 1995, meetings from Newbury moved to Channel 4 in 2002, and after 50 years Glorious Goodwood and other Goodwood meetings were lost to Channel 4 in 2007. Also, in 2007 the Irish Derby, which had been included in Grandstand and later Sunday Grandstand for decades, was only shown on At The Races.

The Grand National used to be one of the biggest attractions on Grandstand with audiences around or often in excess of 10 million for the race on a Saturday afternoon. Coverage of other events such as Royal Ascot and the Epsom Derby were also broadcast and presenter Clare Balding fronted the coverage. The Derby was won back after many years in 2001, when the BBC also gained rights to the Epsom Oaks, which had only ever previously been shown by ITV and Channel 4 (until 2001, the commercial broadcasters had always held the Epsom contract, but from 1960–1974, in 1977, and in 1979 the BBC had shown the Derby simultaneously with ITV, because it was a protected event which could not be exclusive to either channel).

The most famous BBC TV racing broadcaster was Peter O'Sullevan, who became one of the first ever TV sports commentators in the immediate post-war years, and stayed with the BBC until 1997.

Cricket [edit]

One of BBC Sport's major criticisms is that it no longer shows any live cricket games, having lost coverage of the Test Matches in 1999 to Channel 4 who then lost to Sky Sports in 2005. Coverage was fronted by Tony Lewis for many years. The BBC was also criticised for not bidding for the rights to show home Test matches when the next set of rights between 2006 and 2009 went up for sale, a decision which it also took for the next contract running until 2013 with the corporation claiming it could neither afford the cost of the rights or fit into their schedules. At present, coverage is by Sky Sports and highlights on Channel 5.

The BBC has previously broadcast highlights of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup.

The BBC covered Cricket in black and white until switching to colour for the 1970 "test" series between England and the Rest of the World. This coincided with a change in the commentary team. Broadly speaking, the following were very much "the voices" of English test Cricket for at least two generations: Richie Benaud - 1964-1999 Jim Laker - 1967-1985 (Laker died in 1985) Peter West: 1956-1984 Jack Bannister: 1984-1994 Tony Lewis: 1985-1999 David Gower: 1994-1999 Summarisers were: Ted Dexter: 1969-1988 Denis Compton: -1975 Tom Graveney: 1980-1991 Ray Illingworth: 1978-1993 (also commentated during the 1987 season) Geoffrey Boycott: 1990-1999

Motorsport [edit]

The BBC also broadcast the World Rally Championships until 2001, when Channel 4 bought the rights. WRC is now shown on ESPN. The British Touring Car Championship was another event the BBC lost when ITV took the broadcasting rights in 2002.

After losing the rights to Formula One and the World Rally Championship, the BBC dabbled in British and World Superbikes for a few years — often showing the World Championship version live. After acquiring the rights to the MotoGP World Championship in 2003 coverage of the World and British Superbikes was dropped, presently picked up by Eurosport with highlights on Channel 4 and ITV4 respectively.

Tennis [edit]

In 2009 Eurosport took over coverage of Great Britain's efforts in the Davis Cup after a decade of coverage on the BBC. In 2012 ITV picked up the rights from the BBC for the French Open, a tournament that the BBC has shown for many decades.

Radio sports rights [edit]

BBC Sport had monopolised the sports commentary market on British radio since the BBC's conception but since 2000, has lost coverage of some sporting events to competitors including TalkSPORT. The majority of BBC Sport's radio coverage is broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra however coverage is also broadcast on BBC Radio 4's longwave frequencies, BBC Local Radio and the BBC World Service. Highlights are also reported on the BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 news bulletins.

Cricket [edit]

Although the sport is not covered on television, the sport is fully covered by the BBC on its radio platforms, primarily BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Live Sports Extra but also on Local Radio and Radio 4 Longwave. This commentary is repeated and expanded on the BBC Sports website and on the BBC Red Button, overlaid with live scorecards.

Paralympics [edit]

While television coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games was held by Channel 4,^[30] the BBC retained the radio rights to the event and plans to broadcast events on radio stations 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra.^[31]

BBC Sport Online [edit]

BBC Sport website as it appeared in May 2012.

BBC Sport operates a sub-site of BBC Online which supplements the television and radio services of the department. The website features scores and analysis from a variety of sports including those not broadcast by the BBC. The site also includes news stories related to teams or particular sports and live broadcast coverage of some sports.

The website launched c. 2000 and was relaunched in 2003 to accommodate bigger screen sizes, with a sidebar to incorporate more sport and to parallel the relaunched BBC News website.^[32] The current look was implemented in February 2012, featuring the bold colour scheme of the logo, the new horizontal navigation bar across the whole of the site and design characteristics being implemented across the BBC website. The new look gave more prominence to live sports, programmes and events as well as news on the individual teams.^[33] In January 2013, the BBC Sport app was launched on the iOS app store. An Android version was launched in February that year.^[34]

Sports forum [edit]

Until 2011, the BBC Sport website hosted an online sports forum entitled 606, named after the original start-time of the radio programme – six minutes past six. It covered a large variety of topics which included cricket, football, rugby (league and union), tennis, athletics, motorsport and many more. Sporting teams usually had their own individual pages where members could post and comment on any news or topics relating to that team. Users accessed through an account system and could comment and rate their opinions. The forum was moderated by the BBC and any posts deemed to have broken the 'house rules' was not posted.

As part of the reduction in BBC Online's budget of 25%, all non-essential services that did not focus around core products were closed. As all posts had to be post moderated, and as conversations were increasingly being done through social media websites that BBC Sport were a part of, the site was closed on 31 May 2011.^[35]

Interactive services [edit]

BBC Sports Personality of the Year trophy.

BBC Sport also offers a service on the BBC Red Button interactive television service. The service offers a sports multi-screen service covering sports news stories in addition to five streams that can broadcast sport through the red button. This is often used for uninterrupted coverage and scores over a commentary, or for an alternative sport event unable to be covered on the main BBC TV or Radio services.^[36] A key example is of the broadcasts of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships as matches on other courts may be displayed through the red button while a higher ranking match on a main court is taking place on the main TV service.^[37]

Awards [edit]

BBC Sport also award several awards in recognition of the sports community. The mainstay of this is the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, created in 1954 and awarded in a high profile ceremony in December of each year.^[38] There are several other awards given around the same time that focus on different areas of the sports industry, for example youth performers and coaches and trainers.^[38]

The awards also include the BBC Nations and Regions, who often present awards at local ceremonies for similar reasons; the winners of these local awards are therefore frequently put forward for the national awards themselves allowing all areas of the country to be represented at the national awards.

See also [edit]

BBC portal

• BBC News
• Sports broadcasting contracts in the United Kingdom
• Broadcasting of sports events

References [edit]

External links [edit]

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