[dvboy]

World feed commentary still not deployed on matches where Eurosport are not providing their own commentary today. I think Eurosport's approach to commentary on feeds changes every grand slam for some random reason, IIRC two years ago the world feed was available on every court specific stream, then last year it was available away from the main two courts.

Not the biggest of issues with streaming and the time of day, but Britain's Dan Evans' match on neither linear channel at midnight. The unflexability of Eurosport's coverage is a regular complaint though, and sadly doubt it will change. 

World feed commentary appeared from Wednesday
Dan Evans' second round match not on either Eurosport 1 or 2 today; they did put it on D+ AO Extra so there were two commentary teams in Chiswick working on the same match (as was the case with Edmund vs Sinner on Monday).

[RhysJR]

BBC TV may not have highlights rights to the Australian Open but there are still highlights clips on BBC Sport Online, oddly 'courtesy of ESPN' rather than Eurosport.

www.bbc.co.uk 

Australian Open 2023 results: Andy Murray beats Thanasi Kokkinakis at 4am in Mel…
Andy Murray produces one of his best fightbacks from two sets down to beat Thana…
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

[Scratch_Perry]

BBC TV may not have highlights rights to the Australian Open but there are still highlights clips on BBC Sport Online, oddly 'courtesy of ESPN' rather than Eurosport.

www.bbc.co.uk 

There's something similar with the horse racing footage on the Sports Personality of the Year programme, where it's credited "Courtesy of Racing TV", as opposed to ITV Sport, though in last month's show, they had it credited as "Racing UK" (it was rebranded at the end of December 2018 to reflect the acquisition of the Irish horse racing rights effective 1st January 2019).

[robertclark125]

Something I noticed last night, on the coverage of the Manchester city v Tottenham Hotspur match on Sky Sports, was that Sky have returned to having the team names up, when they have a score update, as opposed to just the club crest. For example, when City made it 2-2, rather than have the club crests either side of the score, it was the team names. But, for the score bar, top left, it's still the club crests.

[Brekkie]

Australian Open coverage on Eurosport and Discovery+, early observations...
Eurosport 2 UK doing their own thing covering Raducanu vs Korpatsch to begin (graphics with times in GMT rather than CET).
No world feed commentary anywhere on Discovery+. Eurosport's own commentators across four matches (world feed is available on six courts so that's two without commentary that could have).
Discovery+ AO Extra channel also with its own separate commentary.

What's the AO Extra channel for? I haven't checked it out yet, I've been mainly sticking to individual court streams when watching. 

World feed commentary still not deployed on matches where Eurosport are not providing their own commentary today. I think Eurosport's approach to commentary on feeds changes every grand slam for some random reason, IIRC two years ago the world feed was available on every court specific stream, then last year it was available away from the main two courts.

Not the biggest of issues with streaming and the time of day, but Britain's Dan Evans' match on neither linear channel at midnight. The unflexability of Eurosport's coverage is a regular complaint though, and sadly doubt it will change. 


A wider observation outside of the tennis coverage with Eurosport is how messy the branding is. The channels are called Eurosport, with constant references to Discovery+, and presenters and pundits often wearing clothing branded Warner Bros. Discovery Sport. And if/when BT Sport gets merged in with Eurosport UK, there's potential for more variance/brands to be added, and it just comes across as a bit messy.

I do feel across the board Eurosports coverage has gone downhill since the takeover by Discovery and subsequent focus on Discovery+.    I was quite happy to subscribe to the Eurosport Player a few years ago but just feel like as the price has risen since being bundled in with Discovery+ the quality of their sports coverage has gone down too.  

A classic case of a relatively small company doing an outstanding job for many years not being so outstanding once taken over by a bigger company, and then merged with an even bigger company.   

Also felt their coverage had far greater value when it was somewhat in addition to what was being offered FTA rather than trying to replace it.   I was happy to subscribe to watch the courts not covered on the BBC or ITV coverage of the Aussie/French Open a decade or so ago, but not so inclined now they have everything.   If I'm not watching any coverage I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything, so have no need to subsxribe.

[AJB39]

My view is that while it would be nice if there was free to air coverage of the Australian Open tennis, Discovery are under no obligation to provide free to air coverage. Tennis Australia sold them exclusive rights and if they feel that keeping them exclusive is a way of driving subscribers to their platform then that is their choice.

Discovery + is pricier then the Eurosport Player was but it’s much cheaper then BT or Sly Sports. It’ll be interesting to see what the pricing structure is when the BT-Eurosport merger is complete.

My main grumble with Discovery + is that none of the replays of the Eurosport TV coverage are playing properly for me. I’m just getting a black screen with sound. The live coverage and the replays of the online only coverage are working fine. I would also like at least some commentators to be onsite rather then the commentary coming from the UK.

[thegeek]

A wider observation outside of the tennis coverage with Eurosport is how messy the branding is. The channels are called Eurosport, with constant references to Discovery+, and presenters and pundits often wearing clothing branded Warner Bros. Discovery Sport. And if/when BT Sport gets merged in with Eurosport UK, there's potential for more variance/brands to be added, and it just comes across as a bit messy.

I do feel across the board Eurosports coverage has gone downhill since the takeover by Discovery and subsequent focus on Discovery+.    I was quite happy to subscribe to the Eurosport Player a few years ago but just feel like as the price has risen since being bundled in with Discovery+ the quality of their sports coverage has gone down too.  

A classic case of a relatively small company doing an outstanding job for many years not being so outstanding once taken over by a bigger company, and then merged with an even bigger company.   

Just wait until you see what they've got planned for BT Sport.

200+ BT Sport staff at risk of redundancy | News | Broadcast
Employees who moved over to Warner Bros. Discovery as part of joint venture told…
  Source: www.broadcastnow.co.uk

[Brekkie]

Sadly not surprising, and like the WB Discovery merger it looks like it'll be pretty brutal. Guessing they'll move out of Stratford too.

[NI92]

BBC press pack for the 6 Nations is out
* Tommy Bowe is back on the BBC as they have 2 Ireland matches this year
* Reads like Andrew Cotter to commentate on all live matches
* Gabby Logan remains for live matches & Ugo Monye for highlights
www.bbc.co.uk 

Men's Six Nations 2023 on the BBC - Presenter and pundits line-up, TV fixtures l…
The BBC will provide rugby fans with live match coverage, comprehensive highligh…
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

In other news RTE & Virgin Media have announced their coverage
* Simon Zebo joins the RTE team
* Fixtures reversed so for example England v Ireland was on RTE2 last year so this year is on Virgin Media One
* U20 match shown on same broadcaster as men's match with women match being on the other so for example Scotland v Ireland U20s & Mens is on RTE2 and the women are on Virgin Media One
www.rte.ie 

RTÉ and Virgin Media confirm Six Nations coverage
RTÉ and Virgin Media Television today announced details of its joint Guinness Si…
  Source: www.rte.ie

www.balls.ie 

RTÉ And Virgin Media Announce Six Nations Coverage Details | Balls.ie
RTÉ and Virgin Media have announced the details of their broadcast deal for the …
  Source: www.balls.ie

[Rdd]

RTE are showing their three Ireland U20s games on RTE2 - all other fixtures demoted to the respective Players. The women’s tournament appears to be getting a bit more coverage, with VMTV showing all their games on linear, but again RTE only showing Ireland’s games on linear and other games on the Player.

So as rugby’s greatest championship (TM) approaches again, any guesses as to whether one of sports longest running graphics’s sets (now heading on for ten years in use) will ever get replaced? Mind you if the alternative is what is used for the Women’s/U20s perhaps it’s just as well if not.