[dvboy]

Australian Open on Discovery+ and Eurosport

Eurosport 1 started at 0:00 with one match that was moved to Eurosport 2 just after 1:00, for the Rod Laver Arena match to start on Eurosport 1. There is an "AO Multicourt" stream on D+ which so far has simulcast the match that started on E1 (in the past this was called AO Extra and bounced around different matches all day).
English commentary only on matches on Rod Laver Arena and Margaret Court Arena, the AO Multicourt stream, and British interest matches - Jodie Burrage vs Tamara Korpatsch has commentary on D+. Other matches have commentary in some other languages.
No world feed commentary in use, which is surprising since it's available on a number of courts.
edit: They found it in time for the second match on court 3.

New graphics package this year, very nice.

[Medianext.MX]

New graphics package this year, very nice.

Some pics from it (sourced from Media Spy):

mediaspy-org-s3.s3.dualstack.ap-southeas...zonaws.com 

mediaspy-org-s3.s3.dualstack.ap-southeas...zonaws.com 

mediaspy-org-s3.s3.dualstack.ap-southeas...zonaws.com 

mediaspy-org-s3.s3.dualstack.ap-southeas...zonaws.com 

mediaspy-org-s3.s3.dualstack.ap-southeas...zonaws.com 

mediaspy-org-s3.s3.dualstack.ap-southeas...zonaws.com 

mediaspy-org-s3.s3.dualstack.ap-southeas...zonaws.com 

mediaspy-org-s3.s3.dualstack.ap-southeas...zonaws.com 

mediaspy-org-s3.s3.dualstack.ap-southeas...zonaws.com 

As expected, Nine has also adapted its in-broadcast graphics to reflect the new look.

[dvboy]

Not sure I understand what Eurosport are doing with their commentary. At past grand slams the AO/RG "Extra" channel has focussed on the third court, but today they've been simulcasting Eurosport 2 all day so far, with single-headed commentary, while there is separate double-headed commentary on the Discovery+ match feed.

[dvboy]

Not sure I understand what Eurosport are doing with their commentary. At past grand slams the AO/RG "Extra" channel has focussed on the third court, but today they've been simulcasting Eurosport 2 all day so far, with single-headed commentary, while there is separate double-headed commentary on the Discovery+ match feed.

They switched the commentary to the double-headed after 7 games.

[RhysJR]

It certainly wouldn't be the Australian Open without some odd scheduling and commentary decisions from Eurosport. At least one can watch two unseeded players on Court 17 if you wish, unlike other tennis broadcasters.

Surprised to hear Mile Maclagan on some of the overnight commentary, he is usually the main male co-commentator on the night sessions. Guess he has been surpassed by the likes of Henman, WIlander, McEnroe and the new one. On a similar note, a slight shame that Frew McMillan never got an on-air goodbye from the Eurosport commentary.

Rachel Stringer just making her Cube debut now - in matching clothes with Barbara Schett onsite! The amount of giggling in the studio is down by 100% compared to Alizé Lim's tenure.


The new graphics look very nice. I really liked the old ones but they did feel like they were coming to the end of their natural lifespan. The new ones are certainly in the spirit of the old ones - not a bad thing!

[dvboy]

Paul Scott did the early shift on E2 and AO Multicourt stream before Kat Downes only did 6 games of the Rublev match.

Kyrgios apparently will be commentating this evening on the Djokovic match - there will be cameras on the comm booth: www.discoveryplus.com 

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Surprised to hear Pete Odgers and Anne Keothavong calling a match on 1573 Arena on D+ instead of the world feed. Meanwhile Barry Millns and Naomi Broady are calling the third John Cain Arena match on Eurosport 1 while the world feed is being used on the same match on Discovery+.

Only 10 mins or so of Rachel Stringer in the cube so far but a vast improvement already. Barbara Schett seemed to imply they hadn't spoken before then, do they not do any rehearsals?

[dvboy]

Sorry to double post, but counted at least two major sound issues with this morning's coverage
At one point in the Djokovic vs Prizmic match the world feed was faded up instead of a press conference clip that was being played out between sets, and then the court audio was missing on return.
And then in the Seidel vs Sabalenka match we had the skiing commentary from Eurosport 2 for the first game or so before they found the right fader for the commentary.
I get that they are trying to manage multiple language feeds across two channels and multiple streams, but it sounds like staff being spread a bit too thin across all output.

Nick Kyrgios co-commentary was much better than I expected it to be. He is doing the Bergs vs Tsitsipas match for ESPN tomorrow.

[dvboy]

It certainly wouldn't be the Australian Open without some odd scheduling and commentary decisions from Eurosport.

Now I've been sent a commentary schedule it makes a bit more sense.

A pair assigned to each of the day sessions on RLA and MCA: Naomi Cavaday and Arvind Parmar, Lee Goodall and Lucie Ahl.
Night session is similarly two pairs: Simon Reed and Miles Maclagan, Chris Bradnam and Jo Durie.
Tim Henman is on some RLA matches instead of Miles or Jo, and there are some "TBD" gaps for the first RLA night match every other day, presumably for commentary from Melbourne where I assume Nick Lester is the only one out there for Eurosport so he'll always be on with Nick Kyrgios or perhaps we might hear him with John McEnroe or Laura Robson who are also out there.

In the gap between day session and night session on both channels it'll be Barry Millns and Naomi Broady or Pete Odgers and Anne Keothavong, only scheduled for one match each from another show court. Presumably those teams plus Adam Fielder on hand for matches on other courts with British interest (five of these on Tuesday so would guess Adam to be partnered with Jo for at least one of these since she doesn't have a night match scheduled).

Lastly there's Paul Scott, Kat Downes, Paul Hand and Guy McCrea sharing the "floating commentator" role in three shifts throughout the day, so they'll be the ones heard for the first hour on Eurosport 1 before RLA starts, and then whenever Eurosport 2 decides not to take a match already covered by another team (or if they decide to do their own thing on the AO Multicourt stream).

[RhysJR]

After we discussed this on Saturday, here's a clip from Shaun Murphy about the criticism he faces for working for the BBC whilst aso playing. It's good to heat that he does indeed find the analysing of others as beneficial to his game.

x.com 

[lookoutwales]

Seemingly no commentator on this ACON game between Senegal and Gambia on Sky this afternoon.

EDIT: Finally turned up about 17 minutes in.