[Rdd]

They flip flopped on it. They had removed “Women’s” from the old logo but then introduced the new “RWC” logo with the gender prefix reinstated. I think the quid pro quo is that “Men’s” will be in the men’s tournament title too.

RTE for a while had a house style of not referring to gender in their sports reports and it led to sports news bulletins where they’d have a report about the women’s football team followed by one about the men’s team and it wouldn’t be clear for initially which team they were talking about. They seem to have abandoned the policy now.

[Newshound47]

If the BBC get any of the Women’s Euros it could be a busy summer for Gaby Logan.

[Rdd]

I meant to also mention, as previously anticipated, Premier Sports 2 has become a pan UK and Ireland service as of today. This means the restoration of some programming that disappeared in Ireland when Premier and Viaplay went their separate ways, most notably NASCAR coverage. No sign of any live NHL coverage, though the season is virtually over now anyway.

Premier Sports 1 remains separately programmed in the UK and in Ireland, where Premier will be adding Champions League and Europa League rights from August.

Also to note for UK subscribers who migrated from Viaplay, the Viaplay app has got a short stay of execution and now isn’t closing till 2nd July. Seems the revived Premier Player is experiencing teething problems.

[thegeek]

At least the numbering is the same. Wasn't there a period where eir Sports 2 was the same as Premier Sports 1, and was branded as neither, or something similarly bonkers?

[robertclark125]

The Warner Bros. Discovery Sport branding really a mess. Now the commentators have to read out two streaming services, with MAX being rolled out to most of Europe in lieu of Discovery+, which is still a thing in the UK, Italy and Germany. Plus the WBD branding that is occasionaly around the place (it was on a desk behind Mats Wilander onsite yesterday and the clothing of talent across different sports is often branded that way) and the TNT Sports brand in the UK, there's a load of competing brands in their portfolio.

---

I guess the BBC have never shown the women's event before? If so, their first Rugby World Cup since 1987! Feels like a significant win for the BBC.

The BBC showed highlights of the final, of the inaugural tournament in 1991. When the tournament was staged in Scotland in 1994, BBC Scotland showed highlights of all matches, and BBC network showed both semi finals and the final in highlights form. Fact fans, BBC Scotland dj Ian Anderson was the commentator for the final.

[Rdd]

At least the numbering is the same. Wasn't there a period where eir Sports 2 was the same as Premier Sports 1, and was branded as neither, or something similarly bonkers?

Yes.

From 2013 or thereabouts until 2019 Setanta Sports 1 - which was renamed eir Sport 2 in 2016 - and Premier Sports (1) were the same channel, carrying identical schedules (except for 3pm FAPL games, while Setanta still had the rights). The Setanta brand only appeared during FAPL games and otherwise it was Premier Sports.

Yes it was wierd. A similar situation briefly arose directly after the Viaplay rebrand in Ireland, but it only lasted a week or two before full separation happened .

[RhysJR]

I think there's less commentaries on the French Open this year than normal? Currently watching Court Simone Matthieu without commentary on Discovery+, when I think there would be commentary in previous years. Don't think there's a Discovery+ multicourt stream with commentary either, unlike we have had at recent Slams.

Not sure if there is world feed commentary of this court, but I think the French Open has the smallest world feed provision of the four grand slams (Wimbledon has six courts with commentary, and the other Anglophone Slams have a similar provision).


Is there any UHD coverage provided by Eurosport?


A new feature this year is the umpires on Court Philippe Chatrier wearing a camera by their ear. It looks similar to what was see on the Crystal Palace v. Manchester United game a few weeks back.

[Brekkie]

What is the branding in Ireland now - just Premier Sports? Have Eir Sports and Setanta been consigned to history?

[Rdd]

Yes.

Setanta was sold to eir in 2016, and it became eir Sport. As well as carrying Premier Sports programmes on eir Sport 2, they also still distributed BT Sport and Boxnation at that point.

Premier Sports entered the Irish market in its own right in August 2019, and on the same day, Sky took over the wholesale deal with TNT Sports (we discussed what happened to Box Nation a few pages back). At that point eir Sport 2 became a separate channel, but was almost entirely repeats. Eir then did a very short lived cross licensing deal with Virgin Media for their sports channel, which replaced eir Sport 2 on some platforms, but that fell apart quickly due to wider issues between the two companies.

After that Covid hit, and eir took a decision to wind down eir sport and stopped bidding for rights and renewing deals. Its last remaining rights were the Pro 14, and it closed down after the short lived Rainbow Cup final in 2021.

[Rdd]

The TNT reference in the previous post should be BT, obviously.