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Simon Reed has begun the Djokovic v. Sinner Australian Open semi-final commentary on his own. The match started marginally late if anything (and it's almost 4am (i.e. no traffic)) so not sure why his co-commentator hasn't yet appeared.
Some interesting commentary assignments in the latter stages of the Australian Open for Eurosport. Naomi Cavaday, who hasn't done much Eurosport commentary historically and has been on air through the night UK time through the tournament, lead commentary of both women's singles semi-finals. Presumably this is to allow Simon Reed and Chris Bradnam to cover one men's semi each. Though a quite young commentator, I am liking what I'm hearing from Naomi so far.
TNT Sports will apparently add studio coverage to their coverage of the India v. England test series from the second test. Coverage of the first test has had Matt Floyd linking out-of-vision in a presentation style like how BT Sport often covered tests in Australia outside of their first year and Ashes series (highlights taking up most of the interval periods). Their has been pieces to camera specific to TNT by Eoin Morgan onsite, but the BCCI world feed commentary has been used, which has caused the expected disquiet and related articles due to its quality and perceived bias.
The short notice of the rights is being blamed for the bare bones coverage, but that doesn't entirely wash. Channel 4, who covered no cricket for many years beforehand and presumably have less resources than TNT Sports were able to put a studio team in place from day one of the last England test series in India.
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(This post was last modified: 26-01-2024, 05:08 AM by
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(26-01-2024, 04:56 AM)RhysJR Wrote: Simon Reed has begun the Djokovic v. Sinner Australian Open semi-final commentary on his own. The match started marginally late if anything (and it's almost 4am (i.e. no traffic)) so not sure why his co-commentator hasn't yet appeared.
So, Simon Reed ended up commentating solo for the entire 3.5 hours of the match.
Really strange for a match of this magnitude to be a solo commentary. I can't imagine this was planned, but presumably Mats Wilander or Tim Henman could join from the Cube when they were ready, or Arvind Parmar, who was on co-commentary for the preceding Mixed doubles final, could have stayed on. Strange.
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(26-01-2024, 04:56 AM)RhysJR Wrote: TNT Sports will apparently add studio coverage to their coverage of the India v. England test series from the second test. Coverage of the first test has had Matt Floyd linking out-of-vision in a presentation style like how BT Sport often covered tests in Australia outside of their first year and Ashes series (highlights taking up most of the interval periods). Their has been pieces to camera specific to TNT by Eoin Morgan onsite, but the BCCI world feed commentary has been used, which has caused the expected disquiet and related articles due to its quality and perceived bias.
The short notice of the rights is being blamed for the bare bones coverage, but that doesn't entirely wash. Channel 4, who covered no cricket for many years beforehand and presumably have less resources than TNT Sports were able to put a studio team in place from day one of the last England test series in India.
I've heard that part of the problem is studio availability - the two big green screen studios at Stockley are temporarily out of action, and the Cube is in use for the Aussie Open. The Champions Cup rugby over the last couple of weekends came from another of WBD's studios in *checks notes* Warsaw, which I guess is a bit harder to organise at short notice.
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From Warsaw(!). I mean, I know Viaplay sent its URC studio coverage to Stockholm while they built a new set in Dublin*, but it seems a bit extreme to send Craig Doyle and the pundits (plus presumably the production team?) to the other side of the continent? Quins and Saracens were both at home last week, surely an OB from one of the London grounds would have been cheaper?
(*While I was tempted to say this ended up being pointless in the context of what happened to Viaplay UK after that, someone needed to get rid of the remains of the eir Sport branding).
(This post was last modified: 26-01-2024, 11:33 AM by
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Looks like they had a nice little jolly. I guess they wanted to do the highlights from a studio rather than an empty pitchside, though BT did plenty of review shows from clubhouse bars in the past.
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The 15:15 and 17:30 GMT kickoffs on both Sundays from the last batch of the Champions Cup were in France, so TNT Sports would either of had to be studio based or send a team to France really for those two days. And I'd presume it was far less of an operation to send a team to one of their own facilities abroad than organise an OB in France. Warsaw does seem a big extreme though!
On the subject of the Champions Cup (and Challenge Cup), the Round of 16 schedules were announced yesterday.
NB Times are in local time.
RTÉ's live game is Leinster v. Leicester on the Saturday night at 20:00 (RTÉ's other matches this season have all been at 17:30). ITV will show Northampton v. Munster on the Sunday lunchtime at 12:30. A little annoying that there is two matches on the Saturday at 15:00, especially as there's only Challenge Cup action in the Sunday 17:30 slot. On a general note, although some cracking ties in there, a bit frustrating that all but one of those fixtures has already happened this season either in the league or in this competition, and the two FTA ties occured last weekend!
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In the Challenge Cup, all ties involving British and Irish sides are covered either by Viaplay/Premier Sports/Premier Sports or S4C. I think it was the quarter-final stage last season BT Sport took over from Viaplay in broadcasting last season's competition.
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(This post was last modified: 26-01-2024, 03:05 PM by
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Castleford v St Helens moved to 17:30 on 17th February, so it looks like this could be the BBC's live Super League game? I'm guessing there will be an announcement about it shortly.
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(26-01-2024, 05:03 PM)JACKLUFC1998 Wrote: Castleford v St Helens moved to 17:30 on 17th February, so it looks like this could be the BBC's live Super League game? I'm guessing there will be an announcement about it shortly.
Castleford v Wigan sorry! No idea why I said St Helens!
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(26-01-2024, 04:56 AM)RhysJR Wrote: Simon Reed has begun the Djokovic v. Sinner Australian Open semi-final commentary on his own. The match started marginally late if anything (and it's almost 4am (i.e. no traffic)) so not sure why his co-commentator hasn't yet appeared.
Some interesting commentary assignments in the latter stages of the Australian Open for Eurosport. Naomi Cavaday, who hasn't done much Eurosport commentary historically and has been on air through the night UK time through the tournament, lead commentary of both women's singles semi-finals. Presumably this is to allow Simon Reed and Chris Bradnam to cover one men's semi each. Though a quite young commentator, I am liking what I'm hearing from Naomi so far.
Excellent choice of Eurosport to have Naomi lead commentary on the women's singles final alongside Jo Durie.
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(27-01-2024, 11:17 AM)dvboy Wrote: Excellent choice of Eurosport to have Naomi lead commentary on the women's singles final alongside Jo Durie.
Yes no disrespect to Simon Reed or Chris Bradnam but it made for a refreshing change. Naomi did a great job in both the Semi-Finals and Final.