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'BBC Sport' is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as ''Match of the Day'', ''Grandstand'' (discontinued in early 2007), ''Test Match Special'', ''Ski Sunday'', ''Rugby Special'' and coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.
BBC Sport's website^[1] is also the UK's biggest and most popular sport website and is increasingly adding video and audio coverage to its scores and text news services.
Due to the public status of the BBC, advertising is (officially) forbidden and as a result, sports matches covered by BBC Sport are not (strictly speaking) allowed to be sponsored, although the present commercialisation of sport makes this almost impossible in practice. Until 1982, this resulted in teams frequently having two sets of kits; normal kits (with corporate logos), and 'BBC kits', which were plain. Oddly, however, BBC presenters nearly always state the name of a competition or award's title sponsor in describing it (i.e. Barclays Premiership, Barclays referring to the bank).
BBC Sport is one of the few BBC entities which still regularly broadcasts programmes in aspect ratio on analogue, as opposed to the widescreen or the compromise ratio used throughout the rest of the BBC. This is because although the BBC produces all its sporting events in a 16:9 ratio, often sports are shown for which the BBC is not host broadcaster. In these occasions only a 4:3 feed may be available. The BBC then either frames the 4:3 picture in a 16:9 frame or transmits in 4:3.

BBC Sport launched a trial of the High Definition television format^[2] of the 2006 Football World Cup in HDTV as part of a wider trial of that format by the BBC. In addition some FA Cup matches from the third round onwards have also been broadcast in 1080p, and the BBC is transitioning towards airing Premiership highlights in HD.

Contents

Sports which BBC Sport holds rights to show

Tennis

Football

Rugby union

Rugby league

Motorsport

Olympics

Athletics

Horse Racing

Golf

Snooker

Cricket

Other sport

Previous coverage

Cricket

Motorsport

References

See also

External links

Sports which BBC Sport holds rights to show

Tennis

One of the BBC Sport's most prized pieces of sport is the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. The BBC has televised Wimbledon since 1937 and today produces over 900 hours of footage for display in 159 different countries.^[3]
The BBC shows both live matches, presented by Sue Barker, as well as a daily highlights programme entitled ''Today At Wimbledon'' fronted by John Inverdale. Other commentators and analysts include John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Jimmy Connors, John Lloyd, Martina Navratilova, Virginia Wade, Sam Smith, Tracy Austin, Greg Rusedski, Barry Davies and Chris Bradnam.
Furthermore, the BBC shows live coverage of both the French Open and the Australian Open on its interactive services, while screening the finals live on its terrestrial channels. It also provides coverage for the British Davis Cup team and pre-Wimbledon events such as those at the Queen's Club Championships and Eastbourne.

Football

The BBC holds exclusive rights to show Premiership highlights, joint rights for the FA Cup along with Sky Sports (until August 2008) and joint rights for the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany along with ITV, as well as the next two World Cups up until 2014, making the World Cup undoubtedly the most sought after sporting event shown on the BBC, and indeed the world. The World Cup games are usually shown under the title ''World Cup Match of the Day''. Additionally the BBC has rights to all England's home internationals whilst away matches are decided upon a game-by-game basis (until August 2008). BBC Scotland shows highlights of all Scotland home matches, with live away games often being shown by them under the ''Sportscene Live'' banner. The BBC lost its right to show Scotland and Wales' home matches as the Scottish FA and the FAW both signed deals with Sky Sports. Sky will also have the right to broadcast Northern Ireland's home matches from 2008, having bought the rights from BBC Northern Ireland, who held them for 20 years.^[4]
On March 30, 2007, ITV and Setanta Sports picked up the rights to show FA Cup and England home internationals from Sky and the BBC, meaning that from 2008, live football on the BBC will be restricted to the World Cup and European Championships, which occur biannually in the summer.^[5].
The BBC shows nearly all its English domestic football under its ''Match of the Day'' brand on its flagship channel BBC One. Premiership highlights are shown under ''Match of the Day'' on Saturdays and ''Match of the Day 2'' (usually on BBC Two) on Sundays. England's internationals and live FA Cup games are shown on ''Match of the Day Live''. FAW Cup matches are shown under the title ''Match of the Day Wales''. BBC Scotland, until recently, showed live Scottish domestic football in the shape of the Scottish Premierleague, though they have since lost the rights to Setanta. From season 2007/08, however, they have regained terrestrial highlights.^[6]. BBC Sport Scotland does continue to host extensive live coverage and highlights from Scotland's two major cup competitions, the Tennent's Scottish Cup and the CIS League Cup.
BBC Sport's football coverage is usually anchored by Gary Lineker and the main pundits are Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer and Mark Lawrenson, with Dougie Donnelly anchoring ''Sportscene''. The BBC's main commentators are John Motson and Jonathan Pearce, and ''Sportscene's main commentator is Paul Mitchell. For many years Barry Davies commentated for the BBC but he recently retired from their football coverage. Des Lynam previously hosted ''Match of the Day'' until he moved to ITV in 1999. Other hosts include Ray Stubbs, Gabby Logan, Adrian Chiles and Manish Bhasin.

Rugby union

The BBC holds exclusive rights to the Six Nations championship in the UK. It shows all matches in the tournament live, previously under the ''Six Nations Grandstand'' brand. The BBC hold additional rights to the Autumn Internationals for the Welsh, Scottish and Irish sides, as well as highlights of the English team, formerly under the ''Grandstand'' brand. The BBC also holds rights to show highlights of the Guinness Premiership, England's top league in rugby union. It shows these under its ''Rugby Special'' brand. The BBC holds exclusive rights to show the Anglo-Welsh EDF Energy Cup and did so on ''Grandstand'' and also under its ''Scrum V'' brand in Wales. The BBC holds joint right to show the Celtic League, Wales, Ireland and Scotland's top league along with Setanta Sports which it does again under the ''Scrum V'' brand, which is only available in Wales and on digital television. It is also interesting to note that BBC Sport produces the Welsh-language S4C's coverage of the Celtic 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 Sport's rugby union coverage is currently presented by John Inverdale, Craig Doyle, Jill Douglas and on ''Scrum V'' in Wales, Eddie Butler. The main pundits used are Jeremy Guscott, Jonathan Davies, Andy Nicol and Keith Wood and also Stuart Davies on Scrum V. The BBC's commentary team includes Eddie Butler, Nick Mullins, Andrew Cotter, Brian Moore and Jonathan Davies. Bill McLaren was the BBC's main commentator for many years before his retirement in 2002.

Rugby league

The BBC covers the Challenge Cup from the rounds in which the top clubs enter. Sky Sports holds the rights to the Super League competition which is the premier league of domestic rugby league in the UK. Highlights of the Super League, are shown on terrestrial TV only in the north of England, because the BBC believes that rugby league is only watched and enjoyed by those from the sport's traditional heartland, however the highlights are available via the BBC Sport website. The end of season play-offs are shown across the whole country in a highlights package.
Coverage of rugby league is usually presented by Clare Balding who has made it clear many times that she is a keen follower of the sport. Jonathan Davies and Ray French usually commentate on the key matches such as the Challenge Cup Final and rounds prior to the final.

Motorsport

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. In 2003 it also won the rights to the Moto GP World Championship. After a successful first season, coverage was expanded with more live races, and the contract extended until 2009. After dropping the World and British Superbikes, The BBC now shows all Moto GP races, with many qualifying sessions live. Suzi Perry is the host with commentary from Charlie Cox and Steve Parrish.
Renault driver Heikki Kovalainen currently writes a column for the motorsport section of the BBC Sport website.

Olympics

The BBC holds the exclusive terrestrial rights to show Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics and has shown live coverage of every Summer Olympics since 1960. The recent Summer Olympics held in Athens allowed the BBC to use its interactive services to provide even greater coverage of this event, making it one of the biggest for the corporation's sport department. This long-standing association between the Olympic Games and the BBC will now include coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics to be held in London. Presenters for the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics have included many of the corporation's sports presenters, such as David Coleman, Frank Bough, Des Lynam, Steve Rider and Sue Barker.

Athletics

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. Fronted for many years by David Coleman, until his retirement after the 2000 Summer Olympics, events such as the Commonwealth Games, the World Championships, the European Athletics Championships, domestic British athletics and mass-participation events such as the London Marathon and the Great North Run have been and still are broadcast. The athletics presenting team currently (2007) consists of Sue Barker, Hazel Irvine, Colin Jackson, Steve Cram, Jonathan Edwards, Stuart Storey, Paul Dickenson, Brendan Foster and Michael Johnson.

Horse Racing

Although the amount of horse racing on the BBC has declined in recent years, many big races are still to be found on the BBC, though the dissolving of ''Grandstand'' means that future racing coverage will be limited to these big meetings. The Grand National has for many years been 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 are also broadcast, with presenter Clare Balding fronting 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). However, many important races have disappeared from the BBC in recent years: 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 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.

Golf

The BBC holds exclusive UK rights to live coverage to two of the four men's major golf championships, The Open and the US Masters. Led by veteran commentator Peter Alliss, the team also cover four other European Tour events held in Britain - the PGA Championship, the World Match Play Championship, the British Masters and the Scottish Open, although live coverage of these will be restricted to the weekend's play from 2009 under the new contract negotiated with the European Tour. Sky Sports will cover Thursday and Friday play live.^[7] It also covers the Women's British Open. Highlights of the Ryder Cup can also be seen on the BBC. Recently, Match of the Day's Gary Lineker has become the face of golf on the BBC.

Snooker

The 1970s BBC2 programme ''Pot Black'' was arguably the reason for the sport's great popularity over the last 30 years. Snooker produced the largest ever audience for BBC2 with the 1985 World Snooker Championship final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor pulling in 19 million viewers just after midnight. Although not the most glamourous of sports, the sport always pulls in large viewing figures for the BBC through tournaments such as the World Snooker Championships, the Masters, the UK Championship and the Grand Prix. The coverage is regularly hosted by Hazel Irvine and Ray Stubbs.

Cricket

In September 2005 it was announced that BBC Sport had purchased the rights to show highlights of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, held in the West Indies. BBC Two broadcast 29 hours worth of highlights of the main matches at 11.15pm during the duration of the tournament.
The BBC also carried some highlights of the 2006-07 Ashes series (other Test highlights were won by Five). The deal included daily highlights of the five match test series and also the Commonwealth Bank Series between Australia, England & New Zealand.
In October 2006, the BBC announced that Manish Bhasin and Rishi Persad were to be the new faces of the BBC's cricket coverage. Expert studio analysis and discussion is provided by stars such as Richie Benaud, Tony Greig, Geoffrey Boycott (who also appears on Five as an analyst for summer Tests) and Jonathan Agnew.
BBCi carried Ashes highlights from 2200 GMT each night, followed by ''Test Match Special'' audio commentary when the next day's play begins. For the World Cup live scorecards and audio commentary were provided.

Other sport

As well as all of this, BBC shows the BDO World Darts Championships, coverage of the Skiing World Cup under its ''Ski Sunday'' banner; and briefly covers sports such as road and track cycling, sailing, badminton, table tennis, 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.

Previous coverage

Cricket

One of BBC Sport's major criticisms is that it no longer shows any live cricket games, having lost coverage of the Test Matches to Channel 4. Coverage was fronted by Tony Lewis for many years. It is a great shame to many people that the BBC, whose cricket coverage is considered to be the world's best, no longer shows this sport. The BBC was also widely criticised for not even bidding for the rights to show home Test matches when the next set of rights between 2006 and 2009 went up for sale. That honour went exclusively (and rather controversially) to Sky Sports, with nightly highlights on Five. However, Director-General of the BBC Mark Thompson announced in April 2006 that the BBC may bid to show live England test matches when the contract next goes out to tender in 2009.^[8]

Motorsport

The BBC covered Formula 1 for many decades until 1996, initially covering the odd race on the calendar, before introducing in 1976 a programme which followed the entire calendar. Formula 1 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 1996, 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.
The BBC also broadcast the World Rally Championships until 2001, when Channel 4 bought the rights. WRC is now shown on ITV and Eurosport. The British Touring Car Championship was another event the BBC lost when ITV took the broadcasting rights in 2002.

References

1.
2. BBC to trial high-definition TV BBC News Online; 8 November 2005
3. http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/about/tvschedule/tv_bbc.html
4. IFA had to cash in
5. ITV set to snatch FA Cup rights
6. SPL clubs in BBC broadcast deal
7. European Tour announces new Television Agreement
8. BBC considers 2009 cricket TV bid BBC Sport; 26 April 2006

See also

★ BBC News

★ BBC Sports Personality of the Year

★ Broadcasting of sports events

External links

★ BBC Sport