BBC Sport

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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 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. In the face of increased competition from its rival broadcasters the BBC has softened its stance and is now contractually obliged to refer to certain competitions by their sponsored name under the terms of broadcasting rights deals.

BBC Sport launched a trial of the High Definition television format of the 2006 Football World Cup in HDTV as part of a wider trial of that format by the BBC. With the official launch of BBC HD, live football matches and golf have led the channel's sports output, and the BBC is rumored to be studying the possibility of airing Premier League highlights in HD.

BBC Sport Interactive was launced in June 2008 on BBCi, it is available on digital cable, satellite and terrestrial by pressing the red button and selecting page 300.

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.. BBC One and BBC Two show coverage from 12 noon till 9pm each day. As well as this digital viewers have the option to view uninterrupted coverage of up to five alternative games on BBCi.

Coverage is presented by Sue Barker, while the Wimbledon highlights, titled Today at Wimbledon are 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, Tim Henman, Barry Davies, Andrew Castle and Chris Bradnam.

Furthermore, the BBC shows live coverage of both the French Open and the Australian Open, each with the majority of coverage on BBCi and important games, including both finals shown on BBC One or BBC Two. It also provides coverage of all the British Davis Cup teams matches, Queen's Club Championships and Eastbourne as well as each December the Masters Tennis at Albert Hall.

The BBC currently holds the broadcast rights for Wimbledon until 2014.

Football

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The high definition World Cup broadcasts led to a new style of graphics introduced in 2006.

The BBC holds exclusive terrestrial rights to show Premier League highlights and joint rights for the FIFA World Cup, along with ITV, until the 2014 tournament in Brazil. Premier League highlights are shown under the flagship Match of the Day programme on Saturdays (usually on BBC One), along with Match of the Day 2 (usually on BBC Two) on Sundays.

BBC Sport Scotland shows highlights of all Scotland matches, with some away games often live, being shown under the Sportscene Live banner. Some of these broadcasts go out to the full network as part of Match of the Day, typically with a separate production and sometimes Sportscene is directly broadcast on BBCi across the UK. The BBC showed Scotland and Wales' home matches until the Scottish FA and the FAW both signed deals with Sky Sports for live coverage. Sky also acquired the right to broadcast Northern Ireland's home matches in 2008, replacing BBC Northern Ireland. BBC Sport Scotland also continues to host extensive live coverage and highlights from Scotland's two major cup competitions, the Scottish Cup and the League Cup; Sky hold the rights for UK-wide coverage of the former. FAW Cup matches are shown under the title Match of the Day Wales.

Beginning in 2009, the BBC will air ten Football League Championship matches live annually, as well as both legs of a Carling Cup semi final exclusively live and shared live coverage of the Final with Sky Sports. It will also offer Football League and Carling Cup highlights shows.

BBC Sport's football coverage is usually anchored by Gary Lineker and the main pundits are Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer, Lee Dixon, and Mark Lawrenson, with Dougie Donnelly, Dougie Vipond and David Currie anchoring BBC Sport Scotland programming. The BBC's main commentators are Jonathan Pearce, Steve Wilson and Guy Mowbray and BBC Sport Scotland's main commentator is Paul Mitchell. Euro 2008 saw the retirement of the long-standing and popular commentator John Motson from live football commentary, though he is expected to continue working on highlights programmes and BBC Radio 5 Live. Other football hosts and reporters include Ray Stubbs, Gabby Logan, Adrian Chiles, Manish Bhasin and Jake Humphrey.

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 Irish, Scottish and Welsh 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, Ireland, Scotland and Wales' 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, Gabby Logan, 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

Coverage of rugby league is usually presented by Clare Balding. Jonathan Davies and Ray French usually commentate on the key matches such as the Challenge Cup Final and rounds prior to the final.

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 are shown on the BBC's Super League Show which from 2008 has been broadcast across the UK.

Rugby League Raw shows the National Leagues play-offs. It is shown in the following BBC regions: North East and Cumbria; Yorkshire; East Yorkshire, Humberside and Lincolnshire and North West.

The BBC extended its live rights contract with the Rugby Football League on 26 November 2007, covering the Challenge Cup from 2009 to 2011, as well as gaining the rights to show one England international each year.

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 MotoGP 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 MotoGP races, with many qualifying sessions live. Suzi Perry is the host with commentary from Charlie Cox and Steve Parrish. Red Bull Formula One driver Mark Webber currently writes a column for the motorsport section of the BBC Sport website.

BBC Sport also cover the Isle of Man TT.

Television coverage of Formula One will return to the BBC in 2009 after a five year deal was announced in March 2008., replacing ITV's existing coverage.

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. 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. 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. 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 although Hazel Irvine presents the women's events.

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. 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 with an early morning re-run on BBC1 at 5am.

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.

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.

They are also expected to provide highlights of the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 which is being staged in England.

NFL

In September 2007, the BBC acquired the exclusive UK free-to-air rights to the Super Bowl through 2009. The package also includes highlights from a featured NFL match each week on the BBC Sport website, and beginning in 2008, live coverage of games at Wembley Stadium [1].

Jake Humphrey is the BBC's American football presenter and the studio pundits are Mike Carlson and Rod Woodson. Match commentators include Dick Stockton and Sterling Sharpe; the BBC uses the NFL's international feed.

Other sports

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, squash, 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 and later Sky Sports. Coverage was fronted by Tony Lewis for many years. 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, a decision which it also took for the next contract running until 2013 with the corporation claiming it could neither afford the cost of the rights or fit into their schedules. That honour went exclusively (and rather controversially) to Sky, with nightly highlights on Five. BBC Radio Five Live and BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra do broadcast England matches and some county cricket (along with the BBC's various local stations); many of these radio commentaries are simulcast on BBCi with live scorecards.

Motorsport

The BBC covered Formula One 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 One 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, although as with cricket, the BBC continues to broadcast every race live on its radio services. It was announced on March 20 2008 that the BBC had regained the television rights to Formula One for five years starting from the 2009 season.

The BBC also broadcast the World Rally Championships until 2001, when Channel 4 bought the rights. WRC is now shown on Dave and Eurosport. The British Touring Car Championship was another event the BBC lost when ITV took the broadcasting rights in 2002.

Sports Forum

The BBC also hosts a sports forum. Named BBC 606. It covers a large variety of topics which include cricket, football, rugby (league and union), tennis, athletics, motorsport and many more. Viewers can create their own account. Allowing them to write their own articles and the ability to comment on the topics of others. Members can also rate topics on a scale of 1 to 5 (the greater the number, the better the member thinks of it). Staff members can select topics from various catergories and label them 'Hot Topics', providing a link to the article from its sports homepage.

See also

• BBC News
• BBC Sports Personality of the Year
• Broadcasting of sports events

External links

• BBC Sport at BBC Online
• BBC 606 at BBC Online