I said it at the time but it is probably worth repeating how strange it is TS aren't providing commentary of the match-- particularly as they were the only british station providing some quarter final and semi final commentary. I guess as the champions league final rights are sole centrally TS decided not to pay but it seems an odd decision. I'm generally supportive of TS-- I think it provides a nice alternative to 5Live so I hope my comments aren't viewed as overly harsh or TS bashing-- I guess I'm just disappointed as I'd have listened if they'd provided a commentary.
It makes even less sense given that talkSPORT had continued to provide commentaries from every matchround of the Champions League even after all of the British teams had gone out. Had they switched to reports-only coverage after the Round of 16 you perhaps would have expected this call.
Going by their coverage of previous finals I doubt acquiring rights would have been an issue, so I can only assume it was a question of costs. Perhaps they decided to use the money they would have spent on gaining commentary rights to the Champions League Final on picking up rights to the Europa League Final or England's games at the Under-21 European Championship or to channel more funds into their coverage of the British & Irish Lions tour.
talkSPORT's decision to cover the Under-21 Euros has only recently been made public and they might have decided that covering those games, which are only available on Sky Sports in the UK, would be a better move commercially than doing the Champions League Final - a one-off game that most people interested will have been able to watch on TV as it was available free-to-air on a Saturday evening. But this is purely speculation on my part, as you two have said it is a strange call given their coverage of the quarter and semi-finals.
Georgie Bingham presenting Sunday Scoreboard alongside Ray Houghton (12noon-2pm) and Charlie Wyett from The Sun (2-4pm), followed by Howzat with Ronnie Irani and Angus Fraser
Scottish Cup Final
Hibernian v Celtic - Geoff Peters
Cricket: Second Test Match
England v New Zealand - Jack Bannister
Golf: BMW PGA Championship
Wentworth Club - Rupert Bell
Rugby Union: International Match
England v Barbarians - Russell Hargreaves
Rugby League: Super League - Magic Weekend (Etihad Stadium)
Salford City Reds v Widnes Vikings, Bradford Bulls v Huddersfield Giants and Leeds Rhinos v Wigan Warriors - Mark Wilson
Formula 1: Monaco Grand Prix
Circuit de Monaco - Graham Courtney
Hibernian v Celtic - Conor McNamara, Roddy Forsyth and Craig Levein (commentary)
Five Live are trialling a new online player tomorrow during the play-off final, where you'll be able to change the balance between commentator and crowd, and position yourself in one set of fans.
It makes even less sense given that talkSPORT had continued to provide commentaries from every matchround of the Champions League even after all of the British teams had gone out. Had they switched to reports-only coverage after the Round of 16 you perhaps would have expected this call.
Going by their coverage of previous finals I doubt acquiring rights would have been an issue, so I can only assume it was a question of costs. Perhaps they decided to use the money they would have spent on gaining commentary rights to the Champions League Final on picking up rights to the Europa League Final or England's games at the Under-21 European Championship or to channel more funds into their coverage of the British & Irish Lions tour.
talkSPORT's decision to cover the Under-21 Euros has only recently been made public and they might have decided that covering those games, which are only available on Sky Sports in the UK, would be a better move commercially than doing the Champions League Final - a one-off game that most people interested will have been able to watch on TV as it was available free-to-air on a Saturday evening. But this is purely speculation on my part, as you two have said it is a strange call given their coverage of the quarter and semi-finals.
Have TS done CL commentary on any of the games that were on ITV?
They seemed to have a policy of going for the game that wasn't on ITV for most of the season.
Was Roddy reporting or commentating? He hasn't commentated on anything for a while!
I'm pretty sure that he was commentating when I dipped in briefly. I wish I had been up the road at the GAA grounds in Ruislip where London got its first Senior Gaelic Football Championship win since 1977. I had to follow the match on RTE Radio.
When the British teams were in the competition, talkSPORT's match selection policy actually seemed to be that they preferred to pick up away matches for the British clubs whenever possible, although they did commentate on a couple of Chelsea's home fixtures on nights when they didn't have this option.
As such, talkSPORT provided commentary on games that were live on ITV on three of the six Tuesday matchnights during the group stage as I have detailed in the post I have linked to above. During the Round of 16, they were fortunate in the respect that all three away legs of the ties involving British clubs fell on Wednesday nights and therefore were televised on Sky Sports. They provided commentaries on all three of those games but didn't do so on any of the home legs for the British teams, which I guess will have lead to you coming to the conclusion you have come to.
Beyond the exit of the British clubs, talkSPORT provided commentaries on both legs of Barcelona's quarter-final with Paris Saint-Germain and semi-final against Bayern Munich. Both first leg matches were Tuesday games, thus they provided commentaries on ITV matches on those nights too.
Elsewhere, Talk Radio Europe has just finished covering Malaga v Deportivo La Coruna in La Liga, Manuel Pellegrini's last home game in charge of Malaga. Paul Breen-Turner flew solo on commentary from La Rosaleda with Kenny Jones presenting from the studio. PBT also provided a pre-match preview on talkSPORT's The Press Pass just before kick-off at 7pm BST.
Mark Saggers presenting Matchday Live from Wembley Stadium alongside Matt Holland and Stan Collymore, followed by Call Collymore from Wembley Stadium
Championship Play-Off Final
Crystal Palace v Watford - Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore (3pm commentary), with Ian Abrahams at pitchside and Carl Ralley producing
Cricket: Second Test Match
England v New Zealand - Jack Bannister
Championship play-off final on 5Live:
Mark Chapman presenting from Wembley with Chris Coleman. commentary from Darren Fletcher and John Murray with Robbie Savage.
Bit surprised they had Fletcher doing this if he's leaving. I wonder if we'll see him pop up on 5 live at all in the future, perhaps at major tournaments etc. when BT won't need him?
Crystal Palace v Watford (Wembley) BBC Radio Five Live John Murray, Darren Fletcher and Steve Claridge (commentary) with (?)Juliette Ferrington(?) BBC London Nick Godwin, Phil Parry and Steve Froggatt (commentary) with Emma Jones BBC 3CR Jon Marks with (to me) unknown summarisers (commentary) with Geoff Doyle
Crystal Palace v Watford (Wembley) BBC Radio Five Live John Murray, Darren Fletcher and Steve Claridge (commentary) with (?)Juliette Ferrington(?) BBC London Nick Godwin, Phil Parry and Steve Froggatt (commentary) with Emma Jones BBC 3CR Jon Marks with (to me) unknown summarisers (commentary) with Geoff Doyle
it was actually Robbie Savage for 5Live as detailed in my earlier post.
It looks as though talkSPORT are broadcasting a new series of programmes called 'Club Histories'. It begins with a history of Arsenal FC on Saturday 8th June between 22:00-00:00.
Mark Saggers presenting Kick Off: International Special from Wembley Stadium alongside Stan Collymore
International Friendly
England v Republic of Ireland - Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore (8pm commentary), with John Anderson at pitchside and Carl Ralley producing
Stan Collymore has tweeted that he'll be co-commentating on Eurosport's coverage of the Under-20 World Cup this summer. I believe this will be his first television work since his spell on Channel 5, as I don't think he was involved in the Midlands edition of BBC One's Late Kick Off this season.
The Club Histories series sounds like it will be a good listen, on the face of it it is a decent format for a summer sports programme that IMO is a better option than putting My Sporting Life on Saturday nights as well as on Sunday evenings. It wouldn't surprise me if Danny Kelly will present this show given the strong job he does on MSL - although for obvious club supporting reasons, perhaps Mike Bovill would be a better choice for the Arsenal edition!
After the final whistle last night, Mark Saggers confirmed that Sam Matterface and Ray Parlour will be talkSPORT's commentary team on Sunday's Brazil v England friendly international. Danny Kelly will present the live coverage with Saggers heading out to Hong Kong and Australia to cover the British & Irish Lions tour. John Kreger reported on the USA v Belgium international friendly for Extra Time with Mike Graham overnight.
Damien O'Meara presented Game On from Dublin alongside John McDonnell and Damien Richardson
International Friendly
England v Republic of Ireland - George Hamilton and Ray Houghton (8pm commentary), with Tony O'Donoghue reporting
Ray Houghton was also involved in 5 Live Sport's build-up to kick-off from 7pm (this was mentioned on the talkSPORT Chat thread as being slightly surprising given that he's been a regular pundit on talkSPORT since 2001 and wasn't heard on last night's Kick Off), who also had Conor McNamara involved in their coverage from Wembley Stadium as a reporter.
Newstalk 106-108FM
Ger Gilroy presented Off The Ball alongside Cian Murtagh
International Friendly
England v Republic of Ireland - Joe Molloy
I read in Charles Sale's column this monring that Graham Taylor won't be working on the Brazil V England game tomorrow because of a serious knee injury that might jeapordise his chances of going to next year's World Cup.
I hope Taylor recovers swiftly. Him and Jimmy Armfield are my favourite pundits on 5 LIve. Sadly I doubt Armfield will be commentating at the World Cup next year and so it would be a shame if Taylor too was to be missing.
Comments
Sorry, I meant 'isn't'!
TS didn't commentate on the game?! Very odd. A huge game, doesn't make sense/
Going by their coverage of previous finals I doubt acquiring rights would have been an issue, so I can only assume it was a question of costs. Perhaps they decided to use the money they would have spent on gaining commentary rights to the Champions League Final on picking up rights to the Europa League Final or England's games at the Under-21 European Championship or to channel more funds into their coverage of the British & Irish Lions tour.
talkSPORT's decision to cover the Under-21 Euros has only recently been made public and they might have decided that covering those games, which are only available on Sky Sports in the UK, would be a better move commercially than doing the Champions League Final - a one-off game that most people interested will have been able to watch on TV as it was available free-to-air on a Saturday evening. But this is purely speculation on my part, as you two have said it is a strange call given their coverage of the quarter and semi-finals.
Richard Gordon presenting Cup Final Sportsound from Hampden Park.
Hibernian v Celtic - John Barnes, Murdo MacLeod and Craig Paterson (commentary) with Chick Young pitchside
Georgie Bingham presenting Sunday Scoreboard alongside Ray Houghton (12noon-2pm) and Charlie Wyett from The Sun (2-4pm), followed by Howzat with Ronnie Irani and Angus Fraser
Scottish Cup Final
Hibernian v Celtic - Geoff Peters
Cricket: Second Test Match
England v New Zealand - Jack Bannister
Golf: BMW PGA Championship
Wentworth Club - Rupert Bell
Rugby Union: International Match
England v Barbarians - Russell Hargreaves
Rugby League: Super League - Magic Weekend (Etihad Stadium)
Salford City Reds v Widnes Vikings, Bradford Bulls v Huddersfield Giants and Leeds Rhinos v Wigan Warriors - Mark Wilson
Formula 1: Monaco Grand Prix
Circuit de Monaco - Graham Courtney
BBC Bristol - Richard Hoskin (studio host) Andy Howard and Nicola Glanville (1548MW / DAB / Online)
Hibernian v Celtic - Conor McNamara, Roddy Forsyth and Craig Levein (commentary)
Five Live are trialling a new online player tomorrow during the play-off final, where you'll be able to change the balance between commentator and crowd, and position yourself in one set of fans.
Have TS done CL commentary on any of the games that were on ITV?
They seemed to have a policy of going for the game that wasn't on ITV for most of the season.
They have, on five occasions this season. We actually had this discussion back in February: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?p=64259290#post64259290
When the British teams were in the competition, talkSPORT's match selection policy actually seemed to be that they preferred to pick up away matches for the British clubs whenever possible, although they did commentate on a couple of Chelsea's home fixtures on nights when they didn't have this option.
As such, talkSPORT provided commentary on games that were live on ITV on three of the six Tuesday matchnights during the group stage as I have detailed in the post I have linked to above. During the Round of 16, they were fortunate in the respect that all three away legs of the ties involving British clubs fell on Wednesday nights and therefore were televised on Sky Sports. They provided commentaries on all three of those games but didn't do so on any of the home legs for the British teams, which I guess will have lead to you coming to the conclusion you have come to.
Beyond the exit of the British clubs, talkSPORT provided commentaries on both legs of Barcelona's quarter-final with Paris Saint-Germain and semi-final against Bayern Munich. Both first leg matches were Tuesday games, thus they provided commentaries on ITV matches on those nights too.
Elsewhere, Talk Radio Europe has just finished covering Malaga v Deportivo La Coruna in La Liga, Manuel Pellegrini's last home game in charge of Malaga. Paul Breen-Turner flew solo on commentary from La Rosaleda with Kenny Jones presenting from the studio. PBT also provided a pre-match preview on talkSPORT's The Press Pass just before kick-off at 7pm BST.
Mark Saggers presenting Matchday Live from Wembley Stadium alongside Matt Holland and Stan Collymore, followed by Call Collymore from Wembley Stadium
Championship Play-Off Final
Crystal Palace v Watford - Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore (3pm commentary), with Ian Abrahams at pitchside and Carl Ralley producing
Cricket: Second Test Match
England v New Zealand - Jack Bannister
Mark Chapman presenting from Wembley with Chris Coleman. commentary from Darren Fletcher and John Murray with Robbie Savage.
BBC Radio Five Live John Murray, Darren Fletcher and Steve Claridge (commentary) with (?)Juliette Ferrington(?)
BBC London Nick Godwin, Phil Parry and Steve Froggatt (commentary) with Emma Jones
BBC 3CR Jon Marks with (to me) unknown summarisers (commentary) with Geoff Doyle
it was actually Robbie Savage for 5Live as detailed in my earlier post.
Mark Saggers presenting Kick Off: International Special from Wembley Stadium alongside Stan Collymore
International Friendly
England v Republic of Ireland - Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore (8pm commentary), with John Anderson at pitchside and Carl Ralley producing
Stan Collymore has tweeted that he'll be co-commentating on Eurosport's coverage of the Under-20 World Cup this summer. I believe this will be his first television work since his spell on Channel 5, as I don't think he was involved in the Midlands edition of BBC One's Late Kick Off this season.
The Club Histories series sounds like it will be a good listen, on the face of it it is a decent format for a summer sports programme that IMO is a better option than putting My Sporting Life on Saturday nights as well as on Sunday evenings. It wouldn't surprise me if Danny Kelly will present this show given the strong job he does on MSL - although for obvious club supporting reasons, perhaps Mike Bovill would be a better choice for the Arsenal edition!
Presented from Wembley by Mark Pougatch with David Pleat
England v Republic of Ireland - John Murray, Danny Mills & Alan Green (commentary) Ian Dennis reporting.
Damien O'Meara presented Game On from Dublin alongside John McDonnell and Damien Richardson
International Friendly
England v Republic of Ireland - George Hamilton and Ray Houghton (8pm commentary), with Tony O'Donoghue reporting
Ray Houghton was also involved in 5 Live Sport's build-up to kick-off from 7pm (this was mentioned on the talkSPORT Chat thread as being slightly surprising given that he's been a regular pundit on talkSPORT since 2001 and wasn't heard on last night's Kick Off), who also had Conor McNamara involved in their coverage from Wembley Stadium as a reporter.
Newstalk 106-108FM
Ger Gilroy presented Off The Ball alongside Cian Murtagh
International Friendly
England v Republic of Ireland - Joe Molloy
I hope Taylor recovers swiftly. Him and Jimmy Armfield are my favourite pundits on 5 LIve. Sadly I doubt Armfield will be commentating at the World Cup next year and so it would be a shame if Taylor too was to be missing.