Do we know if Talksport will be doing any commentaries off-tube? I believe they did for a number of games at South Africa 2010?

they've made a big thing about their coverage being on-site so I don't think so. given that they have 4 main commentators out there, there wouldn't really be any need to do off-tube commentaries. I think the main reason they did it in 2010 was cost of getting commentary teams to every game.

Is Marcotti working for any of the radio networks over the Euros?

Good to see Danny Kelly getting some work, was worried he'd be shunted off

Initial 5Live comms, down to 1 comm per game other than England & ROI games:

Poland vs Greece: John Murray & Danny Mills
Cezch vs Russia: Alistair Bruce-Ball & Pat Nevin

Holland vs Denmark: Alan Green & Jan Molby
Germany vs Portugal: Darren Fletcher & Chris Waddle

Spain vs Italy: John Murray & Danny Mills
ROI vs Croatia: Connor McNamara, Alistair Bruce Ball & Kevin Kilbane

England vs France: Alan Green, Mike Ingham & Chris Waddle with Graham Taylor also
Ukraine vs Sweden: Darren Fletcher & Jan Molby

thanks for posting the 5live commentators for the first round of group games. interesting the 1 commentator move. on the whole I'm glad to see it-- I've never really understood why it is necesary to have 2 of them.

No problem.

I think it's a shame but they are phasing it out although I believe for the big finals there will still be 2 but we're talking 4/5 times a season max.

The 2 commentator thing is dated and a waste of money.

Unless of course Alan Green is involved and you can't wait to get rid of him

I knew 5live were planning to phase it out next season but assumed euro 2012 would be the last 2 commentator tournament. with them letting some of their commentators go, i think the move to 1 commentator was inevitable.

Holland v Denmark - commentary from Ian Danter and Ray Parlour

Has Quinny been busted back down to the WSB then?

More talkSPORT schedules...

Thursday 21st June
01:00 Extra Time with Mike Graham
06:00 The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast
10:00 Richard Keys & Andy Gray: Live from Poland
13:00 Hawksbee & Jacobs
16:00 Euro 2012 Drive Time with Adrian Durham & Darren Gough
19:00 Euro 2012 Live with Richard Keys - live commentary of the first quarter final
22:00 Euro 2012 Sports Bar with Andy Goldstein

Friday 22nd June
01:00 Extra Time with Mike Graham
06:00 The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast
10:00 Mark Saggers
13:00 Hawksbee & Jacobs
16:00 Euro 2012 Drive Time with Adrian Durham & Darren Gough
19:00 Euro 2012 Live with Richard Keys - live commentary of the second quarter final
22:00 Euro 2012 Sports Bar with Andy Goldstein

Saturday 23rd June
01:00 Extra Time with Matt Forde
06:00 Fisherman’s Blues with Keith Arthur
08:00 The Weekend Sports Breakfast with Mark Saggers & Micky Quinn
12:00 Euro 2012 Football First with Ian Danter
16:00 Euro 2012 Press Pass with Des Kelly
18:00 Euro 2012 Live with Adrian Durham - live commentary of the third quarter final
22:00 Euro 2012 Sports Bar with Sam Delaney

Sunday 24th June
01:00 Extra Time
06:00 Fisherman’s Blues with Keith Arthur
08:00 The Weekend Sports Breakfast with Mark Saggers & Micky Quinn
12:00 Euro 2012 Football First with Ian Danter
16:00 Euro 2012 Press Pass with Des Kelly
18:00 Euro 2012 Live with Mark Saggers - live commentary of the fourth quarter final
22:00 Euro 2012 Sports Bar with Sam Delaney

Monday 25th June
01:00 Extra Time
06:00 The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast
10:00 Richard Keys & Andy Gray: Live from Poland
13:00 Hawksbee & Jacobs
16:00 Euro 2012 Drive Time with Adrian Durham & Darren Gough
19:00 Euro 2012 Kick-Off with Danny Kelly
22:00 Euro 2012 Sports Bar with Andy Goldstein

Tuesday 26th June
01:00 Extra Time with Mike Graham
06:00 The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast
10:00 Richard Keys & Andy Gray: Live from Poland
13:00 Hawksbee & Jacobs
16:00 Euro 2012 Drive Time with Adrian Durham & Darren Gough
19:00 Euro 2012 Kick-Off with Danny Kelly
22:00 Euro 2012 Sports Bar with Andy Goldstein

Wednesday 27th June
01:00 Extra Time with Mike Graham
06:00 The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast
10:00 Richard Keys & Andy Gray: Live from Poland
13:00 Hawksbee & Jacobs
16:00 Euro 2012 Drive Time with Adrian Durham & Darren Gough
19:00 Euro 2012 Live with Richard Keys - live commentary of the first semi final
22:00 Call Collymore: Live from the Donbass Arena
23:00 Euro 2012 Sports Bar with Andy Goldstein

A few bits of further information about talkSPORT's coverage going into Euro 2012.

Adrian Durham and Darren Gough have just concluded their Eurodrive Road Trip to Poland, with them broadcasting Drive Time from four European cities in their talkSPORT-branded Vauxhall Van. They presented from Lille (Monday), Eindhoven (Tuesday), Wolfsburg (Wednesday) and Berlin (Thursday), stayed in Poznan last night and are due to arrive in Warsaw at the weekend for Durham to host their coverage of the opening Group B fixtures from their studio outside the National Stadium.

Durham said on Extra Time last night that Drive Time will be based in Warsaw from now on, although they might broadcast from Ukraine (should England make the quarter-finals?) if the schedule dictates it. I'm expecting Gough to be Durham's co-host for talkSPORT's coverage of the live weekday group games kicking off at 5pm from Tuesday onwards as well as the normal 4-7pm Drive Time shows the week after. Their production team on the road is Laurie Palacio, James Dodd, James Bragg and Pete Gibbons.

While the majority of the talkSPORT team seems to be based in Poland, they have a base in Kiev too. Their team in Ukraine will be led by Mark Saggers, Sam Matterface, Stan Collymore and OB head Matt Smith. As well as all three England group games, they'll be working on matches from all three rounds of Group B fixtures starting with Germany v Portugal on Saturday.

talkSPORT's reporter in the Republic of Ireland camp is not their usual Irish football/rugby correspondent David Brady, but a new voice to the station in Liam Ahern. Ahern presents the Saturday Sports Show on UTV Radio-owned Limerick's Live95FM, where he primarily covers Pro 12 provincial rugby union team Munster. I imagine he'll be covering the tournament for UTV Radio's local stations in the Republic of Ireland too. John Anderson is talkSPORT's man in the England camp as expected.

Another new voice being heard on the talkSPORT airwaves during Euro 2012 will be Melissa Rudd. She won the Coca-Cola Fan Reporter promotion talkSPORT have been running in the build-up to the tournament, which means she'll be interviewing the fans in Poland along with Ian Abrahams over the next few weeks as part of a six-month internship with the station.

talkSPORT

Richard Keys presenting Euro 2012 Live from the National Stadium, Warsaw.

Euro 2012: Group A
Poland v Greece – John Roder and Andy Gray (17:00 commentary)


BBC Radio 5 Live

Mark Pougatch presenting 5 Live Sport from the National Stadium, Warsaw.

Euro 2012: Group A
Poland v Greece – John Murray and Danny Mills (17:00 commentary)

talksport.
Euro 2012, group A, Czech Republic V Russia:

Adrian Durham hoasting with commentary from Nigel Pearson and Alvin Martin.

5live, commentary from Alistair Bruce-Ball and Pat Nevine

Collymore is much worse at co-commentating than Quinny.

Adrian Durham hosted the later Euro 2012 Live programme from talkSPORT's Warsaw studio, which is situated just outside the National Stadium.

During the build-up to the earlier game of the two, John Roder mentioned that Liam Fisher was producing their coverage from the National Stadium. He was one of talkSPORT's producers at the World Cup in South Africa and I guess he'll be in charge of the on-site production for all of the games Roder and Gray are commentating on, with "Villa Matt" travelling with Matterface and Collymore in Ukraine.

just to tidy up the 5live details, it was Mark Chapman hoasting 5live's coverage after 7 PM. listened to the second half on 5live and a couple of things worthy of note. firstly Alistair Bruce-Ball couldn't resist a little dig at TS by saying something like 'listen to every game of Euro2012 live from inside the stadiums'. secondly, he also confirmed the commentary line-ups for tomorrow as Alan Green and Jan Molby atHolland v Denmark with Darren Fletcher and Chris Waddle covering Germany v Portugal.
having listened to both games on the radio today and flicked between stations I thought that both stations did well. John Murray is always a safe pair of hands to open things up for 5live and I was impressed with John Roda's work with Andy Gray. for the later game, its always good to here Alvin Martin summarising and Nigel Pearson did his usual compitent job. over on 5live, I enjoyed the, particularly the move to 1 commentator. Alistair Bruce-Ball is, IMO 5live's weakist commentator at the Euros but he did okay except for over-plugging of the bloody 5live football daily podcast! coverage

I have heard at least three different 5live presenters and commentators say this! Its a little underhand considering they probably have a much higher budget than Talksport, but I do think really a national radio sports station should be aiming to do all commentary live and direct from the ground.

Radio 5 Live reputedly has the highest operating budget of any radio station in the world going by what I've read on here and elsewhere, so if anyone is going to have the funds to do 31 commentaries on-site across two reasonably distant countries, it'll be them. I too think these references are a little underhand and unbecoming of them but I have been criticised for voicing that opinion on here in the past.

I think rather than comparing talkSPORT to Radio 5 Live in this respect, it'd be fairer to contrast them to similar sized commercial radio stations covering the tournament in continental Europe who are working with a similar budget to UTV Radio. How many commentaries are those stations doing and how many of them are they doing on-site? I expect there are few continental stations that are offering as comprehensive a service as talkSPORT are.

If talkSPORT are off-tubing certain games (I don't know for sure either way), then given that the Matterface/Collymore, Roder/Gray and Pearson/Martin commentary teams are to be on-site it'll only be something like 5-10 games - some of which will be final group games that'll only air on DAB and/or online - of the 31 that will be done in this manner. Which in my opinion isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things and doesn't have a massively detrimental effect on the heart of their coverage (which in terms of wider programming will include the most on-site presentation of any UK broadcaster) or the kind of major games that BBC Radio would only be broadcasting in full at tournaments prior to this century.

Considering TS are banging on about how they are commentating live on every game I think it's fair game for 5Live to play on the fact they are always live from the stadium.
If its true then why not say it.
TS will not send their weakest teams out there to cover games.
Danter/Quinn is a bit of a nightmare scenario team. Danter is a decent presenter but has to be one of the worse match commentators around.

Pougers or someone even slipped that in a few days prior to tournament start in that main preview show of theirs (does Le Saux ever say anything original btw?).

I don't see the problem with what 5 Live are doing - it's not underhand because what they're saying is true. You can't complain when the competition highlights a potential downside to your coverage.

We've been over and over this before, but on a level-playing field (sorry for the cliche!) why would you choose to listen to a set commentators (forget who they are for the moment) back in the UK watching a game on the telly when there's another set doing it live from the stadium?

There'll be some that say it's not that important - but for me you can't portray the atmosphere, colour, etc nearly as much if you're seperated from the arena. This isn't a run of the mill European game in the outer reaches of Kazakhstan - this is Euro 2012, the premier international competition. When your commentators are not at the stadium, you can only lose that bit extra from your coverage. You can't gain anything.

Costs? talkSPORT aren't exactly paupers these days and they do make a tidy profit every year. I'm sure they paid a decent sum for Euro 2012 rights and also the worldwide Premier League radio rights. Are you telling me it's too costly to send a two, three or four extra commentators to Poland and Ukraine to cover some matches from the stadium? I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation but I'm scratching my head at the minute to come up with one myself.

There's STILL a perception that talkSPORT do their commentaries off the telly - and that'll be a very difficult tag to lose completely. What was done in terms of off-tubing previously under the Kelvin MacKenzie regime appears, to me at least, have been quite damaging. Yes, talkSPORT now buy official broadcast rights to tournaments and competitions, but I can't see what they gain by still doing games off the telly these days. They talk about credibility. How is it credible to be still doing it - even with official rights?

Anyway...

Absolute Radio have announced that special alternative commentary services will be broadcast on Absolute Radio 90s. British comedian’s Mark Watson and Andy Zaltzman will take the helm for select England games along with Absolute Radio regulars Dave Gorman and Alun Cochrane. Irish comedians Jason Byrne and Andrew Maxwell will take charge of the Republic of Ireland matches respectively.

Alistair Bruce Ball is the weakest of the 5Live six. I would have expected Nigel Adderly to go but it seems he's been a victim of the BBC cuts.

David Oates had been at tournaments previously also.

What's wrong with Ian Danter? I couldn't disagree with you more on that point - I think he's a superb commentator, Jim Proudfoot is probably the only radio commentator that I enjoy listening to more than Dants. He is top notch in my opinion.

In reply to 4-4-2's post - in regards to 5 Live highlighting this, perhaps underhand is not the best word to describe this tactic but I don't see labouring the point as a particularly attractive trait. I understand what you are saying, but due to the way they are funded the BBC aren't in "competition" with talkSPORT in the usual sense and as such I don't see what their coverage stands to gain from making coy references to another station's shortcomings.

I do agree that it would be best if all of talkSPORT's Euro 2012 commentaries were done on-site, given the amount of on-site coverage they are planning away from the live coverage and how much they did at tournaments in South Africa and New Zealand over the past two years I'm disappointed that they'll be a few group games done off-tube. Euro 2012 only has around half as many games as there were at both the last football and Rugby World Cups, so they shouldn't be as stretched as they were on those occasions (particularly in the case of the latter when many games were of very little interest to UK audiences).

As I've gone into in more detail over on the talkSPORT Chat thread, some of the off-tubing does seem to have been born out of Nigel Pearson's commitments on Sky Sports' speedway coverage in Denmark this weekend so hopefully it will be only a case of a few games needed to be off-tubed and once we hit the second round of group games very few of them will be covered in this manner. Initially Ian Danter wasn't down to cover any games from Euro 2012 judging by his tweets on the final day of the Premier League season so perhaps this has only come about relatively late in the day?

Having said all of that, I don't think talkSPORT off-tubing a handful of games should be used as a reason to discredit their Euro 2012 coverage as a whole. The majority of their coverage will be done on-site as will plenty of daytime programmes around the live coverage, which is a substancial commitment on talkSPORT's part. The last time they had official rights to a European Championship finals, Euro 2004, I know that they did all of their commentaries on-site: but in that instance they only sent one commentary team to Portugal and so only did commentary on around 10 games from the group stage with the rest being covered by reports only. Personally I'd much rather see talkSPORT doing a commentary on every game, even if a few of these are done off-tube, than the scenario we had in 2004 which I imagine will be the norm for most commercial stations from elsewhere in Europe that are covering Euro 2012.

I guess that with Dave Woods working on the tv world feed they may have needed Oates to work on the super league coverage on 5LSE. agree with you about Alistair Bruce-Ball being the weakest commentator, but, at least we don't have 90 minutes of jacqui oatley to look forward to.