[The Cricketer]

..do they really need to play excerpts of commentary from every warm up game in all their shows through the day & the night?

Very tedious. Once youve seen or heard the game, what is the point of playing every hour commentary of the tries throughout all your shows.

I'm sure the're proud to nabbed the rights of the BBC but there is nothing more pointless or tedious than audio of practice matches (which the Aussies arent even taking seriously!)

[Ian Cleverly]

Are they really saying it's exclusive? BBC Radio Cymru have commentary of all the games as well, so the statement they are putting out is incorrect.

[The Difference]

To be precise, I think they have been describing their live coverage as being "exclusive to national radio" as they do with their Premier League football commentaries.

This statement is accurate if you consider their coverage as being national in a UK-wide sense, although obviously BBC Radio Cymru is a national station in Wales (and any talkSPORT listeners in the Republic of Ireland will also be able to listen to RTE Radio's commentaries on the tour).

I don't think UTV Radio would want to portray talkSPORT as being the only commentary rights holders to the Lions tour in Wales, as their sister station Swansea Sound will be broadcasting their own commentaries on the three Lions Test matches (with Jason Harris and Michael Owen commentating, as opposed to them just simulcasting talkSPORT's output).

[JayDee279]

Originally Posted by The Cricketer

..do they really need to play excerpts of commentary from every warm up game in all their shows through the day & the night?

They replay the goals in football matches all the time. Perhaps you only notice it when they do the same thing in the rugby because you've got a commentator saying, in a normal voice "... and that's another try for the Lions" rather than Sam screaming "aaaaargh - wearrrrrrrr - ooooooh!" or Stan just screaming.
It does stand out from the normal tS output, doesn't it?

[Dwight Wright]

They did the last Rugby World cup really well so I am looking forward to the coverage

[andy_d77]

Originally Posted by Dwight Wright

They did the last Rugby World cup really well so I am looking forward to the coverage

agreed - never listen to talksport after the dreadful way they handled cricket in the past but the rugby coverage of the rwc was excellent.

[The Cricketer]

Originally Posted by JayDee279

They replay the goals in football matches all the time. Perhaps you only notice it when they do the same thing in the rugby because you've got a commentator saying, in a normal voice "... and that's another try for the Lions" rather than Sam screaming "aaaaargh - wearrrrrrrr - ooooooh!" or Stan just screaming.
It does stand out from the normal tS output, doesn't it?

Matterface & Collymore really started to get on my nerves this season. Its just OTT. But I guess there is a sizeable number of listeners that like that kind of thing.

Like randomly shouting 'get in' or 'C'mon' to make you look like you are a proper football fan"

[The Cricketer]

Originally Posted by andy_d77

agreed - never listen to talksport after the dreadful way they handled cricket in the past but the rugby coverage of the rwc was excellent.

Cricket was dire...Chris Cowdrey was given a crash course in 'tabloid radio' & he really went for it!

[wns_195]

RTE's coverage can be heard just about everywhere in the UK on 252 longwave, and possibly digital TV and online.

[big mac]

Originally Posted by The Cricketer

Cricket was dire...Chris Cowdrey was given a crash course in 'tabloid radio' & he really went for it!

Jack Bannister has been on there for a while and he's top quality and doesn't resort to going "tabloid".

[SouthCity]

Originally Posted by wns_195

RTE's coverage can be heard just about everywhere in the UK on 252 longwave, and possibly digital TV and online.

Their online commentaries are blocked outside Ireland. Is the RTÉ long wave service still available on Sky in Great Britain?

I think it's stretching a point to claim that the TS commentary isn't exclusive because Welsh language commentary is available on Radio Cymru. It's not as if that's a reasonable substitute to TS for most radio listeners in the UK. The 2011 Census shows that 19% of people in Wales are fluent in Welsh (down from 21% in 2001).

[The Cricketer]

Originally Posted by big mac

Jack Bannister has been on there for a while and he's top quality and doesn't resort to going "tabloid".

Jack is probably just about past it now. Maybe time to hang up the pen/mic

[The Difference]

Originally Posted by Dwight Wright

They did the last Rugby World cup really well so I am looking forward to the coverage

Their coverage has been excellent so far, they've really picked up from where they left off in 2011 (although they do have a weekly rugby programme in Full Contact and do the odd Premiership commentary so it's not like they've "been away" really).

They've managed to get current Lions Richard Hibbard and Ben Youngs involved in their commentaries of the first two midweek games which has been a real coup for their coverage - could you imagine something like that happening in international football?

I totally disagree with the criticisms made of talkSPORT's cricket coverage from the early 2000s - I thought that was excellent too, particularly on England's later tours to the West Indies (2003/04) and South Africa (2004/05) which involved a number of voices from television (Michael Atherton, Mark Nicholas and the late Tony Greig). I preferred talkSPORT at the Test to Test Match Special in many ways if I am honest.

[Mark F]

[quote=The Difference;66354527]I preferred talkSPORT at the Test to Test Match Special in many ways if I am honest.[/QUOTE]

Don't you work for Taksport or have something to do with them - after all you are quite knowledgeable about them?

[The Difference]

Nope, I'm just someone whose been listening to the station since the beginning. I've accumulated knowledge about it down the years and have probably become a bit of an anorak on the subject, but that's as far as it goes.

[The Cricketer]

I noted Danny Kelly is on in the mornings for the next 10 weeks...hoping thats a goodbye to Keys & Gray!

Anyway, the show started at 10 and at 10.05 they played a 2-3 mins of commentary from the previous days warm up game...great I thought, get it out of the way nice & early.

And then to my annoyance...they played more commentary of the game at 10.35.......and again in the next hour.

They'll probably replay the whole of the test matches when they begin!!!

[delboy1953]

It is very rare that the word "Radio" accompanies their exclusive rights to anything,
It's thrown in a couple of token times but it's not the norm.

Amazed Sky has not put a shot across their boughs by now

[franchise]

I hope they've re-edited that trail that pronounces "Waratahs" awfully wrong. Poor from the exclusive rights holders!

[Jerryn]

Originally Posted by The Cricketer

I noted Danny Kelly is on in the mornings for the next 10 weeks...hoping thats a goodbye to Keys & Gray!

Anyway, the show started at 10 and at 10.05 they played a 2-3 mins of commentary from the previous days warm up game...great I thought, get it out of the way nice & early.

And then to my annoyance...they played more commentary of the game at 10.35.......and again in the next hour.

They'll probably replay the whole of the test matches when they begin!!!

It has got to the stage I switch off now. Rammed down our throats.

[The Cricketer]

Hardly any commentary throughout the day today....because the Lions lost! Great, thats all it took!!!