Some quick thoughts to add:
My preference for EPG programme names for live/repeated sport for BT would be like how ESPN had it up until a couple of years ago and the way Premier Sports still have it now with the league/brand name prefixing the teams.

eg
"Live MLB: St Louis at Cincinnati" or "MLB: St Louis at Cincinnati"
"Live NRL: Raiders v Storm" and "NRL: Raiders v Storm"
Not only does It helps group the games on an EPG search but overall I think it is a neater method. In my view it works best especially for when a channel covers a lot of games from the same league/brand (potentially Serie A/MLB for example).
Not as you say "Live Romania v Spain" or "Live St Louis at Cincinnati" for example which doesn't necessarily at a glance identify the brand or league.

BT's football coverage will supposedly be less stat bloated and more "creative" so what the pundits do say will be significant. Sky can bypass that as for them stats do the talking and it's easy to make conclusions.

Did they use the in-studio pitch yesterday ? I'm not really understanding how it will be used.

Good news. Is that how they'll do the European leagues where they have hundreds of games to cover? Or are they just not going to show some of the matches? Hopefully it's the first one.

It's unfortunate that certain broadcasters don't care abut this sort of thing. My other gripe is poor synopses; WSOP is plagued by this. All they need to put is Main Event Day 1A featuring Phil Ivey, Jason Alexander and rising British star Jake Coady. Minimal effort but these are the sort of touches which help fans out and attract more casual viewers.

One of the problems was it appeared good - unless you had access to the IPC world feeds. Only then did you realise how much was being missed or delayed- not just because of commercials but studio chat. Even stuff you'd think would be live- British medal chances, other big finals - wasn't. There might have been a lot going on, but some of the editorial choices seemed very strange.

The reverse was true of the BBC coverage when compared to the IOC feeds- the stuff you'd expect to be live was (especially if there was major British medal interest), and if it wasn't it was usually because they'd be showing something else live, or catching up (with say, the earlier rounds of a competition) before going live. That was even more of a feat given the amount of events than C4 had with the Paralympics, albeit with having to fit commercials in too.

That's just a rehash of the ofcom figures that have been discussed for months.

The huge number of complaints for BT vision are mostly driven by the horrendous linux update.

I had bt vision a few years ago and never had a problem with it, although the content was never that good.

BT sport hasn't had time to generate any complaints and so far I am very happy with it.

The HD picture on my amstrad sky box is better that the SSHD picture.

I can't believe people are already moaning about the app etc. They haven't even been going for 24 hours yet.

It might be but that doesn't mean it's not important.

The BBC is the most trusted and widely heard news source in this country.

People take notice of it and publicity like that is damaging.

The other thing is that 90% of people aren't interested in the technical details of what the problem may be - all they care about is does it work. If it doesn't and they lose confidence they will give up and go elsewhere. And even more damaging they will tell their friends.

We got a glimpse of it, but I didn't see it used for the Audi Cup game (must admit during half time I was flicking on and off to see the Swansea game on ITV4).

I guess it's there to showcase contentious decisions. So for a football match, offsides (especially with the rule about players being active and not) being one.

Very much touchy-feely approach.

200k peak audience, what do we think?

BT Sport peaked with 207,500 (1.21%) viewers on its opening night as sports fans tuned in to see Bayern Munich versus Manchester City.

The peak was reached during the five minutes from 7:35pm, just after the friendly kicked off on BT Sport 1.

This came as the sports broadcaster launched for free via Freeview and other platforms for its launch date. The channel started at 6pm with a special live show, which averaged 91,900 (0.64%) viewers, followed by the game, which averaged 136,100 (0.79%) between 7pm and 10pm.

Jake Humphrey hosted the football from BT Sport’s new East London-based studio.

Additionally, BT Sport 2 averaged 18,000 (0.28%) for its coverage of the JP Morgan Asset Management rugby 7s, hosted by Craig Doyle.

Will be interesting to see what, say, the rugby gets tonight.

Last night was free to air. BT announced 550,000 orders last week. Let's say that's now risen to say 750,000 - that would be about 3% of homes.

So pro rata the rugby would get 540 viewers. Of course it should do much better than that as homes that get it will be much more likely to watch than the average UK home last night. But even so there are going to be some very low figures.

I know it is not the same, but Sky Sports F1's launch last year attracted ~200,000 average from 20:00 to 22:00 on Friday 9th March 2012.

Those figures actually a little higher than I thought they would be, with the exception of the rugby of course which is as low as was expected.

Rugby wasn't FTA on Freeview. And not available on cable either. 18k in Sky only homes for a fairly minor event on the channel's first evening doesn't seem too terrible.

Last year's Rugby 7s figures on ESPN:

Round 1: Friday 13th July: 16,000
Round 2: Friday 20th July: 28,000
Round 3: Thursday 26th July: Less than 24k
Final: Friday 3rd August: Less than 10k
source: consolidated viewing figures (includes recordings) via barb.co.uk

Of course back then ESPN was the main product, whereas BT Sport is offering its viewers a choice, so that needs to be factored in also.

Apologies if this is a stupid question - just based on a comment someone said about if they don't have the rights they'll just be sat talking...

Do BTS have the rights to show highlights from all PL games (e.g. like MOTD), or just from their own live games? I'd assumed they'd have it all, for weekly roundups etc?

The match itself could have been higher, but it did face Europa League coverage on ITV4 which probably dented it slightly.

The launch programme rated very well indeed.

BTS said last night that it would show goals from all EPL games. I assume that Sky Sports will do likewise.

I never mentioned it's importance. Just making the point that it wasn't new and has been done to death.


The BBC is a rival broadcaster with it's own sport output. I think people will take it with a large pinch of salt. The proof of any pudding is in the eating. And these sports channels are very good and excellent value for money for most.


I agree with you there. But I think BT has ironed out most of the problems now. Their TV service now with the premium entertainment channels and these new sports channels is very good. That is why I can't understand why the BBC are dredging up an ofcom report that covers complaints from months ago.

Neil Warnock a pundit for the Scottish Premiership?!

They referenced social media from last night with people having problems with BT Sport (mainly the app).

Fairly topical I would have thought.

He's got a holiday home in Dunoon - if that doesn't qualify him I don't know what does!

Is anyone having ant issues streaming BT Sport via their Apple TV? It was working with no issues last night via my iPad but I'm now getting an error message saying that there is an issue loading the content.

A match made in heaven. He can empathise with poor Neil Lennon about how unfair the world is to them.

OK thanks - didn't realise that.

I've just gone up a channel and it's "Classic Premier League", Spurs v Chelsea from 07/08 - with Sky commentary (Martin Tyler and Alan Smith).