Originally Posted by 4-4-2:
“This is pure speciation but maybe they can't get Arsenal home rights because of the nature of 5 Live's deal with the club? It may be like Talksport's deal with Liverpool last season in that no other broadcaster can do their home games. The other idea that I can come up with is that Talksport don't want to pay over the odds or the rights.
They generally pick up rights for away games only. I can't remember the last time they did Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City etc at home in Europe. It's got to be a contractual thing? Talksport want to be seen as the destination for big games but it stands out like a sore thumb when they don't have some of the bigger matches like this.”
I think your first theory could be the case with Manchester United, given that Radio 5 Live have a clearly publicised deal for their home games in Europe, but with Arsenal I think it's more likely that Radio 5 Live are picking up rights to their home European matches on a game-by-game basis (I don't think they covered all three of their home group fixtures, did they?), so wouldn't necessarily be in a position to "lock out" talkSPORT or anyone else.
talkSPORT have provided commentary on a couple of Chelsea's Champions League matches at Stamford Bridge during the past two or three years since the away game policy came in. Chelsea are a club they had a long-standing commentary deal with during the years when they provided local opt-outs on 1089AM, so they probably still have a good relationship with the Blues, and when you add in their recent deals with Liverpool this is clearly not an issue across the board. Given this, I wouldn't be at all surprised if talkSPORT provided commentary on the Chelsea v Paris Saint-Germain second leg in a few weeks time.
But, in the recent past both Arsenal and Manchester United have locked talkSPORT out of even providing on-site reports-only coverage of their European games (and, in the case of the Red Devils, Radio 5 Live too) with it being reported in at least the latter case that the club had asked for a commentary rights fee to gain access to the ground that neither station was prepared to pay. I think things have softened subsequently given Radio 5 Live's deal with Manchester United. Ian Abrahams was at the Emirates Stadium for his reports last night and I think talkSPORT have been on-site for all of both clubs' Champions League home games this season. But the cost to do a full commentary might still be a bit prohibitive and difficult to justify spending for a one-off game that won't attract a ton of listeners, advertisers or sponsors as an individual deal.
In any case, what I would say is that being unable to do an individual match commentary is far less of an issue on a Tuesday night when there's a busy Football League programme than it would be on a night like tonight, when other than Manchester City's game there's only one Championship fixture taking place. Last night they were able to provide a packed Around the Grounds show similar to their usual Saturday afternoon output with a reporter at every Championship game. I'm sure few regular listeners to Matchday Live would have tuned in and felt that was "crap", particularly if they were fans of a Football League club in action and wanted to keep up with their team's score.
I'm afraid Col's criticism smacks of him having yet another dig at talkSPORT for the sake of it - I listened to Kick Off last night while watching Arsenal v Barcelona in order to keep up with the Football League scores, which I probably wouldn't have done had they been doing commentary with a sparse number of reporters at other fixtures. Given the success of Matchday Live (it now rates better with its Around the Grounds format than it did when they were doing 3pm Premier League commentaries), there's clearly an audience for the offering they provided last night.