Does Rachel Riley contribute much to Friday Night Football (apart from looking utterly, utterly lovely) of course?

Waste of money if you ask me.

Edit was the wrong word, should have been highlighting or focused.

You took my original point about half time adverts and escalated it. I've no idea why. More and more threads on here seem to descending into farce. It's tiresome.

All I asked was is this the normal quantity of half time adverts

No she adds nothing and usually messes up her lines at some point. Would be much better without her.


Best thing to do is not reply to people when it's going miles off topic.

True. I'm old fashioned I'm afraid, and if someone asks me a question then I will give them the courtesy of a reply.
That's another one on the ignore list

No "highlighting" or "focussing" - that was your whole post, as I've demonstrated.

There's a bit of selective memory going on there.

You asked why the extra pundits; the answer I gave was the increased programme time.

You then posted a series of bizarre posts about nobody watching before and after the game and pundits getting paid for doing nothing simply because they weren't used in the half-time period.


Might be worth a read back there


As demonstrated, there was nothing in that post that could be replied to. It was bizarre in the extreme

OK for the last time. It was a question about half time adverts. That's it.

Thought I was on ignore

Probably not for the last time I need to remind you of what you actually asked:


So, your actual question was why they have extra pundits and NOT about half-time adverts. .The answer you got answered your question...although I did respond to your point about the half-time adverts.

I think you forget it can all be read again. I suggest you do that before replying again

I think your post was perfectly easy to work out, but within it you did say that nobody watches the pre and post game stuff which is blatantly incorrect. Carragher, Souness and Henry did lots of stuff either side of the game including lots of post game analysis on the touch screen, so I think your point that they were there primarily for half time analysis is incorrect.

You are obviously not their intended audience if you don't deem the pre game and post game stuff worth watching, and as you admit you hadn't watched a Sky game up until tonight so you are not a "watch it all" consumer of Sky's football coverage. But lots of people obviously do watch the stuff around the game. Gary Neville didn't make his reputation on MNF because of his HT remarks did he? He made it based on great analysis before and after the game. They are trying to do that with FNF and trying to make it a long show either side of the game, hence the 3 pundits.

So, I agree with sat-ire that your opinion that 3 pundits being too many is missing the point of why they are there if you think HT is the primary reason.

That's a very fair point
I actually always watched the pre game stuff on MNF as I thought Neville was excellent. But it was kind of a review of the weekend too.
On FNF are they previewing the whole weekend?

I normally watch the post game stuff on Sundays as it wraps the day up.

On a different note, I watched about 10 minutes of that pub show last night. What's the idea behind that? It was woeful.

I believe that the idea is quite good, the execution however is woeful.

It's designed to keep a Friday night audience watching after the football with some light entertainment.

It's meant to gather fans together who've watched the game. Anybody whogoes to the match will know there's lots of 'wisdom' talked afterwards over a pint or three. Unfortunately, from what I seen of it after the first FNF, the fans in the pub in this show hadn't been at the game. They also had them doing some pretty childish stuff.

The programme is a social media styled tie-in with Soccer Am, which is on its last legs imo.

In its very early days, Sky Sports used to have some fantastic fan-led shows. Unfortunately they went down the road of making circus clowns out of supporters with shows like Soccer AM; this pub show appears to be a natural extension.

PS I didn't see last night, according to a couple of friends it was a bit better than last time. so much like FNF itself, it looks like its sobered up - pun intended - and matured a little

Knowing Sky it will either turn into essential viewing or become an embarrassment.

Any ratings for the game last night? Forget about the pre match stuff, most fans don't care about it that much, but the friday 8pm slot does make a game feel more of an event than a 12.30 lunchtime or Monday night game

Any idea on when the December fixtures will be released?

The PL said we should expect them 5 to 6 weeks before the games

So GUESSING around the International break (wolvedsdavid would only reply with no one knows for sure)

The December 2015 games were announced on Thursday October 8th

Early days, I know, but I think Liverpool v Man City on New Year's Eve is looking essential for Sky. Man Utd being average is a bit of a problem for Sky given that big games featuring them are generally seen as nailed on first picks by Sky.

Does that count as a normal Saturday? I.e 12.30 kick off?

It's certainly a weekend round and back in 2011-12 there were games on Friday night, Saturday lunchtime and two on New Year's day. We think it's unlikely that there will be a Saturday 17:30 fixture (ESPN got the lunchtime slot instead in 2011-12).

There is also a full round scheduled for 2nd January, but games can (and probably will) be moved to evening kicks offs on the 3rd and even the 4th to accommodate TV picks made for New Year's Day.

Indeed, Sky might prefer 2 games on the 2nd (lunchtime and evening) then one game on each of the 3rd and 4th to spread things about.

Also potentially worth noting is the Old Firm derby is scheduled for lunchtime on Hogmanay. Would Sky be able to pass on using that slot, letting BT have it in lieu of an evening game, so as to keep NYD to themselves?

Logic says that BT could have the Saturday 12:30 slot to avoid the need for a 17:30 kick off, but I suppose there is always the Sunday 12:00 slot. I think Sky will be pragmatic as they won't want more than two of the following played on the Sunday:

Arsenal v Crystal Palace
Chelsea v Stoke
Liverpool v Man City
Man Utd v Middlesbrough
Watford v Spurs

Given that Sky will have four games in Weeks 18 and 19 I don't think it will be necessary for Sky to have four games in Week 19. And so long as Sky give BT third pick in Package B - and they use it (I'm thinking Man Utd v Middlesbrough) - then there is no danger of BT taking a second game which might need to be played in the Sunday 12:00 slot.

I take it there's absolutely no chance of a 5.30 KO of on NYE?

My guess is that Sky will use Friday night and two on Sunday, leaving Saturday lunchtime open for BT.

I suppose that Watford v Spurs or Arsenal v Crystal Palace could technically be Saturday 5.30 given the minimal travel time involved. Liverpool v Man City as well at a push.

I am not sure the local police will allow a 5.30 kick off in Watford but then that might be the case for most places!

I wouldn't think so. There wasn't one at all in 2011, whereas in 2005 there was Reading vs Derby in the Championship at teatime. With four other slots available that weekend, though, I don't see why they would need to cram one in there. In many ways a derby would be even less convenient than any other fixture.

I can't see it being allowed from a police point of view and would bring some bad PR with away fans travelling etc

I always assumed that Sky would take the option of having Liverpool v Man City as a Friday night game on Dec 30th. Now that it doesn't even require any messing around and it would just be one of the FNF package of games it would make alot more sense IMO to have a big game on a Friday night in between Xmas and New Year, on one of the few Friday nights of the year when people are 'taking it easy' pre-NYE.

This would allow BT to take the 12:30 slot on NYE and avoid any issues, or potentially have a game at 12.00 on NYD (Sunday) instead, provided the teams involved then played on the Tuesday 3rd.