Originally Posted by bwfcol:
“I'm not criticising but with TS2, would providing commentary on Arsenal or Celtic be worthwhile? Same could be said for Sports Extra too (if nothing was on at the same time).
Might be a rights issue of course but be good if as many games as possible had national radio coverage.
SE should also have more FL on IMO too.”
I think the reason why talkSPORT 2 don't provide alternative commentaries on Champions League games involving British clubs like the ones last night is because the cost of buying one-off official rights to their home European games can be prohibitive - in the past they've had difficulty in gaining reporting access to Arsenal and Manchester United's home matches in this competition due to the sums of money demanded, what with the individual clubs being in control of their national radio rights for European games.
talkSPORT very clearly have a policy of only covering European matches where the British sides are playing in continental Europe, which must prove to be the most financially viable way of covering the competition for them. Then on most European Wednesday nights, they opt to provide commentary on an all-continental Champions League tie, which won't be receiving coverage anywhere else on British radio. Yes, it'd be better to have two ties involving British clubs covered, but what talkSPORT 2 do here is in itself a good thing.
Most Champions League Tuesdays are typically very busy nights of domestic football and so talkSPORT 2 have this season started to provide separate Around the Grounds shows focusing on the Football League programme on those nights. I think this is a very welcome move on their part - as proven by their long-running Matchday Live show on Saturday (which rates better now than it did when they first had 3pm Premier League commentary rights), there's clearly a demand for this format and when there was only one talkSPORT station I thought it was a shame that updates from the Football League were neglected on nights when they were doing Champions League commentary. So making this sort of show available on their secondary platform most Tuesdays is ideal.
However, it'll be interesting to see what happens in two weeks time on Tuesday 1st November. Both Arsenal and Celtic are playing away from home, and the domestic programme is pretty bare - there's just a couple of League One fixtures in the EFL. The last time both Arsenal and Celtic played away from home in this season's Champions League, talkSPORT had Arsenal commentary while talkSPORT 2 did an Around the Grounds show, but in this instance they will not do the latter so I see no reason why they couldn't pick up commentary rights to both matches.
With Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, they're never going to spend a significant sum of money on acquiring rights to one-off European matches that the British clubs would expect when it comes to their home games. However, it has been welcome to hear them team up with BBC Local Radio to provide commentary on English clubs playing European away games - often 5/6pm kick-offs in Russia - which have been simulcast on both 5LSE and the relevant local stations. Doing that is a good, cost-effective idea, as are their once-more regular simulcasts of BBC Local Radio commentaries. I think they should do this more often on European/busy domestic matchnights, whether the commentary they simulcast be BBC Radio Scotland's Celtic coverage or Radio London's Arsenal coverage in this instance, or a BBC Local Radio commentary on a Championship match.
On talkSPORT's European coverage, I'm a tad disappointed that it doesn't appear as if they'll be doing commentary on Internazionale v Southampton tonight on either of their stations. It's arguably the most appealing match of the Europa League group stage for the UK clubs and as a 6pm kick-off should gain an audience among commuters. talkSPORT 2 has routinely covered the away games of the English clubs in the Europa League so far this season, so this is a notable omission.