Very best wishes to both of you.

Hope to see you posting again soon, Peter.

Italian Serie A - AC Milan v Torino:

BT Sport 2 - Dave Farrar and Chris Perry



Spanish La Liga - Sporting Gijon v Athletic Bilbao (Sky Sports 5):

David Garrido presenting with Gaizka Mendieta and Guillem Balague.

Commentators - Dominic Johnson and David Phillips

As previously posted I'm the last person who is going to be remotely interested in any of the FNF intro "stuff" - I'm not sure what the word is to even describe it all - I guess "entertainment" but who knows.

Just to prove how out of touch I am - in addition to never having heard of Tubes I've also never heard of beatboxing - I've just googled it - so thanks Steve for extending my vocabulary!

This may sound a bit ridiculous but I'd like to ask a question which I genuinely don't know the answer to:

What is the dividing line where a programme (or in this case a part of a programme) becomes a children's programme?

I always thought Soccer AM was really a children's programme - I've never seen more than brief clips of it so maybe that's unfair and maybe I thought it partly because it was on Saturday morning in the slot when BBC / ITV used to have children's programming - I don't know.

I remember my elderly uncle seeing a report about X Factor on the news a few years ago (there was some kind of "scandal") and him being absolutely convinced it had to be a children's programme - pictures of people screeming and cheering etc - I had great difficulty in convincing him it really wasn't.

I guess as you get older you get out of touch - I haven't quite reached my uncle's stage yet but maybe I'm on the way - again I don't know.

But I would just be interested to know - is the sort of "mucking about" on FNF aimed at adults or children? Or maybe both?

Thanks LIzard and others who've posted.!

See you all again in due course.

Pescara v Napoli- Adam Summerton and Richard Hughes for BT

I never had Sky as a kid, but I can remember watching Soccer AM at a friend's house and I always assumed that it was a kids programme (and not a very good one). Later in life I was surprised to discover some older friends of mine watched Soccer AM like any other show. I guess that's the holy grail for programme makers - something that appeals to a number of different demographics. Top Gear is another show that transcended generations.

The X Factor is an interesting one. It's the sort of thing that I would never watch, but when I started work in 2009 a colleague ran a predictions competition which I was railroaded into entering (oh, how they regretted that!). Anyway, I happened to stumble across Daniel Gould's wonderful Sofabet website and I've been hooked ever since. It's quite a niche interest and ratings for the X Factor have fallen substantially since its 2010 peak.

As for football coverage, like you I'm only really interested in the action. If I am interested in pre/post game coverage I tend to prefer a more down to earth analysis. However, as Mr Williams points out, I tend to find Monday Night Football a little too serious and too often focused on why a goal should not have been conceded rather than why an attack is successful.

Your right most just want to watch the football maybe more so on a Friday night, so i still think they should of just kept it like their Mid week special's they used to have before BT took mid week games.

Forget about doing something totally different because it just proved a total flop, its almost as if they didnt want this Friday night slot but now they have they feel they have to make it into something different or even showing BT they can also go down their road.

"Friday Night Football" is being aimed at people watching in pubs, according to various reports I've read; which is also consistent with the announcement of "Carling In Off The Bar"- "a brand new online football show, which will complement Sky Sports' new Friday Night Football programme".
http://www.skysports.com/football/ne...in-off-the-bar

I predict a supporting narrative over time, to shareholders, analysts etc. concerned by the scale of Sky's Premier League costs, about how Friday Night football helps support commercial subscriptions!

Spanish La Liga - Real Sociedad v Real Madrid:

Sky Sports 1 - Rob Palmer and Terry Gibson



French Ligue 1 - Paris Saint-Germain v Metz:

BT Sport 3 - Dan Roebuck and Efan Ekoku



Italian Serie A - Chievo v Inter Milan:

BT Sport Extra 1 - Marco Palmieri and Patrick Tarroni

To be fair the biggest thing BT get slagged off for are the 'Cool people' advert and Jake's quite awful 'That's the way we do things on BT Sport' garbage - both of which truly are/were awful.

Did enjoy your review Steve. The BSc Premier League Studies line was a particularly good one. An element of truth to it too - there have been numerous mentions of how football is treated too seriously at times but Sky often contribute to that with MNF and SSN in particular. Don't get me wrong though MNF is a fantastic show and I appreciate some of the fantastic analysis from it.

I do remember you saying a while ago that anything would be better than SNF - I take it that has now been replaced by 'Off the Bar'.

On the celebrities point, given Tubes has already appeared on FNF I wouldn't be surprised if Soccer AM residents Ralph Little/David Haye (or they used to be years back when I last caught it) appear as 'celebrity fans' on 'Off the Bar' at least at some point.

'Off the Bar' I think has fantastic unintentional entertainment value. Given it'll be on around 10.30 or 10.45 on Fridays in a bar/pub something that upsets Ofcom is bound to happen at some point. It's much like that time period BT broadcast outside stadium post match - dreadful idea but fantastic potential for car crash TV.

That may sound fine in theory.

But to what extent do people in pubs listen to anything on a TV?

Pubs are noisy places, especially on a Friday night. Sure, you can follow a football match on a big screen - but listening to what people are talking about is usually going to be impossible - even if you wanted to.

And unless you are in the pub on your own you'll be talking and listening to whoever you are with.

MLS - DC United v New York Red Bulls:

Sky Sports 5 - Richard Kaufman and Clive Allen

Not much at all. I didn't say it was a good idea! Indeed, I only needed about 5 minutes viewing before the match (curiosity!) to decide that I'd got better things to do until kick-off!

In my opinion, most people won't spare more than the duration of the match on a Friday night, be they at home or in a pub etc. There are too many other attractions on a Friday night. I'm unconvinced that this is a good timeslot.

If I'm right, then the benefit to commercial subscriptions (pubs etc.) is the narrative to concerned shareholders/analysts etc., in my view, supported by the "pub theme" of the coverage. This doesn't mean that many will have watched the surrounding coverage.

In my opinion, the audience for expansive pre/post match "entertainment" on a Friday night is minimal.

Sportscene, BBC2 Scotland, 21/8/16

Presented by Jonathan Sutherland, with Steven Thompson and Michael Stewart.

St Johnstone v Celtic - Liam McLeod
Rangers v Motherwell - Rob Maclean
Hearts v Inverness CT - John Barnes
Aberdeen v Partick Thistle - Paul Mitchell
Ross County v Kilmarnock - Rory Hamilton
Dundee v Hamilton Accies (Fri) - John Barnes

I believe that's Rory Hamilton's first outing on the BBC.

Spanish La Liga - Atletico Madrid v Alaves:

Sky Sports 1 - Jon Driscoll and Garry Birtles

I didn't watch any more than a minute of FNF and I'm not a Soccer AM viewer (although I've seen enough) - I would probably for Soccer AM say a sort of "young adult" demographic - ask me to picture a group of Soccer AM viewers and I see teenagers through to people maybe in their early 20s. And probably the types of people you see in the replies to Gary Lineker's tweets.

Hello everyone. One question : why has never BT thought of Dan Walker to lead their Premier League coverage ? This Guy is brilliant. He's worth 10 Jake Humphrey, and he's "young and fresh".

Yep it is! As much as having Sportscene on late on a Sunday can be criticised, this no-mans land early evening slot is pretty dire. At least I'd catch the show live and follow it up with MOTD2.

From next week the teatime show on BBC2 will be "live", with a subsequent repeat after MOTD2 on BBC1. I guess that's a sort of compromise.

Of course, nothing replaces a proper Saturday night highlights show but that's the fault of the clubs wanting to protect their own subscription services.

Best of luck to Peter and his family

Interesting that Bill Leslie is getting PL games and about time too! Presumably, he won't be when there's 3 PL games next week but maybe a regular for the Ireland games which would impact FL games he could do.

EFS's new features on the first programme are very good as it gives each expert more input
The programme ends at 730pm is when I switched off, was there analysis on the Inter Milan's live game by the EFS panel

Sportscene Results (Saturday)

(1600-1730 BBC Two Scotland)

David Currie hosted with Mixu Paatelainen, Mark Wilson and Stuart Cosgrove

(the) Rangers v Motherwell - David Currie
Aberdeen v Partick Thistle - Scott Davie
Heart of Midlothian v Inverness Caledonian Thistle - John Barnes
Ross County v Kilmarnock - Martin Dowden
St Johnstone v Celtic (12515BST) - Liam MacLeod (FT only)

Dundee United v Ayr United - Brian McLaughlin
St Mirren v Hibernian - Kenny Crawford
Raith Rovers v Dunfermline Athletic - Charlie Mann

BBC Scotland are currently not allowed inside Ibrox Park (and haven't been since midseason last year) so all David could do is look at the TV monitor showing the game, and tell you for about 10 seconds who scored it whilst a graphic showed the current score. Stuart did have to leave about minute before the end of the show to get ready to co-host 'Off the Ball', so you did get a quick shot of DOUBLE CONFIRMATION that he'd left.

Mixu's whole demeaner reminds me of those Koopa's from the Super Mario Films. Dunno why.

Final Score from Northern Ireland (Saturday)

(1700-1720 BBC Two NI)

Gavin Andrews hosted

Linfield v Glenavon - Thomas Kane (commentary)
Ards v Ballinamallard United - Jackie Fullerton (commentary)
Coleraine v Crusaders - Eric Whyte (commentary)
Portadown v Glentoran - Niall Foster

Not strictly true - as a rights holder, the BBC are entitled to enter any ground in the SPFL.

However, (The) Rangers have told them that Chris McLaughlin is banned for reporting the truth. The BBC in turn have said they won't be told who they can and cannot send to matches so have decided not to send anyone until the situation is resolved (if it ever is).

It'll be interesting to see what happens when the Scottish Cup comes around - would BBC Scotland really turn down the chance of showing, e.g. (The) Rangers v Aberdeen live if it's left to them as a second pick?

Celta Vigo v Leganes - Sky Sports 1.

Commentators: Dominic Johnson and Efan Ekoku.

Eintracht Trier v Borussia Dortmund- Adam Summerton and Nigel Spackman for BT