FA Cup and England matches TV

[themuel1]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6509141.stm

Oh great, ITV have more football. Possibly the worst match presnetation seen on TV - i.e. two men standing on a pitch at half time (Robbie Earle and Ally MCoist). Santanta have won rights to England matches. WHY? It's an Irish company for a start and even less people have that then Sky Sports!

BBC have no live football coverage at all anymore.
"Whenever we bid for a contract, we have to bear in mind the interests of licence-fee payers and we always have to seek value for money," the BBC said in a statement."

I'm sorry, has he asked any of them? Get rid of horse racing, show jumping, skiing etc. They are crap and more people would watch football!

The only popular sports the BBC have now (live) are Tennis and Rugby. How long before they go?

 

[barmyarmy]

Well they were lucky to get the rugby back! Before the current deal Sky had all the England games fot that as well...

 

[evertonfan]

What a load of crap. As much as I hate Lawrenson, Hansen, Lineker, Motson and the majority of BBC's footie presenters, they do have the best terrestrial football coverage. As for the Setanta thing, well that is just stupid.

 

[Kev]

At least ITV got some matches rather than it being lost to free to air altogether. The BBC didn't get the licence fee increase that it wanted so I guess it couldn't justify spending a large proportion of its income on the FA cup. Afterall the BBC has to provide a wide range of programmes and can't just concentrate on sport.

I'm quite glad the Setanta beat off bSkyb too, at least you can just pay for their channel rather than being forced into buying a package from Sky. Setanta is also available on "freeview" if you have a box with a slot (of course its not free )

In all honesty, I'm not bothered between ITV and BBC, remember that if the BBC ends up showing hardly any football, the presenters are likely to swap channels anyway (They did last time this happened).

 

[PhilD123]

I'm annoyed about this, how long is it before home internationals get on pay to view TV.

On the positive side though, here's what the BBC Sports Chief Executive hinted at "And the money which hasn't been spent on the FA contract will, we hope, be available to invest in other football and sports contracts as they come up."

Now, I'm not saying it will happen, but perhaps the money saved from the Football deal could be used to get BBC the rights back for Test Matches.

 

[Deleted member 11215]

God i hate ITV, england games arent very interesting anyway so i guess ill skip them. i cant think of a time ive watched a decent program on ITV over the last 2/3 years (seriously) as for sentana they can bugger off!

 

[zimrahil]

To put it bluntly, I have never liked ITV's coverage of football - plus fact the Beeb have no adverts and I prefer their presenting team :crying

 

[Kev]

Adverts dont bother me, you only get them at half time and I never watch the chit chat at half time anyway.

 

[puddleduck]

Interesting thought Phil, could well be the case especially as Sky will have milked all they can from cricket after the Ashes win in 2005.