• Sky Sports have announced a deal with Golden Boy Promotions to show all the company’s big fights from the States. The first fight card on the contract is the Marcos Maidana v Devon Alexander bout on the 3rd March, followed by Mexican legend Erik Morales v Danny Garcia on the 24th March, and the still-to-be-rearranged Victor Ortiz v Andre Berto rematch. Many have been critical over Sky’s recent lack of big fights from the US over recent years, but this deal shows a commitment to boxing for the forseeable future.

• Elsewhere, Sky have confirmed a number of other big fights coming up separate from the Golden Boy deal. Firstly, Wladimir Klitschko defends his Heavyweight title belts against Jean-Marc Mormeck also on the 3rd March in Germany, while two weeks later Matthew Macklin faces a huge ask as he takes on Middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in New York. Finally, Amir Khan will get the chance to avenge his defeat to Lamont Peterson in a rematch on the 19th May.

• More boxing, and Channel 5 are back on the scene on the 18th February with a Hennessy Sports card headlined by exciting prospect Kid Galahad challenging former world title challenger Jason Booth at Super Bantamweight. On the undercard is Chris Eubank Jr’s second fight.

• After the news that Rally Sweden will be shown on Motors TV, ESPN have confirmed that they will be showing this weekend’s second round of the World Rally Championship. The channel broadcast the entire season last year, but their contract was voided when the FIA ended their contract with previous commercial rights holders North One Sports after the company went in to administration.

• Channel 4 will show the Indoor UK  Athletics Trials and Championships on Sunday 12th February, with live coverage from the track finals. It is their first foray in to the sport since their disastrous coverage of last year’s IAAF World Championships. Ortis Deley is nowhere to be seen as Rick Edwards presents.

• And finally this week, Sunday’s Super Bowl saw a victory for Eli Manning and the New York Giants, but the headlines for many was some woman sticking her middle finger up during the half-time show. But my highlight was this, the extended version of a Honda commercial shown during the game-an absolute must see for fans of 80’s John Hughes comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Enjoy:

Rally Sweden will be shown on Motors TV after the prganisers confirmed that there will be coverage of this weekend’s event available to viewers outside the host country.

After talks between the FIA, the governing body of world motorsport and Eurosport over the World Rally Championship’s television rights broke down last week, the FIA declared that international TV rights would be sold on a rally-by-rally basis by the respective event organisers.

Rally Sweden CEO Glenn Olsson said: “We are doing this for all our fans to save the championship and its organisers and teams, and not least for our own sake and our sponsors. This is a multi-million [euro] project and, as we are not ready with the economics, this is very hazardous for us.”

Motors TV will show nightly highlights at 10.35pm. A short spectator stage begins the rally later tonight, with the main bulk of it taking place between Friday and Sunday. Viewers should expect the coverage to be significantly different from the Eurosport-produced Monte Carlo Rally which opened the season last month.

The World Rally Championship remains in turmoil after talks between the governing body FIA and Eurosport over television production and distribution of the series broke down.

Eurosport were expected to take over this aspect of the WRC after previous commercial rights holders North One Sports went in to administration, and even covered the first round of this year from Monte Carlo after a last-minute deal with the event organisers. The plan was for the FIA themselves to take over the promotion of the series, with Eurosport responsible for filming and production of rallies, as well as the distribution of TV rights.

However, both parties walked away from the table last week, leaving Rally Sweden, the second round of this year’s championship beginning on Friday currently without any international television coverage.

It is believed the sticking point relates to European employment law. Under the statute, should Eurosport take over as commercial rights holders then they would be required to take on the North One staff laid off by the termination of their contract, something the broadcaster seems reluctant to do.

This meant the FIA were forced to tell event organisers that they were responsible for finalising their own deals for television coverage on a rally-by-rally basis.

A ridiculously wordy statement from WRC Commission president Jarmo Mahonen told them: “Despite very lengthy negotiations with Eurosport, we sincerely regret to have to inform you that, unfortunately, it has not been possible to conclude an agreement even when trying to give them the possibility to act as a provider of services, providing television coverage of the WRC.

“Therefore, the FIA will not be able to put in place a global promoter, or even global television coverage at this time. As a result, each WRC organiser will unfortunately have to negotiate the television broadcasting of his event.”

Local terrestrial station SVT will cover the Swedish Rally in the host country, but the organisers face a race against time to sort a deal out for viewers in the rest of the world.

This is the latest disaster for a championship that has suffered numerous setbacks over the last decade. The public have grown tired of Sebastien Loeb’s (above) dominance (eight titles in a row), and the number of manufacturers backing the series has dropped. Meanwhile, interest in the UK has diminished to practically zero following the sad deaths of Colin McRae and Richard Burns, and the lack of any sort of successor to them.

This latest fiasco, if not resolved shortly could well be the final nail in the coffin for the WRC as we know it.

• The new Sky Sports F1 channel will also show GP2 and GP3 live. The two feeder series to Formula 1 run for the most part parallel to the main championship, with GP2 having 12 rounds and GP3 just the 8 rounds. Each weekend features two races, both of which will be live on the new channel. There is no news on fellow support series Porsche Supercup, so that is expected to remain on Eurosport.

• Sky have also confirmed that their Formula 1 magazine programme with Georgie Thompson and Ted Kravitz will be shown weekly.

• ITV are expected to release football commentator Peter Drury and co-commentator Jim Beglin after Euro 2012 this summer. Former Irish international Beglin has been steadily phased out of his duties over the last couple of years as Andy Townsend has become more prominent, while the decision to drop Drury is more surprising. With ITV’s Champions League coverage moving to Tuesday nights, it means number 1 commentator Clive Tyldesley can easily do that match before travelling to wherever for a Europa League game on the Thursday. As the channel will still need more than one commentator, they could still keep Drury on as a freelancer unless he moves to another network full time.

• Sky Sports will show the Tony Bellew v Danny McIntosh fight for the British Light Heavyweight title after promoter Dave Coldwell won the purse bids and joined forces with Matchroom Sport to provide a TV date. Bellew (right) is signed to Frank Warren Promotions, who are a major player behind the rival BoxNation channel. After the announcement this week, Bellew said: “It’s a dream come true to be back on Sky Sports.” Don’t think his promoter will be too chuffed after hearing that.

• The Super League season starts this weekend. The early list of live matches on Sky can be seen here.

• Interestingly, from May Sky will be showing their secondary live match per round on a Monday night rather than a Saturday evening. This is down to the channel wanting more live sport on a Monday once the football season has ended during the summer. The now-traditional Friday night slot will stay untouched.

• Two of England’s rugby matches in the Women’s Six Nations will be shown live on television this year, with a third available online with a free, legal stream. First, on the 25th February the game against Wales will be on the BBC red button at 6.15pm. On the 11th March, England’s trip to France will be on the Sky Sports red button service at 12.45pm, while their final match against Ireland will be live on the RFU website on the 17th March at 2pm.

• Bad news for BT Vision subscribers after it was confirmed the new Sky Sports F1 channel will not be coming to the platform. Earlier this week it was confirmed that the station will be coming to Virgin Media, but those with BT Vision will have to rely on the BBC’s coverage of 10 live races, and extended highlights of the rest.

• Premier Sports have announced another batch of live Blue Square Bet Premier matches running through until April. All the top sides are in action as they battle it out to reach the Football League, including the potential thriller between Wrexham and Luton on the 7th March.

Fri 17 Feb	Southport v Grimsby Town	19:30	Premier Sports
Wed 22 Feb	York City v Gateshead	19:30	Premier Sports
Wed 7 Mar	Wrexham v Luton Town	19:30	Premier Sports
Fri 9 Mar	Kidderminster Harriers v Fleetwood Town	19:30	Premier Sports
Fri 23 Mar	TBC	19:30	Premier Sports
Fri 30 Mar	Luton Town v York City	19:30	Premier Sports
Tue 10 Apr	Fleetwood Town v Wrexham	19:30	Premier Sports

 

• Welsh language channel S4C have confirmed their live Welsh Premier League fixtures for February and March, with all four title contenders in action, plus a Welsh Cup quarter-final.

Sat 4 Feb	Bangor City v Prestatyn Town	15:45	S4C
Sat 11 Feb	Aberystwyth Town v Carmarthen Town	15:45	S4C
Sat 18 Feb	Llanelli v The New Saints	15:00	S4C
Sat 25 Feb	Welsh Cup quarter-final	TBC	S4C
Sat 3 Mar	Bangor City v Neath	15:45	S4C
Sat 10 Mar	Bangor City v The New Saints	17:15	S4C

 

• Premier Sports have renewed their deal with BriSCA F1 to show highlights of the national stock car series for another two years. Coverage of all 24 rounds will be shown every Tuesday night at 9pm, starting on the 3rd April, and concluding with the season finale on the 20th November at Belle Vue.

• Finally, this weekend sees the start of the Africa Cup of Nations. Every match will be shown live on British Eurosport, with daily highlights and occasional live action available to most of the country on ITV4. Ghana and Ivory Coast go in to the competition as favourites, but will face strong opposition from the continent’s best.

Damon Hill has joined Sky Sports as an analyst on their Formula 1 coverage.

The 1996 world champion (right) will be a part of half of the 20 races on the new Sky Sports F1 channel, including Australia, Bahrain, Monaco, Britain, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, India, USA and Brazil.

The channel launches on the 9th March, a week before the start of the season in Australia, and Hill joins a line-up that includes fellow former drivers Martin Brundle and Anthony Davidson.

Virgin Media have confirmed that the new Sky Sports F1 channel will be coming to the platform-but seemingly not in high-definition.

It will be added to the Sky Sports package available to subscribers, ending months of speculation as to whether Virgin customers would have access to every race live. However, the press release makes no mention of the HD channel being available, suggesting that will remain exclusive to Sky customers.

The channel will be launched on the 9th March, a week before the start of the 2012 season, and will show all the sessions from all 20 races live.

ACM, the organisers of the Monte Carlo Rally have confirmed Eurosport will produce the television coverage for the first round of the 2012 World Rally Championship (WRC).

The iconic rally, which begins on Wednesday had been left without anybody to film footage for the event after the FIA terminated their contract with promoter North One Sports on Sunday, leaving the sport in a shambolic state.

With time running out before the rally, ACM were forced to arrange everything themselves-including finding somebody to provide live tracking and timing. They enlisted Eurosport, who have covered this event for the last three years when it was part of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge

They still face a race against time in order to get their coverage all mapped out though. The contract specifies that five nightly 26-minute highlights programmes will need to be produced, but the usual end-of-rally power stage will not be shown live. Even still, it is a big ask at such short notice.

This deal is only for the first round of the season, but an announcement from the FIA confirming Eurosport as covering the complete WRC for the next three years is expected imminently.

The BBC have confirmed their presentation team for the 2012 Formula 1 season.

Most of it was already known, with lead commentator Martin Brundle leaving for Sky Sports, to be replaced by Ben Edwards. Edwards has commentated on F1 in the past for Eurosport and the short-lived F1 Digital+, but is most known among British fans for his work on ITV’s British Touring Car Championship coverage.

The other major addition to the team is Gary Anderson as a technical analyst. Anderson is best known for his two spells as a car designer for Jordan, but also conducted a similar role for the Stewart team, that later evolved in to Jaguar. In recent years he has written on the technical side of the sport for Autosport magazine, as well as working as a co-commentator and pundit for Setanta Sports and RTE in Ireland. His addition makes up for the loss of Ted Kravitz, who has also joined Sky in a similar role.

Elsewhere, the rest of the crew remains the same. Jake Humphrey will still present, though will miss a race or two with the Olympics, with Eddie Jordan as the main pundit. David Coulthard reprises his analyst/co-commentator role, while Lee McKenzie remains as a reporter.

The changes to the presentation team comes as a number of the crew have left for Sky, who will broadcast all 20 races from the 2012 season, while the BBC will only show half.

The full BBC line-up:

Presenter: Jake Humphrey

Pundit: Eddie Jordan

Commentators: Ben Edwards and David Coulthard

Technical Analyst: Gary Anderson

Reporter: Lee McKenzie

 

The FIA have terminated their contract with North One Sport, the commercial rights holders of the World Rally Championship (WRC).

As reported on tellysports last week, Convers Sports Initiatives, the parent company of North One went in to administration in November. Nobody made an offer to purchase the company and carry on the promotion of the WRC despite seven ‘expressions of interest’, so on Friday the FIA found North One to be in ‘breach of contract’ and ended the deal.

The FIA are now in an awkward situation with a week to go until the start of the 2012 season. The promoter/commercial rights holder are responsible for the day-to-day running of the championship, as well as timing and tracking, sponsorship servicing, and importantly-television production and rights distribution.

This means ESPN and Motors TV’s contracts to show the WRC in the UK are now void, and barring a late deal with the new rights holders will not be televising the series in 2012.

Eurosport Events, who currently promote the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) and Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) are expected to take over the role, but even then they face a race against time in order to have everything in place ahead of the Rallye Monte Carlo that starts on the 17th January. However, with Eurosport available across most of Europe, as well as many countries in the Asia-Pacific region, that at least solves some of the issues of distributing television rights around the world.

With Monte Carlo being part of the IRC since 2009 before reverting back to the WRC in 2012, Eurosport Events have covered this event in recent years, so will have some knowledge of how best to televise the rally at short notice.

Of course, they haven’t officially been confirmed as promoters, and somebody else may still get the role. Presumably the FIA will announce the news officially when everything is in place for the first round of the season.