Category: Sport

  • Apple’s Sports App

    Apple’s Sports App

    This week Apple launched a new app entirely devoted to sport. Apple Sports is initially available in the US, Canada and UK, and has a relatively small list of features. You basically pick which leagues you’re interested in, and which teams within those leagues you follow, and it’ll happily provide you with things like line-ups,…

  • Sports Numberwang

    I’m really only posting this, because I spent a bit too much time putting together a Thread of a response to a clickbait-y post about the major sporting events’ viewerships. I really shouldn’t rise to the bait, but… The Threads algorithm threw up this post. (A reminder that “Verified” just means someone who is willing…

  • Rebundling Sports in the US

    Rebundling Sports in the US

    Interesting news in the US, where Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and Fox have announced a new as-yet-unnamed streaming service that will combine all their sports offerings into a single subscription. Combining the resources of ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNews, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV and ESPN+ into a single…

  • The Festive 500 and the Cycling and Running Year Just Gone

    The Festive 500 and the Cycling and Running Year Just Gone

    In recent years, the Festive 500 seems to have become a little divisive. Sponsored by cycle clothing company Rapha, the Festive 500 is a challenge, largely undertaken using Strava, for cyclists to complete a total of 500km of riding between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. That’s eight days to ride an average of 62.5km…

  • Premier League Rights 2025/26 – 2028/29 UK TV Deal

    Premier League Rights 2025/26 – 2028/29 UK TV Deal

    This evening, the first games in Amazon’s deal for TV rights to two rounds of the Premier League get underway. But Amazon’s coverage ends after next season’s Festive period games, because from the 2025/26 season, they will no longer have live rights. Amazon, you will recall, have the rights to a midweek round of games…

  • GCN+ Closing Down

    GCN+ Closing Down

    There was some sad news on Wednesday, when Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced that GCN+ will be closing down in December this year. Unfortunately, it perhaps wasn’t surprising news set against a plurality of WBD sports brands and a massive need for WBD to cut costs throughout its business to service an enormous debt load.…

  • Premier League UK TV Rights – More Games, Fewer Packages

    Premier League UK TV Rights – More Games, Fewer Packages

    Regular readers will know that I’m a little obsessed with the TV rights to Premier League football, and I only last wrote about the upcoming rights round a month ago. According to the very well connected FT (£), the Premier League is likely to offer fewer rights packages this time around, but with more games…

  • ESPN, Charter, The Cable Bundle and the Future

    ESPN, Charter, The Cable Bundle and the Future

    I have been fascinated by the recently resolved standoff in the US TV industry between the second biggest cable provider in the country, Charter Communications, and one of the biggest TV providers, Disney. Over the US Open tennis final at the weekend, and the start of the opening weekend of the new NFL season, millions…

  • Premier League UK TV Rights

    Premier League UK TV Rights

    There’s a good piece in the FT from earlier this week (£) that examines the forthcoming kick-off the next set of UK Premier League TV rights. The current set of rights agreements expire at the end of the 2024/5 season, and with the 2023/4 season just getting underway, it means that the time is right…

  • IPL TV and Streaming Rights

    IPL TV and Streaming Rights

    Long-time readers will know that I have a deep fascination with sports rights, the value attached to them and the value generated by the companies that buy them. Sports bodies have worked out the most efficient ways to maximise those rights, getting big media giants to spend freely every few years. The Indian Premier League…

  • Losing 56 kg / 9 stone / 124 lbs Over a Year

    Losing 56 kg / 9 stone / 124 lbs Over a Year

    At the end of 2020, I wrote a blog post entitled “Making the Most of 2020” in which I detailed my diet and fitness regime. This post goes into significantly more detail, revisiting some of what I wrote before, and expanding on it. I should also make clear that I am not a medical practitioner…

  • The Olympics on TV in the UK

    The Olympics on TV in the UK

    The 2012 London Olympics were perhaps the high point for UK viewers who wanted to watch the Olympic Games. For a home event, the BBC pulled out all the stops with coverage across BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Three (then still on broadcast). There was a vast array of other broadcasts too, with up…