The commentator is stepping back from Sky after three decades and his perennial presence and enthusiasm will be missedAt Sky Sports, they still called him “the Voice”. Richard Keys, the long-serving anchorman to Martin Tyler in the commentary box, claimed this weekend this was because Tyler “definitely didn’t have a face for TV” – throwing us back to a now distant, coarser era of broadcasting.At 77, Tyler is the perennial who floated above the eras. Viewers of 40-plus will recall his career extending far further back than before football began in 1992. At both the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, Tyler acted as ITV’s main commentator while Brian Moore stayed in a London studio before flying out for the latter...
Lineker marshalled the studio well, Mowbray and Jenas made a solid double act, but the forgetful prime minister got a kickingFootball punditry can be a detestable sham. The BBC gave an ominous reminder of that during their Euro 2020 preview show on Thursday, when Gary Lineker said Micah Richards knew a lot about North Macedonia and everyone in the studio, including Richards, fell about laughing. Apparently the notion that a highly paid analyst might swot up on one of the tournament’s lesser known teams was top banter.But that was a lone outrage in a tolerable production and, in fairness, it is both the privilege and the burden of the national broadcaster that it must try to cater to everyone’s taste....
The ceremony’s usual bombast was dialled down a little but odd moments were reassuringly present and correctAs the BBC’s small, Covid-friendly Sports Personality of the Year award ceremony drew to a predictable conclusion, Lewis Hamilton – appearing via video link from a position in front of a lavishly decorated Christmas tree in Monaco – held up the replica trophy he had been thoughtfully equipped with in case of victory and thanked the people of Britain for voting for him. “All the frontline workers, all the children of the world, please try to stay positive at this difficult time,” he said. “Please, everyone out there, go out and follow your dreams.”Unless you’re in a tier 4 area, of course, in which...
Two untaxing wins meant the corporate behemoth arrived quietly – but the smart money says it’s here to stayIf Amazon Prime Video was hopeful its maiden foray into rugby coverage would be the main talking point of the weekend’s international Test match action, its thunder was unceremoniously stolen mere hours before its first broadcast by Sky Sports. After Sky’s viewers were spoiled by the unprecedented sight of Argentina beating the All Blacks in the Tri-Nations, a laboured Scotland win over Italy and routine England rout of Georgia in our own comparatively mundane autumnal jamboree, the Nations Cup, could never hope to compete.“Amazon delivers the rugby,” it told us, the pre-match graphic featuring rampaging and hulking household names carrying brown parcels...
Condensing the action works better for some sports than others, but it feels crucial as viewing options keep expandingApparently, the US Open men’s final on Sunday night was incredible. I wouldn’t know; I only saw the highlights. Which, as everyone knows, is by far the least satisfying way of watching a tennis match: inferior in many ways to watching nothing. For some reason tennis has always been strangely resistant to the highlights treatment: a game of infinite pivots and infinite crises, where every apparent turning point merely heralds the next, where its most epic passages feel like the world is ending again and again and again. Abridging all this feels somehow wrong, faithless: like trying to sum up Like a...