BBC Sport

BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand and coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.

Due to the public status of the BBC, advertising is forbidden and as a result, sports matches covered by BBC Sport are not allowed to be sponsored. Until 1982, this resulted in teams frequently having two sets of kits; normal kits (with corporate logos), and 'BBC kits', which were plain.

BBC Sport is one of the few BBC entities which still regularly broadcasts programmes in 3 ratio, as opposed to the 9 widescreen or the 9 compromise ratio used throughout the rest of the BBC. This is because although the BBC produces all its sporting events in a 16:9 ratio, often sports are shown for which the BBC is not host broadcaster. In these occasions only a 4:3 feed may be available. The BBC then either frames the 4:3 picture in a 16:9 frame or transmits in 4:3.

BBC Sport is currently trialing the HD format by broadcasting matches of the 2006 Football World Cup in HDTV as part of a wider trial of that format by the BBC.

Sports which the BBC Sports holds rights to show

Tennis

Arguably, BBC Sport's most prized sport is the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. The BBC has televised Wimbledon since 1937 and today produces over 900 hours of footage for display in 159 different countries [http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/about/tvschedule/tv_bbc.html

The BBC shows both live matches and also a daily highlights programme entitled Today At Wimbledon. The programme is presented by Sue Barker

Furthermore, the BBC shows live coverage of both the French Open and the Australian Open on its interactive services, while screening the finals live on its terrestrial channels. It also provides coverage for the British Davis Cup team and pre-Wimbledon events such as those at the Queen's Club Championships and Eastbourne.

Football

The BBC holds exclusive rights to show Premiership highlights, joint rights for the FA Cup along with Sky Sports and joint rights for the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany along with ITV. Additionally the BBC has right to all England's home matches whilst away matches are decided upon a game-by-game basis. The BBC shows highlights of most Scotland matches, with live away games often being shown by BBC SPORT Scotland under the Sportscene banner. Sky Sports hold the live Scotland home game rights. BBC Scotland, until recently, also showed highlights of the Scottish Premierleague on Saturday evenings, although exclusive terrestrial rights are now held by STV's Scotsport programme. BBC SPORT Scotland does continue to host extensive live games and highlights from Scotland's two major cup competitions, the Tennent's Scottish Cup and the CIS League Cup. The BBC lost its right to show Wales' home matches in 2003 as the FAW signed a 4 year deal with Sky Sports. The BBC however still have rights to show the FAW Cup. The BBC shows nearly all its football under its Match Of The Day brand. Premiership highlights are shown under Match Of The Day on Saturdays and MOTD2 on Sundays. England's internationals and Live FA Cup games are shown on Match Of The Day Live. The World Cup games are usually shown under the title World Cup Match Of The Day. FAW Cup matches are shown under the title Match Of The Day Wales.

BBC Sport's football coverage is usually anchored by Gary Lineker and pundits are Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson. The BBC's main commentators are John Motson and Jonathan Pearce. For many years Barry Davies commentated for the BBC but he recently retired from their football coverage. Des Lynam previously hosted Match Of The Day until he moved to ITV in 1999.

Rugby Union

The BBC holds exclusive rights to the Six Nations championship in the UK. It shows all matches in the tournament live under the Six Nations Grandstand brand. The BBC also holds rights to show highlights of the Guinness Premiership, England's top league in Rugby Union. It shows these under its Rugby Special brand. The BBC holds exclusive rights to show the Anglo-Welsh Powergen Cup and does so on Grandstand and also under its Scrum V brand in Wales. The BBC holds joint right to show the Celtic League, Wales,Ireland and Scotlands top league along with Setanta Sports which it does again under the Scrum V brand, which is only available in Wales and on satelite. It is also interesting to note that BBC Sport produces the Welsh-language Channel 4 variant S4C's coverage of the Celtic League and Powergen Cup. This is because the BBC is obliged to provide S4C with several hours of programming a week.

BBC Sport's rugby coverage is currently presented by John Inverdale, Craig Doyle, Jill Douglas and on Scrum V, Eddie Butler. The main pundits used are Jeremy Guscott, Jonathan Davies, Andy Nicol and Keith Wood and also Mike Hall and Stuart Davies on Scrum V. The BBC's commentary team includes Eddie Butler and Brian Moore, Nick Mullins and Jonathan Davies and Gareth Charles and Stuart Davies. Bill McLaren used to be the BBC's main commentator before his retirement.

Motorsport

The BBC covered Formula 1 for almost two decades until 1996, when ITV won the exclusive rights. Formula 1 was shown under the 'Grand Prix' banner, races were commentated on by Murray Walker, with many Co-Commentators including James Hunt and Jonathan Palmer. Coverage was expanded in 1996, when all Qualifying and Races were shown live - many with Steve Rider fronting the coverage.

The BBC also broadcasted the World Rally Championships until 2001, when Channel 4 stole the rights. The World Rally Championship is now shown on ITV and Eurosport. The British Touring Cars was another championship the BBC lost, in 2002 when once again ITV took the broadcasting rights.

After losing these championships the BBC dabbled in British and World Superbikes for a few years - often showing the World Championship version Live. In 2003 it also won the rights to the Moto GP World Championship. After a successful first season, coverage was expanded with more live races, and the contract extended until 2009. After dropping the World and British Superbikes, The BBC now shows All Moto GP races, with many Qualifying sessions Live. Suzi Perry is the host with commentary from Charlie Cox and Steve Parrish.

Olympics

The BBC holds the exclusive terrestrial rights to show Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics and has shown live coverage of every Summer Olympics since 1964. The recent Summer Olympics held in Athens allowed the BBC to use its interactive services to provide even greater coverage of this event, making it one of the biggest for the corporation's sport department. This long-standing association between the Olympic Games and the BBC will now include coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics to be held in London. Presenters for the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics have included many of the corporation's sports presenters, such as David Coleman, Frank Bough, Des Lynam, Steve Rider and Sue Barker.

Athletics

For many years, the BBC has covered the biggest events in athletics, stretching as far back as 1954, when Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile. Fronted for many years by David Coleman, until his retirement after the 2000 Summer Olympics, events such as the Commonwealth Games, the World Championships, the European Athletics Championships, domestic British athletics and mass-participation events such as the London Marathon and the Great North Run have been and still are broadcast.

Horse Racing

Although the amount of horse racing on the BBC has declined in recent years, the majority of big races, with the exception of the Cheltenham Festival and races from Newmarket are to be found on the BBC. The Grand National has for many years been one of the biggest attractions on Grandstand with audiences around or often in excess of 10 million for a race on a Saturday afternoon. Coverage of other events such as Royal Ascot and the Epsom Derby are also broadcast, with presenter Clare Balding fronting the coverage.

Rugby League

Since Sky Sports holds the rights to the Super League, the BBC covers the Challenge Cup from the rounds in which the top clubs enter. Highlights of the Super League, are shown by the BBC in the north of England, the sport's traditional heartland, with the end of season play-offs shown across the whole country in a highlights package.

Golf

The BBC holds exclusive UK rights to live coverage to two of the four men's major golf championships, the British Open and the US Masters. Led by veteran commentator Peter Alliss, the team also cover other European Tour events held in Britain, such as the BMW Championship the HSBC World Matchplay Championship, the Scottish Open. It also covers the Women's British Open. Highlights of the Ryder Cup can also be seen on the BBC.

Snooker

The BBC2 programme Pot Black in the 1970s, was arguably the reason for the sport's great popularity over the last 30 years. Snooker produced the largest ever audience for BBC2 with the 1985 World Snooker Championship final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor pulling in 19 million viewers just after midnight. Although not the most glamourous of sports, the sport always pulls in large viewing figures for the BBC through tournaments such as the World Snooker Championships, the Masters, the UK Championship and the Grand Prix.

Cricket

One of BBC Sport's major failings is that it no longer shows any cricket games, having lost coverage of the Test Matches to Channel 4. Coverage was fronted by Tony Lewis for many years. It is a great shame to many people that the BBC, whose cricket coverage is considered to be the world's best, no longer shows this sport. The BBC was also widely criticised for not even bidding for the rights to show Home Test Matches when the next set of rights between 2006 to 2009 went up for sale. That honour went exclusively to Sky.

In September 2005 it was annouced that BBC Sport had purchased the rights to show highlights of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, to be held in the West Indies. BBC Two will broadcasting 29 hours worth of highlights of the main matches at 11.15pm during the duration of the tournament.