The rights to highlight

Thanks for the blog. While I gather that all Championship matches will be highlighted in "The Football League Show", will there be enough time for all 36 games to have a 2 minute highlight package in the 1 hour 20 minutes available?

And I have to admit I find the scheduling for this Saturday's edition rather sloppy - why does a Lara Croft film get precedent over The Football League Show, leaving it in a graveyard 23:45 slot? Seems rather sloppy to me.

the live games are something I am very excited about, I'm just worried we will see too many games focusing on newcastle and the other so called big clubs of the championships.

Having waited this long for live games on terrestrial tv it would be a shame to ruin it by giving fans of clubs who are already used to live games too much of a preference

Oh goodie. More football on tv. Be still my beating heart.

O and at D_M_N i imagine it has something to do with the contract the BBC have drawn up with sky. plus this time slot is perfect get back in from the pub. watch some footie. A lot better than ITV's championship which i was typically either not awake or busy when it was on.

Good point DMN, makes sense that the footy should be accessible for all at a reasonable hour.

Well it's in the graveyard slot every week after MOTD. ITV had the much better idea of scheduling it on a Sunday morning, and I'm sure an hour could be found on BBC1 or BBC2 to accomodate it.

Good to hear of the coverage the BBC will be giving to football outside the Premier League. One request for the highlights slot - please, please, please show every goal. One of the most infuriating things about watching particular highlights programmes on other channels was having to sit through 30 minutes of one match, only to miss out on goals from other games lower down the league - there's no excuse, they're all filmed these days. As a neutral when it comes to league football (these days), I'm interested in the goals first and foremost, and anything else only if there's time. This applies to FA Cup highlights too.

Hi Lewis,
Many thanks for the Blog. I definitely would like more of these blogs as they are really informative. On this topic, I don't think that Barbara Slater the new Head of Sport has ever blogged. Can you ask her when she will? Also, we've not heard from Paul Armstrong from Match of the Day in ages. On this topic, no one from 5 Live Sport has ever blogged on here. I think this would be really useful in order to explain their choice of football commentaries etc.
On the subject of your coverage, is the football coverage being produced in-house or by an independent? I'm really pleased that the live matches will be in HD, though like MadGlover above, I'm a bit concerned that both you and Sky think that the Championship just revolves around Newcastle United.
Please do keep the blogs coming.
Many thanks,
Tony

Thanks for the blog. While I gather that all Championship matches will be highlighted in "The Football League Show", will there be enough time for all 36 games to have a 2 minute highlight package in the 1 hour 20 minutes available?

And I have to admit I find the scheduling for this Saturday's edition rather sloppy - why does a Lara Croft film get precedent over The Football League Show, leaving it in a graveyard 23:45 slot? Seems rather sloppy to me.

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I assume that not all games will get their 2 minutes on the show itself, much more likely half the games will be goals/major incidents only just like ITV's offering last season.

As for the the time slot. It makes perfect sense for the Beeb to use the same slot this week as it will be using all season, which will be after MOTD, at around 23:45. The task of putting the show together is not an insignificant one, likely four times as many matches as the MOTD crew have to deal with so doing it in 6 hours or so will already be challenge enough, especially on the first week.

Well, I'll be first to say I enjoy these types of blogs . . I never realised how difficult it was to get the highlights to the BBC. I'm suprised that you'd put the show after Match of the Day, I thought it would be a BBC three jobby. All the more reason for Fulham to not get relegated then!

Also will the BBC possibly be bidding for setanta's lost FA Cup and England rights? I think that was a big loss for the BBC

Hello there.

Could you tell me how the football league show will be structured?
For example, how long will each match be shown on tv?
Will it be like the itv 30 second effort, and one main game at the start, or will it be like match of the day with extended highlights of every game?

So basically how many minutes of highlights will be broadcast on the football league show of each game?

Thanks

What time will Football League highlights be, who will be presenting, who are the pundits and will it clash with MOTD? And who's gonna be replacing Stubbs on Final Score? Thanks.

" At 12:58pm on 05 Aug 2009, Brekkie wrote:

Well it's in the graveyard slot every week after MOTD. ITV had the much better idea of scheduling it on a Sunday morning, and I'm sure an hour could be found on BBC1 or BBC2 to accomodate it."

ITV would move it around each week, at least the BBC will have it on iPlayer should you miss the programme; there was no punditry (not sure whether the BBC version will have it), adverts in the middle will be gone. The programme time is fine, but would the show be repeated on BBC3 during the week? Will the BBC do a highlights show midweek if there's a full midweek set of fixtures?

Fantastic news....as a Grimsby Fan working down South I've previously had to rely on the goals making the cut on Soccer A.M's best bits as I can't make many games....now I can actually waste my employers money by watching the goals on their time....brilliant!

Hopefully the coverage of the championship will be more than just Newcastle.

My original point was would all the goals be shown from all the leagues - it appears you've addressed this though which is a good thing.

@ gunner-zp - Rosicky Returns! Believe in Bendtner: see --> https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8170690.stm

Hi Lewis, perhaps you can give me a better answer than the automatic response I received upon complaining about the fact that with rights to 10 games throughout the season, covering a league with 24 teams, you'd think the BBC would be smarter than to show Newcastle twice in the opening two months!! Anyway, I was informed the reason to show the Ipswich v Newcastle game was the opportunity to see 'two of the last decades greatest players in Keane and Shearer match up as managers'. To me this is a ridiculously answer for the following reasons:

(i) I don't think many people really care to be honest about Shearer v Keane
(ii) If the person making the decision of which games to air actually knew an ounce about football, they'd know that Alan Shearer as manager is still by no means a certainty and reports suggest he'll be back on MOTD this season and not in the Newcastle dugout.

As it happens Sir Bobby's passing adds new meaning to the Ipswich v Newcastle clash, so I'll be more than happy to watch it now and accept it as the chosen game. However, when the decision was made this certainly wasn't the case and whatever justifications were made for showing it really do need to be scrutinised. Finally, in future reasons for showing games should be more transparent as inevitably certain teams will not be shown this season and it is therefore a sensitive issue which can be curtailed with some reason and honesty.

I'm just glad that the highlights will be on telly I can watch - as STV opted out of showing the Championship north of the border.

Great news - I had no idea this was all happening! I can now follow my beloved Bristol Rovers from afar!

I hope That BBC Scotland won't be cutting the coverage.

STV (Scottish ITV) already stops me from watching England games and the FA Cup, as well as The Championship last season.

As a Bristol City fan living in Glasgow i find it extremely irritating having English football replaced in schedules by repeated drama and film from the 70s.

Hi Lewis, very interesting blog.

As a footie fan who's now living abroad, I'm sure I'm asking a question you've gotten hundreds of times. Will there ever be a day when highlights, live streaming and iPlayer etc etc will become available for non-UK visitors to the website? I understand there must be a mountain of legalities to be overcome, but I'm just wondering if it's something we could look forward to, or should we not get our hopes up?

This is fantastic to hear. Any live games on BBC are good and are always preferred to ITV's poor coverage. The Carling Cup Semis and Final is an added bonus. Now with this league show on after MOTD will there be new up-and-coming commentators on this show? Or will 'big' commentators work on the show at all? Also will Premiership highlights be available on the red button? Many thanks.

Will you only be showing live Championship games, or will you show a couple from the lower leagues.
I'm sure most football fans would love to see what's going on with Notts Counties football revolution or whether Southampton, Charlton Athletic, Norwich City etc. can perform at a lower level.

Hi lewis

Great Blog

Never Underestimate the power of football - Loads of interest in lower division behind the scenes stuff - The two videos I've just watch on the div two promo are excellent

Questions:

Will the BBC when it shows the coverage from every game use the club commentators on the website for commentary ?

Who will commentate on the Football league show and who will host it ?

Will there be guests ?

Will any of the Johnstone paint trophy/final etc be on the BBC ?

Will the clubs receive any money from you for being shown live or as highlights ?

And finally what will happen to the poor people from the Blue Square prem ?

Thanks for this

Paul Fenton

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

as another Grimsby fan here, one thing that particularly irritated me about Football League coverage on ITV was that there was no programme on weekends when the Championship clubs weren't playing, whether for international breaks or FA Cup. Are the BBC intending to correct this or will I still need to watch Sky for some half-decent lower league coverage?

Keep up the blog Lewis, it's still interesting to find out what's going on in regards to changes etc.

One question I have:

You mention that the old match previews are being switched to a new "match centre" where the video and other info will be collated. What I'm wondering is, how long will this match centre (and the highlights) be available for after the match? Most in regards to highlights.

Will I be able to go back to football highlights from 2 months previous incase I want to check something out? Or will the video be taken down after a while?

Also are you putting any time and resources into giving users more options in regards to personalising what they see when they come to BBC Sports pages? I just think it would be cool if you could log on to the sports (or football) home page and it would be personalised for you (for example, you could have one section of the front page with all your team news on, one section with transfer rumours etc, and if you don't like a section you just close it. Like iGoogle.)

Lastly, are you going to do anything to combine 606 and the sports website? At the moment they're two seperate sites held together by links and stuff. Are there any plans to bring 606 into the sports site for easier use?

Cheers

Dan

Hi Lewis, no worries. I guessed you weren't involved in the decision making and I didn't intend my comment to come across as an attack was just hoping that maybe being an insider you might have more of an idea. If you're a Mariners fan I'm guessing you can understand the resentment felt by many football league fans that Newcastle, a team who I believe had 8 of their final 10 games last season televised, benefited from having the first two BBC live games as well. Combine this with my personal annoyance that the Ipswich v Newcastle game had been chosen ahead of the Steel City derby which was not due to be shown on sky either. As it happens, Sky has since chosen the game to be shown and as such my resentment is somewhat reduced but nevertheless I do believe the majority of football fans will be hoping that Newcastle will not be selected for coverage in any of the remaining six games. Once again, I apologise if my original post came across as an attack.

Lewis thank you for all the information
not sure if you can supply an answer to these questions

1)In the last month I read some where that the BBC had negotiated
a new deal with the football league for full local radio commentary
rights.
The essence being only the home team will now get a payment from the BBC,
is that correct?
2)Which will be the featured radio match on the 8th august on BBC five live at 3pm?

Hi Lewis,

I have some questions although you probably won't be able to answer most of them which is understandable, perhaps you can ask the Editor of the new show or someone else to do a blog? I reads

When there are games on a Sunday is there any chance that the goals will be shown on MOTD2? Or on Inside Sport (when it is on) on a Monday like is already done for Premier League Matches.

On the odd occassion when there are Football League Matches but no Premier league matches will the show be moved to an earlier time slot to give it more exposure?

Will the live matches come under "The Football League Show" branding with mnaish presenting etc... will they be covered by MOTD?

Will there be new features and blogs on the Football League on the website (like was done when F1 returned to the BBC earlier this year) or will it mostly stay the same?

Are the Play Off Highlights to be shown online? I am guessing they will be but don't think I've seen any specific reference to them.

By the way for anyone that is interested this press release gives a little more information:

https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/07_july/28/league.shtml

Hi, Lewis. Interesting stuff. As a Brentford fan this is very encouraging, even if it doesn't seem to offer much over ITV's previous offerings. I would like to echo the previous sentiment that you must make it clear to the TV people to show all the goals in the highlights programme. It got right on my nerves when there were 4 or 5 goals in a L1 or L2 game and they'd only show 2 goals but happily spend time on the featured Championship game showing unexciting things like ball going out for a throw-in. Also, if you could pass on that it's preferable to show sendings off too, that would be useful. Other than that, it sounds like you're getting all the content in one place for each team, which is great. One last question: Why has the BBC been so slow to update Brentford news in the last few weeks? Signings news has been slow and there's been nothing at all about the proposed 'partnership' with our largest investor, something which is very important to a fans-owned club such as ours. There was also no news about Alan Bennett's signing. He played for us on loan from Reading but was a free agent and the signing saga lasted for most of the off-season, so it's disappointing to have seen no report there.
Would also like to echo the above about this blog, keep the behind the scenes and technicalities coming, it will get read.

It will no doubt be a shambles as pretty much every other football league highlights package has been. As lower league football gets treated with barely disguised contempt, unless your name is Newcastle or Leeds.

As soon as the first international break comes round and there is no MOTD to show, our highlights programme will be quietly dropped for the week and we'll be palmed off with the excuse that "the highlights are available online"

I also reckon that not every goal will be shown. If the match involving your team features more than two goals don't be surprised when they show two goals from your match and just tell you about the other ones.

Up the O's

It still irks me that it states on the website for UK users only. As a RUFC fan , currently working in Germany, and pay my TV licence at home in the UK and here, I still miss out on the replays on the web or iPlayer

I look forward to the announcement of a similar deal for the Scottish Leagues...

This is fantastic news. 1 hour 20 is a good time for the show, and putting it after match of the day can only be a good thing. Even better the fact that I can watch it on the red button in case I miss it, and then on the iplayer all week after that! Good stuff, i only wish Match of the Day could be shown like that.

Following up from a previous comment - all the goals MUST be shown, especially if the tag line for the trailer is "we support your team". Not to do so every week would be criminal. I also hope a show for TV will be made for midweek programmes of games, of which there are many more in the Football League compared to the Premier League? This should certainly not be forgotton

As a Nottingham Forest fan I am glad to see my team picked for a live game, but to have two Newcastle games already is a bit much - they are used to live football, show some teams we're not used to seeing.

Hi Lewis,

A simple question really, will match of the day highlights be available on BBC iplayer? If it will, when will it be available in terms of timing after a normal MOTD broadcast on say a Saturday evening?

Hi, are you or Sky the host broadcaster for the Carling Cup Final?

Hi Lewis, as I understand it from what you've said so far, the goals and highlights will only be available for 7 days after the matches on the BBC Sport website, is that correct?

Which I'm sure is good enough for most of us, I'm just checking there are no plans to publicly archive all the matches, so you could perhaps look back at the goals from a famous victory of your club months down the line. Would it be possible, for instance, to collate some of the best goals from each division into a little 'goal of the month' feature, or do you simply lose the rights to any footage after the 7 days is up?

Thanks for this

Two last question

I know the cameraman in the north of england who will film these guys have been asked to do interviews after each game will these be available on the website...

Also did you see the great job ITV did do with the FA Cup stuff on a video wall - Will the stuff on the Beeb be similar ?

Meeting Lee Strafford ay? He certainly is an interesting man. He has pretty much single-handedly reinvigorated the club. I don't know how much you can divulge regarding the purpose of your meeting but I would be very interested in any details you could provide.

Very disappointing to hear of no highlights show during international weekend - I would in the very least have expected a show - even if in a reduced one hour format @ 11pm on BBC Two.

Nevermind, my questions already been answered now so no worries. I'm still wondering whether you have any rights al all though, like as I said to maybe have a goal of the month/season package after those 7 days which would be a nice little bonus.

Hi Lewis,

just wanted to thank you for taking the time to blog and to implore you to please keep it up.

As a neutral living in London I am very much looking forward to watching the live games, and the highlights of league football on the BBC.

Best wishes.

Thanks Lewis. At least i get to see one week's worth of action on TV up north before the Scottish League kicks back into action.

I suppose i'll have to be investing in the internet in my flat rather than peeking at the goals at work!

Many thanks for the blog though, most informative and great to keep abreast of developments on the BBC showing real football for a change.

Interesting blog.

And well done for answering some of the TV based questions even though you are only really working for the web team.

If you could convice some of your colleagues from TV to blog more often that would be great. Roger Mosey's blogs were always a useful way of finding out about future plans, tv rights etc - something that Barabara Slater has not appeared to have been keen to do since taking over.

Dear Lewis,
The extra coverage sounds great, but what about us non UK users of the website. Will we at any time be able to see the highlights. Good news about the match centre, having everything in one place and auto refresh will be a great step forward.

"...And tvphil (great name), Roger is doing a blog still ... bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/rogermosey."

Thanks, but this is of course all for his new London 2012 role, which is interesting in its own right. However, no-one at the BBC has really taken over blogging about tv rights, issues and future plans that he used do in his previous role.

Thank the Lord that league football is no longer covered by ITV. They have, by far, the worst commentators, coverage, pundits and timeslots imaginable.

I remember last year when my team (Southend) played Chelsea in the FA Cup 3rd round at Stamford Bridge. We drew 1-1 with a last minute headed equaliser. In the highlights show from ITV, we got about 30 seconds coverage whilst the Hull vs Newcastle game (which ended 0-0) got about 5 minutes! I was fuming and complained - which I didnt get a response to.

Anyway, hopefully the BBc coverage will do the football justice - there are a lot of fans out there that dont support a Prem club (me included) and who want to see decent coverage of their teams games.

The time might be an issue though - straight after MOTD on Saturday? Im OK, ive got Sky + so ill record and watch in the morning.

To be honest I don't care about all the ins and outs of when and why and how highlights or previews or whatever are shown as long as there is more free football and live matches like the upcoming weekend.

I think you should still do a regular blog, it's always good to have extra sports news to read, but try and keep the content less confusing like this one was!

https://www.loserscomesecond.com/

Hi Lewis

I am a Southampton fan who lives away from home for up to 4 weeks at a time, during which I can't stream videos from the internet. I'd quite like to see us get back into positive points when I am at home, so I was wondering how long the highlights from each game would remain on the website before they are removed.

great news for me, not long been on t'web and now all these highlights to watch. cant wait for the new season. well done for this website, i find it easy to navigate and always informative. keep up the good work, cheers.

Please don't put anymore Newcastle live games on. With 10 games you can show a max. of 20 clubs out of 24. Unfair to 4 clubs, now it's only 19. Who are the 5 that'll miss out?

Also, who's gonna present Football focus now that Manesh is doing this show and Stubbsy is going to ESPN-Sky and Jake is off travelling the world. (Lucky ******, I remember when he used to do CBBC. :P )

It's about time terrestrial TV had this kind of coverage again...hats off to the BBC.

However, i'm gutted as i've just moved to America and wont be able to enjoy any of it. Is it possible to watch BBC iPlayer from outside the UK?

Lewsi I hope this blog proves that there is the appetite for the sports editors blog.

You have had to deal with lots of TV questions, its an exciting time for BBC Sport with this new football league contract and many people want to know what the coverage will be like but none of the TV people have told us anything. The Sports Editors blog was excellent for all these questions and if Paul Armstrong, Phil Bernie etc had blogged you wouldn't have been besieged with all these questions!

I hope to see more blogs for the sports editors.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

what happens to the individual clubs sites? I'm a Rovers fan and won't fans desert it for the BBC? It is not the best site but they must make money from it which helps pay the players wages etc. I thought the BBC isn't meant to dominate online. Are you doing stuff to help clubs like the Rovers?

Lewis, thanks for the update.

I sincerely hope your coverage of the Football League will be a lot better than ITV's pathetic effort. However I have a couple of main concerns.....

As a Blackpool fan I feel that ourselves and a few of the other BBC's so called 'smaller' clubs be once again overseen. For example, a pre match game preview last season would mostly say 90% about the opposition and then for example, Ian Ivatt is out injured. Now this is typical lazy journalism from the BBC in regards to Blackpool. The player in question is called Ian Evatt however this is a frequent mistake to misspell players names and provide no pre match coverage.

Secondly these so called 'experts'... I really hope you don't spend 30 mins of these programs asking their opinions, to be honest I would rather see the games than listen to their so called knowledge. Ok, if you have sent them to the game and they have watched it, I will quite accept their opinion, but to have watched 2 minutes of coverage like the rest of the country they cant really add any more to a game.

Finally, are you going to do a fantasy football game, like the prem in future?

And please, please, please don't make it the Newcastle show. They are not the main attraction to the total Football League audience.

Lewis, great article. As a fellow Norwich fan, I am lookign forward to seeing the Canaries on BBC this year. A couple of questions I have about the coverage... firstly, will there be a preview shown going into the weekend (ie, a thursday or friday evening?). secondly, will there be a highlights package if there is a round of midweek matches, or will we need to get these from the website?
Cheers.
otbc!

Hi Lewis,

Firstly, great to see a blog posted here. I was a big fan of the sport editors blog and think its great it has returned. I hope more editors see the responses to this and see the interest that is out there.

As I work for Virgin Media, I must mention that V+ is also available as a PVR! Sky are not the only choice!

As a Southampton fan, we've not had much to look forward to recently, but the new tv contract may just coincide with a great new beginning at the souths best club!

Hi.

I seem to remember reading when BBC first won the rights, something along the lines of "10 live games in the first season", does this mean this is something your expanding on in seasons to come or is the contract just for 10 live games each season?

Will Local radio station broadcasts ever be streamed online? Im an Ipswich supporter living in wales and it can be annoying only ever getting the build up.

You said earlier that the Sport frontpage probably wouldnt be customised but is there anyway we can link the Club Page to the Main bbc Page and not just "Football"?

Hello Lewis, it is great to see a blogger that wants to interact with the poster

It i something I like to see as it makes me feel the writer isn't just filling time with a pompus thread.

One thing i would question is the fact you didn't actually help me with my worry

2 out of 4 games for newcastle. If they end up getting 5 games it will be a shocker.

Cheers for the blog anyway enjoyed reading it.

Hi Lewis,

Thank you for the blog, and keep it coming.

If the coverage is anything like last season's SPL web highlights, then it's going to be good and I hope your bandwidth will cope. Whatever happens to these clips? Are they stored in a secret bunker on disk somewhere?

Given that you will have a period of time between the live action finishing and loading the clips online, will it be possible to get a referee point of view on match incidents. I understand that this cannot be done during the TV programme but it could add to your online coverage.

Further, will be nice if the BBC make moves towards showing online highlights from the top tier's of Wales and Northern Ireland football.

I was just wondering whether the highlights on the website will be in 16:9 or 4:3 because your confederations' cup highlights were in 16:9 but the Celtic Dinamo highlights were in 4:3

How often will you be showing live football league matches and will it just be championship matches or will there be the odd league 1 and league 2 match aswell?

Luka Modric (and spurs) are indeed super. Hopefully he can solve our left sided problems, and hopefully, now with the final on the beeb, we will reach our third carling final in a row.

Apologies if any of comments 58-74 (which are all awaiting moderation as I type) confirm what Lewis Wiltshire said in comment 57, but most if not all FL clubs do indeed have subscription services (often called 'World', i.e. Orient World for my team Leyton Orient) accessible from anywhere in the world. Some years ago, the FL clubs (or those at the time, anyway) signed up a to a deal with PTV for online and media rights, which is why practically every FL website follows the same template.

Overall, I like the sound of what is planned both on TV and on the website for FL highlights, with two caveats:

1) One of my frustrations with the World online highlights packages in the past has been key moments sometimes being left out just because they weren't goals or sendings-off - for example, near misses or great saves. So while the TV programme will of course only have time for the goals and (hopefully) sendings-off, I hope that the longer package put up on the website will contain these 'flavour' moments; I'm generally hopeful they will, judging by what I've seen from SPL highlights packages on the website;

2) Regarding the Saturday night programme, I'm very disappointed to read that "it's unlikely there will be a show on international weekends" - these weekends are a rare 'moment in the sun' for Leagues One and Two, and it would be a real shame if we weren't allowed to take centre stage when the opportunity allows. Sky didn't/doesn't take Big League Weekend Two off the air when there was no Championship, and I don't think the BBC should perpetuate the myth that there isn't any decent football in the lower two divisions.

Finally, a 'yes please' from me for blogs like this that pull back the curtain a bit and allow us an insight into the decision-making process, particularly for something as new as the FL coverage; like the BBC HD blogs, it allows for two-way communication between those in BBC Sport making the decisions, and we viewers trying to influence and inform those decisions.

Sorry for another TV question Lewis but -

I noticed the Celtic match last night had fancy new graphics, are these graphics being used for all of the BBC's Football coverage from Saturday?

And i'm another one who likes to know whats going on behind the scenes at BBC Sport, future plans etc, so please keep the Sport Editors Blog going!

I'm pleased the highlights are going to be shown on BBC and on iplayer. I don't think I'd be able to sit through Stoke V Bolton and Hull V Burnley just to watch more exciting teams in the championship on a saturday night.

Well as a Newcastle supporter I'd obviously like every one of our games to be shown on TV but I share the views of other fans that I would not want to see the same team all the time. As an ignorant Toon fan, I haven't got a clue about the players in the Championship (after all they don't have diamond earrings like the Premiership sort) and so need an education by watching other teams.

It was always an annoyance of mine that the FA cup coverage when it was on BBC would always show Man U or Arsenal irrespective of who they were playing.

Besides, I'm sick of Sky having all of our fixtures moved so that they're either late on Saturday night or on a Monday. I live in Sheffield now and we were supposed to be playing at Bramall Lane on Sat 31 Oct, which is my birthday. I was hoping my mates would travel down for the match followed by a night out. Now Sky have changed the match to a monday meaning a few of my mates can't come.

Good work BBC, showing ITV how its done.

And it's pretty obvious why Ipswich V Newcastle was picked before Sir Bobby's death - Keane Vs Shearer (hopefully). Who wouldn't want to see that? Although I was disappointed that Sunderland Vs Wolves didn't see any sparks a few seasons ago.

It is a shame that your first Football League show couldn't have been on a bit earlier as there is no Premier League MOTD to fit in first.

Infact, your own listing page https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/5161070.stm is still advertising it as 23:10 even though it has been shunted to 23:45 now.

Thanks for the blog, Lewis - personally, I find the behind-the-scenes stuff far more interesting than a typical "What a Prem star had for breakfast blog".
One favour - I understand that you don't control the live match selection process but please, please try to get the decision-makers to read this blog. The FL coverage really shouldn't become The Newcastle Show and if the coverage goes too heavy on the "big teams" then there'll be a helluva lot of resentment from fans of the other teams. The fairest solution would be a 12-match package featuring each team once - it's not going to happen now but at least, try to maximise the number of clubs benefiting from the coverage.
On Leagues 1&2, even as a Wednesdayite, I'd happily watch a programme concentrating on Leagues 1 & 2 on international weekends. It's worth sussing out (maybe a poll on the next blog?)what the level of interest in such a programme might be...
One final point: I understand the Beeb not wanting to offer too many services clashing with commercial operators, such as Fantasy Football, but as Channel 4 and the Guardian have both scrapped their offerings for 2009/10 (was the C4 model the Beeb's originally before getting transferred), there might be a sizeable gap in the market by this time next year...

Hi Lewis

All sounding very exciting.

One question which you may or may not be able to answer... You mentioned BBC iPlayer for 7 days, does this mean that the programme is also available on Virgin's catch up TV service?

Hye Lewis,

That is a fantastic blog giving us the updates of the BBC's new rights to Football League coverage. I am sure BBC will put their best efforts in producing great highlights and coverage from the leagues. It definitely is fresh air compared to the daily Premiere League coverage we normally get.

I am a big fan of those league since i lived in England for four years. now i am back in my home country of Malaysia.

i hope you can answer my important question as i cant get any answers from the net or others.

How can fans from outside the UK watch the highlights or maybe Live games through the BBC? I really hope you can answer my question here.

Thanks so much and keep up the good work!

Well Lewis, i hope judging by the number of reponses, that you are finally convinced that this blog, is far from Dry and you do indeed publish more blogs, in the not too distant future.

PS:Were you planning to publish this blog,or did Roger Mosey encourage you to publish this blog;-)

RovingBristol1 - Like the Sky/BBC deal, the PTV premium video deal was negotiated by the FL on behalf of its clubs, so as Lewis says there is no conflict; the clubs still get income for their video rights from two sources, a guaranteed income from Sky (and now the BBC) and a subscription-based income from their own sites.

It's up to the clubs to ensure that their online product is good enough and offers sufficient extra content to entice fans to subscribe to it; I believe they can post highlights online earlier than the BBC can, plus they can post whatever pre- and post-match interviews, behind-the-scenes etc. footage they like, as well as live match commentary.

Very interestingblog Lewis. I'm really happy with the BBC lately for their blogs. I think they've really steped up especially with Formula 1!

What i'd like to know (if possible)...will the Sheffield United V M'Boro shown tommorow night get highlights on Saturday night or will it only be showing highlights of Saturday's fixtures...?

Thanks!

Hey.

2 questions:

-What will be done about play offs on the BBC?
-Will there be any time for interviews with players or managers on the television show?

Finally, i'd just like to stress again how frustrating it is as a League One fan when the Championship is given a lot more spotlight than 1 or 2. ITV did it all the time and i hope BBC try to avoid this problem.

Thanks for the blog!

41. At 3:14pm on 05 Aug 2009, Lewis Wiltshire - BBC Sport wrote:
Ilovesnailmail - should you look forward to it, or not get your hopes up ... I would answer, don't get your hopes up. I can't imaginea governing body selling worldwide rights to one website because they are effectively ruling out their chances of selling the same rights to another website in every other country. Does that make sense? On a related note, we have no rights to use the Football League edits outside of bbc.co.uk, so they are not embeddable on other UK sites, either.

We all live in hope... It can be so annoying to use the BBC site as my main source of information for football, F-1 racing etc, only to find I can't watch any of the media streams. Would be great if the BBC introduced some kind of membership licence for Brits that live abroad.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Lewis,

Oxford fan in need here, firstly great blog I like to know what is happening behind the scenes as it were, The BBC football website Oxford page is good despite it mainly being regurgitated news from the club website. Also I know neither BBC or the defunct SatantaUK will be showing live Blue Square games or Highlights but have you any idea who if anyone will be, I know Eurosport were rumored to be making a bid?

How about some footage for us non UK residents.
It would be great for world listeners to have the same oppertunity to watch highlights of matches.How will we be able to see them

I'm a Colchester fan who lives outside the analogue range for BBC Essex and I can't get them via DAB either. Am I going to be able to listen the live United commentaries on a Saturday afternoon via the net ...or will the broadcast suddenly disappear as the game kicks off for "licensing issues" (I've even sometimes been told I can't listen because I'm not resident in the UK although I live on the East Suffolk coast!)?

Thanks.

53. Lewis Wiltshire - BBC Sport wrote: "You don't have to await an announcement for the Scottish leagues, as that happened first. We've had the SPL video rights on this site for a couple of seasons."

Rawkmonster's query (#38) was about "a similar deal for the Scottish Leagues". You do know there are leagues outside the SPL in Scotland, just like those outside the Premiership in England, which is what this blog is all about after all, so why would he be asking about the SPL? Not sure if you deliberately ignored what was asked or not, but needless to say, I don't expect to see it happen, and considering the pitiful amount of news coverage of teams/games outside the SPL by the BBC, like Rawkmonster, I won't be holding my breath....

Good move by the Beeb for football fans down south though, but as for showing the footage on BBC Scotland, although for any fans of Football League teams staying north of the border I hope the highlights will be, please, please BBC don't broadcast any of the live games.

With Steve Claridge on the panel of pundits, I hope he has a good word for Saints occasionally, as he never did on Sky ;-).
Also, could Southampton's highlights please not be last every week like they have been on BBC and ITV for the past 20 years? Ta. Good luck with the new show!

Interesting blog Lewis, thanks. I have the BBC Sport Editors' Blog bookemarked on my PC and can't say I really ever read any other BBC Blogs, so there is certainly a market (just look at the number of replies to this for instance).

As for the Championship, it's good to know I can see the goals on the BBC Website. I often look at the site for SPL goals and know it is handy when you hear radio reporters talk about "goal of the season" candidates in a game.

I share the worry amongst many Scots that the TV show will be dropped although I notice it's scheduled for after Tomb Raider this weekend. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and not just a one-off.

Can I just say to Lewis, well done on answering all those questions, (some of them multiple times to different users). I have, (since about post 6) just been scanning to your answers and was amazed by how much you replied.

And majority of answers included the question so I didn't have to scan up the page, all in all..

GOOD JOB!!

Very funny that the Toon are on the first two games, tell me, what do I do as a Toon fan in our present predicament, forget the diamond ear rings, the starting eleven will be in nappies soon enough as our club is sold down the river. I suspect the team that lines up on Saturday will be a bit different come September, so in essense, it may be worth checking them out pre and post the transfer window closing.....

Good effort BBC, if only I were able to look forward to it all!!!!!

It is still only 2-5 minutes, will it really differ from the abysmal itv / virgin coverage last season?

I hate sky and the stranglehold it has on our national game.

VFF