|
Gary Lineker and Adrian Chiles are likely to emerge as BT's prime targets for the main presenting job on the telecom giant's new sports channel, which will show live Premier League games from next year.
BT shocked the broadcasting world on Wednesday by winning two packages of rights for 2013-2016, giving them 38 games for each of those three seasons for a total outlay of 738 million.
Biog hitters: Gary Lineker (left) and Adrian Chiles can expect to be courted by BT's headhunters
Crucially, 18 of their 38 matches each season will be 'first pick' games, which are virtually certain to involve the 'big six' sides - Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham - playing each other, mostly on Saturday lunchtimes.
BT insist they want a household name and a high-end broadcaster - with Premier League experience - to head up their topflight coverage on a channel that intends to carry other live sports, mainly football from various leagues.
This limits the field, making Lineker and Chiles front-runners for an approach, with Gabby Logan in the mix, too.
Des Lynam is almost certainly yesterday's man while Andy Gray and Richard Keys are still under a cloud after their departure from Sky in the Sian Massey sexism row.
BT will hire an external agency, possibly sports management giants IMG, to produce their Premier League content.
Almost all broadcasters, including Lineker, are technically freelancers these days, so there is no insurmountable barrier to a main presenter working for multiple channels.
Lineker already fronts Al Jazeera's Champions League coverage as well as hosting Match of the Day for the BBC and working on other major Beeb projects such as the Olympics.
Inside Sport can reveal that BT 'bid the house', according to one source, to go 'toe to toe' with BSkyB for most of the seven packages of rights available.
Under a cloud: Andy Gray (left) and Richard Keys
It was BT's bullishness rather than any intervention by Al Jazeera that pushed the league's total income from the auction up to an astonishing 3.018bn for the UK rights alone for three seasons from 2013-14.
ESPN were the third key bidders for the rights, it is understood.
Al Jazeera's sports division had contemplated an offer that could have blown anyone else, including Sky, out of the water.
'But they didn't step up in the end, not this time,' says a source.
It is believed that Al Jazeera will focus now on wresting Premier League Middle East rights from the Abu Dhabi Media group, owned by the Al Nahyan family, who also own Manchester City.
And Al Jazeera could be back for Premier League UK rights in 2016 - still six years ahead of the World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
Now they all expect an Italian carve-up
Reports that Italy fear a 2-2 draw between Spain and Croatia at Euro 2012 on Monday come laced with irony.
That result would guarantee Italy go home whatever they achieve against the Republic of Ireland.
Typically, bookies would price 2-2 at 14-1 but Spain-Croatia is as low as 3-1, showing punters expect a carve-up.
The irony is Italian football being embroiled in a match-fixing scandal that has led to dozens of arrests and investigations, including into international full-back Domenico Criscito, who was dropped from Italy's Euro 2012 squad as a result.
Ticking the boxes: Mo Farah wearing Nike at an event sponsored by adidas and Aviva
Mo won't have to go barefoot
Gold medal hopes Mo Farah and Mark Cavendish have been advised by sponsors Nike to sign a controversial TeamGB agreement obliging them to wear kit made by the BOA's backer and rival sportswear giant, adidas, at the London Olympics.
Nike are furious at the contract's existence and there had been private threats that some medal-winning stars - they are allowed to wear other sponsors' footwear when competing - might go to the podium barefoot in protest.
But while claiming the agreement is 'an unfair document that encourages athletes to break their longstanding personal contracts', Nike say they want their athletes to sign to avoid distractions - at least for now.
Bankers sceptical over British mega-mobile deal - The Guardian
Samsung Introduces AMD-based Series 5 Laptops - mobilenapps.com
- Samsung Introduces AMD-based Series 5 Laptops(Photo: Samsung)
Samsung has refreshed its Series 5 laptops with the new Ivy Bridge processors. But it seems that's not the only change the company has planned for its popular line of laptops.
The South Korean electronics giant also introduced two new AMD-based models on its official Web site, the NP535U3C-A01US and NP535U4C-A01US. They run on the latest Trinity chips recently unveiled by AMD. The former runs on AMD Quad-Core A6-4455M 2.1Ghz chip while the latter runs on AMD Quad-Core A10-4655M chip.
The specs packed in these laptops pretty much match with their Intel-based cousins. Samsung Series 5 535 Notebook featuring 13.3-inch display is packed with Windows 7. All the necessary connectivity ports like USB port, memory card reader are included. Other notable features of this notebook is its thin and light design, 500GB hard drive, AMD Radeon HD 7500G graphics, 1.3 HD Web camera and 4W Stereo speaker. This sleek laptop is available from $699.99.
Like Us on Facebook :
The 14-inch version offers some more features, including an optical drive and 750GB hard drive. The other major difference between these two versions is the 13.3-inch version features an AMD Radeon HD 7500G graphics chip while the 14-incher offers integrated graphics. The 14-inch model retails for $849.99.
The price difference between the Intel version and the AMD-based version is notable. The 13.3-inch Samsung Series 5 NP530U3C-A01US packed with Intel Core i5-3317U 1.7Ghz Processor and Intel HD Graphics 4000 are available from $799.99 while the AMD-based Series 5 NP535 is available for $699.99 and up. However, these AMD-based devices cannot be called ultrabooks as only Intel-based products get that name. All these models are available online now.
Ex-Virgin Mobile boss leads £8bn bid for phone giant - Daily Telegraph
“He came in originally with quite an ambitious plan to change the market and if he manages to pull this off [he’ll be able to see that through]”.
A second source added that Mr Alexander’s arrival would not necessarily mean the departure of current chief executive, Olaf Swantee, who replaced him last year.
“He [Mr Alexander] is not necessarily looking for another five-day-a-week chief exec role, and he and Olaf are good friends.
“The takeover would allow Tom to fulfil his long-standing ambitions for EE, without the water being muddied by politics between Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom.”
Last week, France Telecom’s finance director, Gervais Pellissier, said it would consider floating a stake in EE. “The partners need to distinguish between the short-term value we could get from an IPO or a sale, and the long-term value of being number one in the UK for the two companies,” he said at an industry conference.
An EE spokesman said this weekend that its owners had a clear five year growth plan: “Our shareholders continue to invest in our business, committing to £1.5bn in investment in our network over the next three years.
“We would not comment on any possible future shareholder structure of our business,” he continued.
No comments:
Post a Comment