Archives for October 2009

Thanks to all who posted comments on my last post, I will attempt to answer some of your questions.

First of all, it's timely that there is a question here that relates to rugby union coverage, specifically because just this week we announced a significant autumn season of rugby on the BBC spanning BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, Radio 5 Live, BBC Sport Online and BBC Red Button.

All of the Wales and Scotland matches will be broadcast live, while there will be highlights of England's matches against Australia, Argentina and New Zealand.

This weekend I'm also delighted that we've got international rugby league back on the BBC when the England and Australia game is broadcast live - this being the first rugby league international on our network for nine years.

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Early next week, there will be a change to how you leave comments on this blog - we're upgrading our current registration system to a new and improved one. When you log in to the new system, you will be prompted to upgrade your existing account, and you should be able to do that with a minimum of fuss. More details on this can be found on the BBC Internet Blog.

I have been in my role as the BBC's Director of Sport for six months now, so I'm pleased to have this opportunity to give an insight into what's been going on behind the scenes in our division during that time.

It has been an exhilarating few months for BBC Sport but also a challenging one with the planning of significant outputs such as the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the 2012 London Olympic Games and the move to Salford all in the pipeline.

These challenges are being met in a sports broadcasting climate that is significantly evolving, with a number of major issues taking centre stage.

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Next week the BBC will be making some changes to the Freeview service which will have an impact on our sports coverage.

My colleague Rahul Chakkara, who runs the red button platform for the BBC, has explained on his blog that High Definition is being launched on Freeview.

We know from the feedback we get that HD is increasingly popular with sports fans and this development will mean that even more viewers get to watch BBC Sport's big events in the best possible quality. Next year promises to be a big year for sport - the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Open golf will all now be broadcast in HD on Freeview.

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