the state of play for bbc sport

At twelve minutes to nine on this past Monday morning, the first sport bulletin was broadcast from the shiny new "BBC sports centre" in Salford.  Puting aside those questions about how wise it is to move your sports department 200 miles away from your news department, or moving out of the London a few months before it hosts the worlds biggest sporting event, there is a bigger elephant in the room, what sport are they going have left to show from this gleaming new palace?

The BBC's sports budget is being cut by 15% and is likely to be frozen for at least the next five years.  Along side this is the BBC's strategy to focus on major events.  So what impact is this having for coverage of individual sports?

Football. (England)
Once the Olympic football gold medals are awarded in August, there is unlikely to be any live football on BBC television until the World Cup in 2014.  From next season live coverage of the Championship and League cup will only be found on Sky.  No deal has yet been done on highlights.  The BBC has long since withdrawn from covering English clubs in Europe, it also no longer covers England internationals or the FA cup.  The current deal for Premier League Highlights expires at the end of the 2012/13 season.  The BBC look likely to retain this because firstly,  ITV have said they are unlikely to bid; and secondly, it is hard to see any other terrestrial channels being able to afford them.  Having said that, it is pretty certain that the BBC will look to trim the cost of these rights from the current price of £173m for three years.

Formula 1.
As is well known, from 2012 the BBC will only show half the races of the Formula 1 season.  Sky will show every race on a dedicated channel.  Whilst this may seem like a bad deal for viewers that rely on free-to-air coverage, it does secure coverage until 2018.  Without this deal it is likely that the BBC would have withdrawn from the sport altogether from 2014.

Tennis.
In recent years the BBC extensively covered three of the four Tennis Grand Slams.  From 2012, the Australian Open coverage was cut to just three matches, and the French Open moves to ITV.  The Wimbledon contract has recently been extended until 2017.

Rugby union.
As a key event, the six nations contract has been extended until 2017.

Golf. 
The BBC will cover the Open until at least 2016.  In 2011 the BBC started to share the US masters with Sky.  The deal is similar to the Formula 1 deal, with Sky covering the entire event, and the BBC showing half of it.

The Summer & Winter Olympics.
Up until 2012 the IOC sold the Olympics television rights for Europe to the EBU, a consortium of public service broadcasters which includes the BBC.  The next set of rights will be sold to the individual broadcasters.  The BBC looks likely to be the only UK bidder.

World Athletics Championships.
Channel 4 have just one more chance to broadcast the World Athletics Championships.  They return to the BBC in 2015.