FA Cup to make a BT swansong
THE Eurovision Song Contest got a bigger audience than the FA Cup final on the BBC.
Manchester City’s thrashing of Watford last Saturday got a peak audience of 7.4million, which is pretty standard for the final, while the song contest got 8.1m.
More revealingly, coverage on BT Sport, which currently shares broadcasting rights, did not even make the top 20 non-terrestrial programmes. Cbeebies was 20th on the list with an average viewing figure of 269,000.
That may explain why BT Sport was not believed to have been particularly keen to renew its FA Cup deal.
ITV yesterday announced that it had won the rights alongside the BBC from 2021, making it entirely free to air. ITV going for the rights was a story broken by this column on March 28.
The FA have been keen to get their Cup, lifted last week by City captain Vincent
Kompany (above), back on terrestrial TV after the BBC drew figures of over 10m for some ties this season.
UEFA have come in for huge criticism for choosing Baku to stage the all-english Europa League final between Arsenal and Chelsea.
Lessons might have been learned this time ahead of 2021, as Tbilisi, in Georgia, is one of the bidders along with Seville and Vienna, with a decision taken in September. The 2020 final is being held in Gdansk. Tbilisi is unlikely to be any easier to get to than Baku, in Azerbaijan.
UEFA have been working with Baku’s airport authorities to raise capacity to deal with charter flights and has been talking with tour operators to see if they are interested in putting together more competitive deals.
UEFA insist that not a single ticket has been returned by any of its commercial partners.
MADRID has been booked up for flights and hotels for the Champions League final on June 1.
But hotel rooms in Liverpool for that night are even more expensive as fans and tourists flock to the city to try and watch the game.
Hotels rooms are going for more than £1,000 a night – with an apartment on the Albert Dock being listed for £1,700 – the three-star Adelphi costs £500 and the aptly named Anfield Rooms is going for £1,300.
GLEN JOHNSON was on TALKSPORT on the Jim White show yesterday in another sign of a growing relationship between the former England, Liverpool and Chelsea defender and the radio station.
Johnson (right) is a fresh voice and recently retired and TALKSPORT have been looking to sign him up on a permanent basis. Ex-england defender Danny Mills has also impressed on the Drivetime show.