Sky’s golf is driving rugby into the rough
SKY SPORTS, who will broadcast the Masters this week, are elevating golf to one of the mainstays of the network with its own channel, seemingly at the expense of rugby union.
Sky are revamping their service this summer with cricket, Formula one and golf getting dedicated channels. Football is still seen as the big seller and will have two channels, one for the premier League and one for the rest.
But rugby union, despite Sky televising the Lions and England’s autumn internationals, is going to be bundled with other sports in a variety package.
the new format will allow a cheaper entry price for one package of £18 a month but viewers will pay significantly more if they want to purchase the whole of the Sky Sports output.
THE Masters is one of sport’s most micro-managed events but even the organisers can’t control the weather, with a hard frost on March 16 after one of Atlanta’s warmest winters ruining the flower show. The azaleas and camellias were primed to be at their prettiest this week but flowered early, only to be ‘nuked by the frost’, as one member put it. Officials have apparently tried to buy every available azalea in Georgia but the wow factor in front of the clubhouse and around Amen Corner is missing. Yet only in Augusta would you have lawn mowers fitted with a GPS system to ensure the grass is cut in exactly the same pattern throughout the tournament.
FA chairman Greg Clarke (right) went where none of his predecessors was able to yesterday in persuading the FA council to vote unanimously for a series of reforms, including councillors having nine-year term limits, to make the FA compliant with the new governance terms. Clarke’s visit to all the county associations to discuss the changes got him onside with the blazers.
HIGH and mighty pundit Gary Neville, who earned the nickname Red Nev as the England and Manchester United shop steward, deigned to speak only to the supposedly upmarket broadsheet newspapers at a Sky Sports media event yesterday. Red-top Nev no longer, it seems.