Forget BA, now Jake will fly BT
THE travel chaos facing thousands of fans going to Madrid and Baku is even affecting BT Sport.
It has led to the broadcaster using private planes to get presenters Jake Humphrey (above) and Gary Lineker and their star guests to the Champions League and Europa League finals.
European football’s governing body is under fire from supporters who are unable to get tickets or flights to watch their teams, with Arsenal and Chelsea in the Europa League and Liverpool and Tottenham in the Madrid showpiece. BT said: “This is something that we’ve had to do. We are using our OB providers’ plane.
“Where we have staff/ talent working across both finals, it has proved logistically better and also a cost-effective way of making sure we can get people to Baku and Madrid. The majority of staff will be getting normal flights.”
BT trumpeted their audience figures for the Champions League semifinals – Liverpool’s comeback against Barcelona pulling in a peak of 2.9million and Tottenham’s win at Ajax getting a peak of 2.5m.
THIS column revealed in March that ITV were interested in buying a share of the FA Cup rights, along with the BBC, which could see a return to it being shown exclusively on terrestrial TV.
ITV are still favourites, but the reality is the deal has yet to be signed, and the problem for the FA is that there has not been a huge bidding war.
THE BBC appear to be trying out different pundits alongside Robbie Savage on their Radio 5 Live 606 show. He is likely to move to Sundays, with Alistair Bruce-Ball and Chris Sutton potentially taking over Saturdays.
The Beeb will do well to improve on Emma Sanders, who is alongside Savage (left) after the FA Cup final on Saturday. She is an excellent broadcaster and was impressive as a stadium announcer at the World Cup.