Durban Sandshark
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Posts posted by Durban Sandshark
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Chelsea is now in the Club World Cup Final beating Fluminense 2-0. Other semifinal will be tomorrow with new UEFA Champions League winners Paris Saint Germain versus Real Madrid. At this stage onward, everything is in East Rutherford, New Jersey at the MetLife Stadium.
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Back after a long while and a little over half a year from the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, I think it'll be a good time to get into the mood for it with one of Italy's greatest Winter Olympians in Italian gold medal-winning short track star Arianna Fontana. Speaking for Toyota Italia, Fontana speaks that you must accept the risk of failure in order to begin winning like with winning and losing being part of the journey. Interspersed with Fontana smashing and breaking ice, reflecting the metaphor of being "unbreakable" in the title:
Another Italian Olympic star in Yuri Chechi, rightfully named The Lord of The Rings for him winning 4 times being a European champion. 5 times a world champion, an Olympic gold medal, and a bronze one. But it's been a long time since the late 1980s to the mid 2000s and now he has newer challenges and goals. He still trains to keep his body in shape as you'll see here. He also enjoys meeting up with Yamaha TMax motorcyle:
Kevin Durant, a 4x Olympic gold medalist in men's basketball for TEAM USA, plays the people's lawyer for his client on the courtroom stand over way-too-priced phone charges, even when she signed to agree to the price rate plans from a rival company, and wins his case for her and wowing everyone, even the judge, in the courtroom to get her rate plan into half and buy her out. Tie is yellow of course to nod for Sprint. Charles Oakley, a known NBA enforcer and rebounder, plays the supportive balliff in a cameo. As if there has to emphasize the people's lawyer part, we have The People's Court theme accompanying this full 60-second Sprint commercial. Sprint has since been absorbed by T-Mobile:
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Getting it up to the top of this thread as this event is already in progress over Switzerland right now. And to let everyone know what's going on.
Already we know the first two groups will have their top two teams advancing to the elimination round with just another group round to spare. Norway and hosts Switzerland top Group A--incidentally, both were in such a Group A together two years ago in NZ with 2023 WWC co-hosts New Zealand and The Philippines, and those two advanced out of a weak group. Sweden and Germany both likely make it out of Group C that just wrapped up today's games with the latter coming back from behind versus Denmark.
Disappointing campaigns indeed for Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Belgium and outclassed debutants Poland with Ewa Pajor finally getting a taste of some major international competition after many years trying. Spain, the reigning WWC champs, thrashed Belgium's Red Flames 6-2 and then Portugal tying Italy 1-1 to keep themselves in contention for advancement from Group B. For the first four, there was a chance of possibly advancing but those groups are tough.
But they're certainly not as tough and loaded as Group d: defending champs England's Lionesses, France's Les Blues, The Netherlands' Orange Lionesses (2017 champs), and newcomers Wales starring Jess Fishlock, also finally getting a chance to play in a major international women's soccer competition. We'll get into England later on but it looks as though they're in trouble following a disappointing 2-1 loss to France in the first round--and already dealt with some serious roster turmoil leading up to this. It would be a serious embarassment if those two Home Nations get a double elimination on the same day after losing their opening games.
Speaking of Wales, their Red Dragons team bus was involved today in a minor crash en route to a since-cancelled team practice but nobody was injured out of that. Head coach Rhian Wilkinson, a Canadian and was playing on Team Canada for its hosting WWC campaign exactly a decade ago, was on a separate vehicle travelling with captain Angharad James to a FAW press conference and wasn't involved in it:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c939nvzykk1o
I think it's time that maybe the EURO Women's tournament should be expanded to 24 teams starting with 2029. A tournament like this in Europe these days is becoming largely and rapidly a Western European affair.
The very nice ITV UEFA Women's Euro 2025 animated puppet-like intro inspired by and using the Swiss glockenspiel cuckoo clock, the cable cars, Swiss train, and the Matterhorn preceded by the brief Women's Euro 2025 Amazon ad with a guy knitting a Wales red dragon hat that a couple of his female pro-Azzurri fans admire as they gather to watch some of that UEFA Women's Euro 2025.
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Fabian Hambuchen and Eurosport Deutschland continue their fun and successful Olympic TV partnership with a contract extending onward to Los Angeles 2028, maintaining his expertise, storytelling, passion, and fun/silly stuff. He'll still be the curious and understanding journalist to athletes and officials during this. We can certainly expect an entertaining continuation with the Milan-Cortina 2026 versions of being at the Team D/Deutschland Haus conducting interviews, his expert analysis on a Winter Olympic sport, the Hambuchen & Friends podcast series, and the cult fan favorite Hambuchen Challenge:
The CBC/SRC's Milan-Cortina 2026 interactive, electronic, and extensive ad/corporate partnership press kits for its upcoming 360-degree multiplatform and integrated coverage are now available online. We previously had the Tokyo, Beijing, and Paris version. Apparently doing this since 2014. First URL is the English with the bottom one is the French. Sobey's, RBC, Petro-Canada, Toyota, and Tanguay can be involved again as brands:
https://cbcolympicpartnerships.ca/
https://radiocanadapartenariatsolympiques.ca/
Behind the scenes as we join with Team USA's Winter Olympians and Paralympians like Red Gerard, Mikaela Shiffrin, Malik Jones, Hilary Knight, Lindsay Vonn, Alex Ferreira, Ela Melanin, Oksana Masters, and Alanna Myers Taylor, as they discuss what it means to represent the USA on the Olympic and Paralympic stage, at the Universal shoot for Milan-Cortina 2026. This comes as part of the fourth episode of Chasing Gold: Milan Cortina 2026. All for NBC's Milan-Cortina 2026 promotional material. Would like for other major Olympic rights broadcasters emulate something like this:
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As the Nine Network, aka Channel 9, revs up for the hopes of the Winter Olympics equivalent of what it enjoyed with Paris 2024 under that new benchmark last summer with Milan-Cortina 2026 in February and leading to Brisbane in 2032, it reveals new info on its Milan-Cortina 2026 multiplatform coverage plans for Aussies down under like announcing Australian Winter Olympic gold medalists Torah Bright, Steven Bradbury, and Lydia Lassila coming as analysts/experts and including former Aussie Olympians like mogul skier Britt Cox, snowboarder Steph Prem and alpine skier Jono Brauer will also providing their expertise through these Winter Games, with the commentary line-up also including David Culbert (snowboard/alpine skiing), Sami Kennedy Sim (alpine skiing), Mitch Tomlinson (halfpipe, big air & slopestyle), and Matt Hill (downhill/slalom). Nine will also be based in Livigno, the alpine village, and back in its North Sydney studios, utilizing and "showcasing" that innovative "augmented reality technology that was used for Paris 2024, allowing brands integration and a world class viewer experience."
Nine aims for a record Winter Olympics ad partnership cross-platform commercial package bonanza and high viewership and data records. Hey, Australia's got a Winter Olympics pedigree with bright prospects ready to bring more medals with its 50+ delegation expected in Milan-Cortina! Type of coverage Nine does is it will...
Quoteprovide an unrivalled 24/7 connected content ecosystem spanning all facets of Nine’s suite of assets. It will broadcast more than 2600 hours of Winter Olympics across the Network, 9Now and Stan Sport, alongside comprehensive coverage through Nine’s audio assets. Nine’s publishing assets, spanning its mastheads and digital sites nine.com.au, WWOS.com.au and Pedestrian. TV, will ensure viewers can extend their Games experience.
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Nominees are in for Australia's Logie Awards, set for The Star Sydney on August 3. No shock that the Nine Network got some noms for its Paris 2024 coverage: Nine/Stan Sport's Paris 2024 has Ally Langdon for Most Popular Personality in Australian Television in a dual nom with her regular A Current Affair anchoring; Todd Woodbridge for Tipping Point Australia, Australian Open and Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 in the Bert Newton Award for Most Popular Presenter; and for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics themselves in Best Sports Coverage:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logie_Awards_of_2025
Former Test cricket skipper Mark Taylor called the women's synchronized 3m springboard diving in Paris last summer for Nine, when Aussies Anabelle Smith and Maddison Keeney were in serious contention for Australia's first medal of the Paris Olympics that slipped through them when Smith's calamatous slip off attempt in the final dive (a two-and-a-half somersaults with one twist in pike) cost them a medal, downing the "normally trusted" pair from third to fifth in the end. Apparently, that didn't sit well with not just many Australian viewers on social media but also TV star Tim Bailey, like he calls them as if the diving competition was a cricket match. Taylor even admits he doesn't know a lick about diving:
Roy and HG turns out were also involved in ABC Radio Local's Paris 2024 presentation like another famous Australian-connected Olympic personality Bruce McAvaney with their observations and banter for People, Medals and Cheese that was on Monday to Friday at 11am AEST on ABC Radio and 2pm on RN and ABC listen:
https://au.variety.com/2024/more/news/bruce-mcavaney-abc-olympic-games-coverage-16003/
Another notable long-running Olympic sportscaster announced during Paris 2024 that he called his last Olympics: Phil Liggett in cycling commentary, spanning 17 Olympics at age 80 after calling the women's road race. Liggett didn't want to "bore" or "too old to spoil the viewers' fun". His first one came in Moscow 1980 under very serious Soviet KGB police surveillance. Liggett is not retiring overall from calling cycling though:
47 million+ Mexican viewers were tuning to the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics on Televisa's broadcast side (across 2, 5, and 9), TUDN, and Claro Sports, based on audience measurements from firm HR Media. Biggest viewerships came naturally with Mexican athletes involved like the bronze medal in women's team archery reached a record 3.8 million viewers, Marco Verde's boxing final with him claiming the silver medal, also reaching 3.8 million viewers. Judoka Prisca Awiti's silver medal match then was also watched by 2.2 million viewers. The diving competitions in which Osmar Olvera won medals captivated 260,000 spectators (silver in synchronized diving) and 1.6 million (bronze in individual diving). Had Mexico qualified for men's and women's Olympic soccer, audiences would've been massive. Both the opening and closing ceremonies, both reached on par around with 7.2-7.5 million people watching the live broadcast on TelevisaUnivision's open television (2, 5, and TUDN). Data for the closing ceremony on Claro Sports had not been released by the media consultancy HR Ratings at the time of writing. Claro had 1.3 million for the opening ceremony
Very successful RTBF coverage of Paris 2024 with a 22.3% share of Belgium's French audience starting with 351,653 viewers watched the opening ceremony spectacle, which rewarded all the athletes, representing an audience share of 37.9%. This score is higher than that recorded for the three previous editions, whether in Tokyo (17.6%), Rio de Janeiro (16.4%) or London (31.6%).
Confirming the trend of the widespread public-winning success of the Paris Olympic Games. On average, 143,138 viewers followed the entire RTBF program (the two ceremonies, the events, and the magazine), representing an audience share of 22.3%, also higher than the scores recorded during previous editions (16.3 in Tokyo, 14.4 in Rio, and 18.3 in London). In total, 3,111,382 French-speaking Belgians watched at least one second of the Olympics. Remarkably, this audience was perfectly divided between men and women. RTBF also made this parity a major issue: over the 220 hours of broadcasting, gender parity was maintained.
Unsurprisingly, the Belgian Olympic stars attracted the most viewers. Nafi Thiam dominated the top spots, particularly in her decisive 800 meters (532,579 viewers). Fabio Van den Bossche, bronze medalist in track cycling, attracted 341,819 viewers in his final laps of the race, while the Belgium-France women's basketball semifinal match captivated 326,301 viewers between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.
The program implemented by RTBF had won over the public. The Olympic daily magazine "A nous Paris," broadcast daily on the front page, attracted an average of 102,385 viewers, representing an audience share of 12.6%. This score is twice as high as that recorded for the magazine dedicated to the Tokyo Games in 2021 (6.2%). The number of listens or downloads of the "Complètement Jeux" podcast reached 15,536, making it the eighth most listened to content during this period. On Viva Sport, the number of sessions reached 27,872 over the first thirteen days of competition.
The Paris Olympic Games also attracted audiences to our digital platforms. Auvio (3.7 million views), RTBF Actus (2 million), and our various partners (1.2 million) generated 6.9 million views during the fortnight, both live and on replay. On our RTBF News website, content related to the Games generated 3.4 million page views and 1.1 million unique visitors. On social media, 3 million interactions and 31 million video views were recorded across all RTBF networks. These scores reward the work and passion of all the RTBF teams:
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On 6/17/2025 at 6:34 PM, Bear said:
I was going off by the NHL's social media posts - in the case of Damian Clara they didn't make a graphic for him (while they did to one for Texier despite him being the lone French NHL player) so I assumed he wasn't in the NHL. Looks like he hasn't made his NHL debut yet regardless, he's only played in two North American games and those were in the AHL. Thank u for the info, though
To fill out the non-NHL clubs to players who aren't currently in the NHL, including actually Damian Clara...
QuoteFrance
D Yohann Auvitu (Vitkovice FC, Czechia)
D Jules Boscq (Iowa Heartlanders, ECHL)
D Hugo Gallet (Tappara Tampere, Finland)
LW Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (Ajoie FC, Switzerland)
F Jordann Perret (Hradec Kralove, Czechia)Italy
G Damian Clara (San Diego Gulls, AHL)
D Thomas Larkin (Schwenningen Wild Wings, Germany)
D Luca Zanatta (Val Pusteria Wolves, Austria)
F Diego Kostner (Ambri-Piotta, Switzerland)
C Tommy Purdeller (Val Pusteria Wolves, Austria)
F Daniel Mantenuto (Bolzano FC, Austria)Denmark
D Jesper Jensen Aabo (Klagenfurt AC, Austria)https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/olympic-hockey-roster-tracker-first-players-named/
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Certainly we can expect the OBS and rights broadcasters worldwide like NBC will reprise using those cinematic cameras like what happened with Paris 2024. We're already seeing this technology being used for sports recently like with Sportsnet's coverage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and ABC's 2025 NBA Finals presentation. Not yet with a Super Bowl as far as we know. We could see them used for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup. Converting video footage on cameras to more of a film-like visual is already a practice for multiple years now. But never done live in realtime until now.
Also, will the CBC reprise the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics music for Milan-Cortina 20 years later? Not known yet what its plans fully are, including presentation, save for the (like purple) colors and mountains. Perhaps in Toronto, musicians would be recruited to conduct the Milan-Cortina CBC theme with specific music for it. Maybe more distinctly northern Italian. Here's the CBC Torino 2026 theme and intro just to remind ourselves:
China Media Group officially signs a Memorandum of Understanding cooperation agreement with the Fondazione Milano-Cortina 2026 as a rights broadcasting holder. In this agreement,
Quotethe two sides agreed to expand practical collaboration in news coverage, program production, promotional campaigns, event organization, and personnel exchanges. The goal is to actively promote the Olympic values embodied in the 2026 Winter Games and foster deeper mutual understanding and long-standing friendship between the Chinese and Italian peoples.
As a rights-holding broadcaster for the Games, CMG will collaborate closely with the Italian National Olympic Committee and the Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 to integrate cutting-edge technologies such as AI and 8K ultra-high-definition broadcasting into live coverage and signal production. These innovations aim to fully capture athletes' remarkable performances while highlighting Italy's breathtaking landscapes – offering global audiences the unique charm of the fusion of technology and sports and delivering a spectacular, unforgettable Olympic experience.
The two sides also see the 2026 Winter Games and the 55th anniversary of China–Italy diplomatic relations as an opportunity to deepen exchanges across sports, culture, film, and television. The shared goal is to enhance mutual understanding between the two peoples and further advance the China–Italy comprehensive strategic partnership through cultural and civilizational dialogue.
I'll delve into the following more very soon. But I would expect an expansion of the Telemundo's US-Spanish 2026 Winter Olympics coverage will involve a new, planned sports network coming that was unveiled this May.
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Making me wonder if this opening ceremony will emulate Turin 20 years ago with pop music used during the parade of nations. Only this time, instead of the likes of 1970s and 1980s acts Chic, KC and The Sunshine Band, the Village People, The Buggles, Gloria Gaynor, and Boney M (which was really cool and a personal highlight for me here), why not play some Italo-disco in this segment? Don't mind if 2006 happens again but just play something a little different.
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I would like to think Canada and the USA will have TV/streaming programs devoted to filling out and naming the remaining Olympic hockey rosters later on by, say, January. Maybe Germany's DEB and Italy's, Sweden's, Finland's, Czech Republic's and Slovakia's could do that too. Not to mention documentaries centering on that.
Rogers Sportsnet's Justin Bourne expresses his 6 thoughts on the first Team Canada Olympic player selections:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/6-thoughts-on-canadas-first-choices-for-olympics-roster/
It isn't really a shock that no Canadian goalie was named initially. But I would like to think that St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, based on in no small part to his performance at the awesome 4Nations Face Off, he would be included later on. He'll certainly earn more grace but not fully as a lock--gonna be more of an open tryout there. Also shocked that Vezina and Hart Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck wasn't included for Team USA. Seems brazen. But Canada's and USA's selections--and as how others aren't included--at this point "are borderline irrelevant" and can afford to be; there's plenty to choose from and can't really go wrong in their respective selections. Easy to choose from there with roughly around up to the first 15 players. Many factors are certainly involved in selection. Hopefully, some first-timers will get included. Seems like experience gets greater priority than speed and youth (and inexperience) and reward, in Canada Hockey's case, those who succeed and come clutch in the big moments.
Florida Panthers' Brad Marchand, one win away from winning another Stanley Cup tonight at this writing, still hopes to rep for Canada at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics with his teammate Sam Reinhart:
Noticed Bear that you didn't name the non-NHL clubs players from France, Italy, and Denmark's Jesper Jensen Aabo ply their trade at. Italy's Damian Clara actually plays for the Anahiem Ducks. Those players play in the Czech Extraliga, Swiss-A, Austria's Ice Hockey League, AlpsHL, France's National League, and Finland's Liiga. France's Jules Boscq, a defensemen, even plays in the USA for the Iowa Heartlanders in the ECHL, a minor hockey league that's considered AA-pro level ice hockey.
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Betsy Riley, a winner of 8 Sports Emmys, was named NBC Olympics Senior Vice President Coordinating Producer. Her responsibility includes overseeing the NBC Olympics Primetime show, likely be called Primetime In Milan and answer and report to Molly Solomon. She already is a known figure to NBC Olympics with 9 Olympics, both winter and summer, under her deep experience since 2002. Riley "comes home" after working at Amazon Prime Video involved with launching NFL's Thursday Night Football and the NWSL broadcasts and is regarded for her leadership, innovation, and creativity:
RAI will transmit at least 250 hours of its planned Milan-Cortina 2026 through Italy and San Marino as the exclusive free-to-air Italian Winter Olympics broadcaster on RAI2. Naturally, it'll primarily focus on Team Italia and the popular Winter Olympic sports:
RAI, the Italian host broadcaster for Milan-Cortina 2026, has given so much priority towards the upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in February that it has forced the beloved annual Sanremo Musical Festival, usually hosted in late February and is bigtime in the Italian entertainment and recording industry, postponed to February 28 from February 24. Attributed by RAI's Milan-related ad revenue it amassed would get diluted had Sanremo not get moved:
Exactly one year before the Milan-Cortina 2026 Opening Ceremony's start at San Siro Stadium, RAI's news program TGF aired a live news special one-year countdown special on RAI3 called TGR Special: “Milan-Cortina - the great adventure” that was broadcast at 4.15 pm on February, Thursday 6. It's a report special going through the three hosting and spread-out regions for this unique event with reporters on the scene: from Milan to Cortina, from Anterselva to Val di Fiemme, the protagonists are the cities, the mountains, the volunteers, and the athletes, starting with the champion skiier Federica Brignone and her thoughts on the upcoming five-ring multisport event. Finalizing with the official countdown from Piazza Duomo in Milan, where a clock will mark the days remaining until the lighting of the Olympic cauldron:
France Televisions' 8-second promo for its coverage of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics coming right at the 1-year mark, speaking of which. There will be more forthcoming, we know:
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Brazil and Ecuador also join Australia in qualifying that day from South America with the former now headed by Carlo Ancelotti. Brazil, now again participating in every World Cup held, beat Paraguay 1-0 in Sao Paulo, and Ecuador drew scoreless with Peru in Lima. Uruguay and Paraguay still look solid in going to North America
Man, Peru, very likely going to be eliminated here, has been on a downward spiral since they returned to the show in 2018 after 34 years away starting with the intercontinental playoffs in Qatar and those penalty kick misses to Australia. Chile is faring worse and is now already eliminated. Shame.
(BTW Rob, I saw that Ange decided to part ways with Tottenham days ago)
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AUSTRALIA'S IN!!!! 😃
All the Socceroos needed to do was to make sure they did not allow the Saudis score winning in a 5-goal margin to leapfrog the Aussies, playing in front of a vocal crowd at Jeddah's King Abdullah Sports City. But the Socceroos' strong goal differential entering this game certainly made that was not gonna happen as they became the 8th nation overall and the 6th Asian AFC nation to qualify for their 6th consecutive World Cup appearance. Beating them 2-1 under coach Tony Popovic
https://www.footballaustralia.com.au/news/perth-jeddah-socceroos-qualify-fifa-world-cuptm-2026
AFC third round is finished. Now the fourth round kicks off October 8-14 with the aforementioned Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iraq, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Oman. Top group finishers claim the final direct Asian spots.
Shame about Palestine not advancing...
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BREAKING NEWS: South Korea, and special congratulations to Jordan and Uzbekistan in making their history-making World Cup debuts today in their international windows, all qualified out of Asia!
Australia's Socceroos is just another game away in qualifying in beating Japan for the first time in 16 years in Perth as one of the top two teams directly qualifying out of their group with already-qualified Japan. Despite Saudi Arabia eliminating Bahrain 2-0, it'll be very difficult to successfully chase the Australians in the standings when they face each other in Jeddah June 10. Goal differential being one tough factor. Will have to settle for the fourth round with Iraq, Indonesia, Qatar, UAE, and Oman/Palestine.
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South Africa's Supersport celebrated the "golden triumph" that it achieved on DSTV with an average of 12.4 million South Africans unique decoded viewers and 6.4 million views streamed and 530,000 catchup watches. Days 16-17 brought out the biggest audiences each with 12.4 million viewers. This DStv Media Sales Paris 2024 Olympic video details each day with the top viewing event each day:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/golden-triumph-paris-supersport-dstv-media-sales-wjk5f
The Canadian Screen Awards commenced over the weekend in Toronto, and it resulted with CBC Sports' Paris 2024 coverage walking away with only two wins for Best Original Music, Factual, Lifestyle, Reality, or Entertainment and Mark Lee in track and field for Best Play-By-Play Announcer out of its 12 nominations. Did expect it would win a few more noms than this, but I guess the other nominees in the other categories were equally strong. Also, I think having CBC Olympic Morning's Anastasia Bucsis and CBC Olympic Primetime's Andi Petrillo in the same category cancelled each other out this time to prevent either one to win. Same wasn't done with Lee and Alex Despatie being in the same category. But Petrillo has already won multiple Canadian Screen Awards already. Also also, there isn't as much in the way of tech categories like we see with the Sports Emmys:
https://www.academy.ca/nominees/
Moving things focused down under, Australia's TV Week Logie Awards 2025 will announce its nominees in less than two weeks on Monday, June 16. Can expect Nine's Paris 2024 massive coverage could garner some of them like Best Sports Events. The show itself will take place at The Star Sydney on August 3 broadcast live and exclusively on Seven and 7Plus with Sam Pang again hosting:
https://www.nowtolove.com.au/celebrity/celebrity-news/tv-week-logies-2025/
Chilevision, unlike many Olympic broadcasters worldwide involved with Paris 2024, didn't start its coverage with soccer and handball prior to the Opening Ceremony as Channel 11 in Santiago. The sports-obsessed Chilean TV channel started its live and exclusive 500-hour multiplatform Paris 2024 coverage also on its online signal, the Pluto TV Sports channel, and the Mi CHV app with the live opening ceremony at 1pm Chile time, lasting well after 5pm immediately after the morning show Contigo en la mañana and following the current affairs program Contigo en directo (With You Live ) will reair until 7:00 p.m., when the Sports Department will resume broadcasting with a summary of the first day with a OC re-airing later that night. On Saturday July 27th, meanwhile, things really began taking over at 4:00am for a marathon and uninterrupted session until 9:00pm, starting with the Paris 2024 debut of Chilean judoka Mary Dee Vargas and then at 4:30am in swimming with the presentation of Chilean Eduardo Cisternas. From then on, two special primetime programs were confirmed to cover the different disciplines contested in the French capital: With You in Paris (Monday to Friday from 2:00-6:00 p.m. and weekends from 8:00 am to 8:30pm) and Stellar Paris (Monday to Friday from 6:00-8:00 PM with the best moments of each day.
Additionally, CHV personnel deployed for a live broadcast featuring Javiera Naranjo, Claudio Palma, Aldo Schiappacasse, Daniel Matamala, Romina Canonni, Claudio Bustios, Roberto Cox, Rodrigo Vera, and Karen Bittner, and Gastón Fouré. Karateka Valentina Toro were also present. Live coverage from France were hosted by Naranjo and Bustíos. Starting the following week, Chilevisión's afternoon schedule was completely redesigned to focus entirely on the Paris Olympics, with broadcasts starting around noon, affecting Contigo's morning broadcast schedule. After the evening newscast (3:30 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday; and 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday), the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics returned to the screens with Schiappacasse and Bittner hosting. However, at 5:30 p.m., with a break to broadcast Big Brother: It's Happening, a program hosted by Emilia Daiber that compiles the best moments that the reality show has had in the last 24 hours. At 6:15 p.m., Matamala and Canonni lead the primetime segment With You In Paris from the Summer Olympics, which continued until 9:00 p.m., when Chilevisión Noticias Central begins. Finally, for early risers, there was also a section called Paris Today with the daily highlights (2:00 a.m.) while Waking Up with Paris 2024 will be shown between 4:45 a.m. and 5:45 am:
https://elfiltrador.com/chilevision-programacion-juegos-olimpicos/
https://elfiltrador.com/chilevision-juegos-olimpicos/
Chilevision's Paris 2024 opening ceremony presentation commentary and analysis was presented by specialists journalists Aldo Schipaccasse and Rodrigo Vera and athletes Romina Cannoni and Karen Bittner. It scored big among Chilean TV viewers and dwarfed all the other Chilean TV networks TVN, Canal 13, Mega, La Red, TV+, and Telecanal. It had reached throughout its coverage, achieving an average household rating of 6.7, reaching more than 10 million Chilean TV viewers. During this Summer Olympics period in which Chilevision comfortably winning and outperforming against the competition, Mega ranked second with 5.0 points; Canal 13 ranked third with 3.8 points; and Televisión Nacional (TVN) ranked fourth with 3.1 points. Claro Sports scored big on the pay-TV side:
https://elfiltrador.com/chilevision-rating-juegos-olimpicos/
https://elfiltrador.com/chilevision-rating-juegos-olimpicos-2/
https://elfiltrador.com/paralimpicos-batalla-chilevision-claro/
Speaking of Mega, it struck a deal with Claro Sports to have the latter's Paris 2024 4-channel coverage available through the Mega GO streaming app while also streamed for fee on YouTube:
https://elfiltrador.com/nuevo-rival-chilevision-juegos-olimpicos/
One of the numerous RTVE Paris 2024 promos from Spain celebrating the multiple Olympic sports in action and the athletes who indeed do celebrate with much of the footage coming from Tokyo. There will be more soon from RTVE since I unfortunately didn't touch on RTVE in recent times:
Did check out again Mauritius' MBC's Channel 11, the sports channel, to see if it actually air some Olympic coverage. Turns out, judging from the schedule, it didn't at all. Mauritius' MBC isn't even listed in Wikipedia's 2024 Olympic broadcasters list. All it did show was the magazine programs Olympic Games Paris 2024: Countdown To Paris and Olympic Games Paris 2024: Guide To The Games, neither went even beyond 30 minutes. MBC Sports Channel 11 would've carried it all in English like it did in the past with various sports and focusing on Mauritius' 13 athletes in Paris. Outside of being a Supersport subscriber, downloading olympics.com, or maybe Eurosport France (not likely), Mauritians were out of luck.
Azam TV's ZBC2 in Tanzania broadcasted the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics in Tanzania:
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On 6/3/2025 at 9:38 AM, BigVic said:
Nine Entertainment, Australia's Olympic Network as secured the rights to the 2026 Winter Paralympics. It's the 2nd time Nine has aired the Paralympics and their first Winter Paralympics they'll air across their platforms
To this point, Nine very much confirms that the same broadcasting/online/print structure it employed for Paris will very much be utilized for Milan-Cortina 2026 in both
QuoteCoverage of the Paralympics (and the Olympics) next year will be disseminated across the commercial free-to-air linear Channel 9 network, entertainment channel 9Gem, and on the 9Now video-on-demand service.
Additionally, Stan Sport, the prominent sports-focused OTT service also run by Nine, will provide coverage of the games, as will a range of Nine’s digital and social media platforms. Concurrently, Nine’s suite of talk radio stations (2GB, 3AW, 4BC, 6PR) and print and digital publications (Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Australian Financial Review, WA Today, Brisbane Times, and The Sun Herald) will also provide Milano Cortina 2026 coverage.
We could also expect that the ABC Radio stations in cities that aren't part of the Nine Radio Network like Adelaide, Canberra, Darwin, and Hobart get involved again under a sublicensing deal:
Another article centering on the OBS student applications from Sports Video Group:
More OBS applications and initiatives are also in store to fill out to encourage and train more female camera operators to get involved in Milan-Cortina called Framing The Future. Applications are available now!
QuoteThe Framing the Future training programme is scheduled to take place in Milan and will consist of three days of theory and practical sessions. Applicants can choose to attend either from 16 to 18 June or from 19 to 21 June 2025. Each participant will attend training sessions spanning three days of theory and practical sessions.
The training curriculum will cover essential aspects of camera operation, including audio, framing and focus. The programme is open to Italian residents who are recent graduates or early-career professionals with prior broadcast experience.
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Not a major surprise and was seriously speculated for a while, but Mexico's FMF confirms to ESPN that it will co-host 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup with the United States and US Soccer.
Although it must be noted that US Soccer itself in this article has not yet confirmed this joint co-hosting, and we obviously know the USA is more than capable in hosting solo. But the co-hosting is gonna happen--maybe get Canada Soccer in the mix too after 16 years for that nation! We would expect that Mexico City will be involved as one of the few Mexican cities involved, starting with Mexico City's Azteca Stadium having expectingly the first Mexico home game there for the women. Gotta have Mexico City! At least 3-4 games for Mexico overall with the expanded 48-nation field. Preferably, it would be nice if this current crop of Mexican El Tri players qualify and get some valuable WWC experience with Brazil as Mexico has not participated in the last two WWCs, so they wouldn't get intimidated with all the both internal and external demands and pressure come 2031 and be like a deer (or rabbit) caught in the headlights.
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The OBS officially launches and now welcomes its Milan-Cortina 2026 student broadcast training applications since April 28--835 submissions from local students alone so far:
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1153574/obs-milano-cortina-broadcasters-olympic
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It is expected that the IOC will continue excluding Russia from this Winter Olympics edition coming up in Milan-Cortina. Gonna happen. The IIHF has already extended its suspension on Russia and Belarus as far as the winter team sports like ice hockey are concerned. The IIHF doesn't think it's safe to bring them back with the invasion still ongoing--sending the Olympic hockey schedule to the IOC without Russia involved at the recent IIHF Annual Congress in Stockholm. Citing and confirming by sources the Latvian sports website Sportacentrs. So France, as previously named earlier here, will participate in both Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic men's and women's ice hockey:
https://www.iihf.com/en/news/65675/russia_and_belarus_not_reincorporated_into_2025_20
Yeah it sucks that we will not see some of Russia's great hockey players like Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Borbrovsky, taking part in what could be their final Olympics to nab a gold medal, considering their ages being firmly in the 30s. Ovi craves that gold medal like his basketball-playing mom Tatiana has herself back in 1980. Does look like this Russian golden generation of stars will never come back afterwards and can't expect those immediately after them like Vladimir Tarasenko, Artemi Panarin, Nikita Kucherov, and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy in the next four years and would feel wrong by this, placed into this position beyond their control (although some would support Putin). Would've been a sight to see in taking on the other major hockey powers best-on-best like what could've been with the 4 Nations Cup. But the IOC and IIHF must stand firm. Their nation's military actions should and must be condemned:
Now the ROC issues a legal challenge after the IOC confirms barring them, as reported by sports TV channel Match TV. Not gonna be successful--Good luck with that!:
Only four Russian figure skaters in men's and women's figure skating are approved by the ISU in qualifying for the neutral individual athletes team for next February:
In the basketball realm, FIBA announced it'll extended discussing the status of Russia and Belarus until this August. Don't any changes there either:
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On 5/11/2025 at 3:18 AM, BigVic said:
There were no smartphones to take selfies then so they had to use their old-school flip phone or a digital camera to capture the moment.
Definitely right. They were just actual cameras they carried, although plenty athletes also did carry videocams back then. Besides, the Internet was still very young and no broadband yet for several more years...
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OK, the 2025 Sports Emmys took place on Tuesday, May 20. And NBC/Peacock won big winning 10 Sports Emmys for its Games of the XXXIII Olympiad including Outstanding Live Special Championship Event, two for Steven Spielberg for producing and writing the “Land of Stories” opening, Outstanding Short Feature for
Caeleb & The Critic: Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, Outstanding Interactive Experience, Outstanding Technical Team Event, Outstanding Technical Team Studio, Outstanding Audio/Sound – Live Event, Outstanding Graphic Design – Event/Show, Outstanding Editing – Short Form, and Outstanding On-Air Personality in Spanish for Telemundo's Miguel Gurwitz, who was involved in the NBCU's Paris 2024 coverage as the 11th. A major reason why NBCU won a record 13 Sports Emmys. No shock NBCU won in the tech realm:https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/nbcuniversal-s-coverage-of-paris-2024-tops-sports-emmys
https://deadline.com/2025/05/2025-sports-emmys-winners-list-1236406860/
If you were a Swedish Olympic fan on August 2 last year, Kanal 5, Eurosport, and HBO Max had you covered: it was excitingly chock-a-block with Swedish Paris 2024 Summer Olympians in what was Sweden Super Friday starting at 2pm Sweden time with the Swedish men's handball team facing Croatia with Henrik von Eckermann, Rolf-Göran Bengtsson and Peder Fredricson simultaneously defending their Swedish Olympic gold medal from Tokyo, and when the final of the team jumping is decided in the Château de Versailles. Half an hour later, at 2:30 p.m., Truls Möregårdh will play the men's table tennis semifinal against Brazilian Hugo Calderano--but that was relegated to HBO Max and Eurosport but played live and interrupted in its entirety:
https://www.expressen.se/sport/os-2024/beskedet-i-kanal-5-truls-moregardh-ratas-igen/
Nearly 5 million Austrians have watched at least some portion of ORF's Paris 2024 Summer Olympics coverage. The widest viewership possible there. Track and field proved, not shockingly, to be the biggest hit with the men's 100-meter final on August 4, which was watched by an average of 737,000 sports fans (31% market share), as the public broadcaster announced on the following Monday. The men's 400-meter final on August 7 took second place with an average of 735,000 viewers, followed by the men's discus final featuring Austria's Lukas Weisshaidinger – also on August 7 – with 722,000 TV viewers
On the online/streaming realm overall, the live streams and videos-on-demand of ORF's entire Olympic TV coverage up to and including August 11 achieved 3.5 million net views (consecutive usage events) and 13.4 million gross views (video starts) across Austria, which is significantly higher than at the last Summer Games (Tokyo 2021). With 117 million minutes of total usage, a new record was achieved compared to all Summer and Winter Olympic Games since the introduction of AGTT measurement.
The most-watched ORF live streams from Paris 2024 were the final of the men's 400-meter race on August 7 with an average reach of 27,600, followed by the men's discus final with 27,100 DRW and the semifinal of the women's 400-meter race with 26,200 DRW (both also on August 7):
https://kurier.at/kultur/medien/olympische-spiele-orf-quoten-top-hit-100-meter-finale/402935437
TV2 Denmark recruited 200-260 people for it portion of the Danish Paris 2024 TV/online/streaming coverage with "approximately 50 in Paris". TV 2 revised its strategy wholesale and showed a wider range of Summer Olympic sports live with, for example, TV2 Play having up to 15 streams to help cover it. Meanwhile, DR, also committed to heavy Paris 2024 coverage, sent 20 journalists with many other personnel back home. Anders Kern Boje, deputy director of DR News with responsibility for DR Sport, says that along with the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic sports action, "In our Olympic coverage, we walk on two legs. We focus on the Danes, the big stories, and the shared excitement when Danish athletes do well. And at the same time, we use the Olympics to tell stories about both Paris and France, but also the major political contexts that an Olympics must always be seen in context of". Several Danish newspapers also sent its personnel to Paris this past summer to intensely cover this Summer Olympic edition:
https://journalisten.dk/dr-og-tv2-saetter-bunkevis-af-journalister-til-af-at-daekke-ol/
But for the Danish TV broadcast, Flatpanels asked both on presenting Paris 2024 in the best resolution possible. DR "received the signal in 1080i50 and then upscales it to 1080p50, so that Danish viewers get the best possible quality," but TV2 only "produced the Olympics in 1080i50 and had no plans for 4K / UHD," Both deemed producing it, at that time, in 4K/UHD would be "too expensive. It has to be purchased as an extra feed at IBC in Paris, but will not be distributed in UHD but in normal 1080i50, which would mean that we would have to transport UHD home from the Olympics ourselves, which is very expensive":
https://www.flatpanels.dk/nyhed.php?subaction=showfull&id=1719560945
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Would like to see Kieran Perkins and Susie O'Neill light the torch TOGETHER in Brisbane. Not only they're both Brisbane products and swimming legends, but it could also serve, in a way, a nod to when Australia made Olympic history in being the first nation to have both male and female co-flagbearers with Moscow 1980 from Max Metzger and Denise Boyd marching in the OC. But perhaps for the same reasons suggested about Cathy Freeman here, they too come from the same era as Freeman and can possibly connect with Sydney 2000 to Brisbane. But maybe too distant for that now and could work against them.
Australia certainly has lots of Olympians to happily chose from for this. How about Sally Pearson, Saya Sakakibara (who is from the Brisbane-Gold Coast region), Cate and Bronte Campbell (ditto), Ariane Titmus?
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(while still negotiating his very likely staying on at NFL RedZone) There's more details here (with photo of him at the NFL Honors) and here
An excellent conversation Sports Video Group has in its video on how OBS, NRK, Warner Bros. Discovery/Eurosport, and CTO all getting ready for the upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at the SVG Europe’s Winter Sports Forum on March 13 in Oslo, Norway and was moderated by George Bevir, SVG Europe’s Editorial Director:
https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/05/01/getting-set-for-the-milano-cortina-2026-winter-olympics/
Our first host Italian news contribution here: Allianz, an official 2026 Olympic partner, sponsors 6 Italian Allianz Ambassadors--Sara Conti & Niccolò Macii (figure skating), Nikolaj Memola (figure skating), Giuseppe Romele (paralympic Nordic skiing), Martina Valcepina (short track, multiple Olympic medalist), and Martina Vozza (paralympic alpine skiing) for next winter's Olympics and Paralympics paired along with 6 Italian Winter Olympic and Paralympic icons--Paul De Church, Barbara Fusar Poli, Christian Ghedina, Maurizio Margaglio, Francesca Porcellato, and Christian Zorzi "in a symbolic relay of values and experiences between past and future." The above 6 will be involved in a multiplatform docuseries project broadcast on RAI 2, Rai Sport and RaiPlay, created in collaboration with Dentsu Sports, YAM112003, and Rai Pubblicità. Title is Dreaming of Milan Cortina 2026: On the shoulders of Giants. This docuseries will be segmented series under 5 episodes of 30 minutes with 1 special episode “Best Of” of 60 minutes, and 1 episode dedicated to the very young members of Team G in paralympic skiing. Paolo De Chiesa will be the narrator. The format also includes the production of 20 1-minute clips, to tell the athletes' preparation in brief. No word yet on when it'll premiere. But I expect sometime by winter 2025-26:
https://www.milanosportiva.com/allianz-milano-cortina-2026-sulle-spalle-dei-giganti/
Also, RAI aired a live one-year countdown special on RAI 3 February 6 at 4:25pm under the TGR banner called Milan-Cortina: The Great Adventure with
QuoteA live journey through three regions for a unique event: from Milan to Cortina, from Anterselva to Val di Fiemme, the protagonists of the Special are the cities, the mountains, the volunteers, and the athletes, starting with the champion Federica Brignone and her emotions.
And then, the official countdown from Piazza Duomo in Milan, where a clock will mark the days remaining until the lighting of the Olympic brazier.He has helped cover 20 Olympics in total for Italian public broadcaster RAI: 9 summer in track and field/athletics and 11 winter in cross country skiing over the decades. Now Milan-Cortina 2026 will serve as Franco Bragagna's final one before retiring. Likely once again in cross-country skiing, where the Italians are usually a powerhouse in, often competing against the Norwegians. But before that, Bragagna visited with high school students back in March to discuss the magic of the Olympics and also spoke in a separate discussion with Italian coaches and broadcasters:
Skiing legend Lindsey Vonn participates for her own on-set b-roll NBC 2026 Winter Olympics promo video shoot in Universal City, California. Filming for 12 hours:
https://unofficialnetworks.com/2025/05/22/lindsey-vonn-on-nbc-set-for-2026-olympics-promo-shoot/
She's part of the dozens of Team USA Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls who are doing these shoots made to resemble Italian Alps and conduct interviews. All celebrating Italy:
https://www.wsav.com/news/nbc-gears-up-for-the-2026-winter-olympics/
On 5/17/2025 at 2:26 AM, BigVic said:Nine Entertainment here in Australia is going to have a massive Q1 2026 with the Australian Open into the Winter Olympics and the Australian F1 Grand Prix (if 9 gets the rights to these) then the start of the 2026 NRL Season happening between January-March next year. Their top-rating reality show MAFS will see them dominate the start of the 2026 Ratings Season)
Man, that's going to be "a massive Q1 2026" for Nine next year with those events going on and being televised by Aussie standards. Certainly helps that Australia (and New Zealand) now has a very solid Winter Olympics pedigree so that nowdays assures them coming out the Winter Olympics with at least medals, including gold ones, for both nations. Although still relatively marginal in terms of mass national Australian/Kiwi interest, but rapidly growing, compared to the aforementioned sports events. I can definitely see the Nine Network dominating the Australian TV ratings then.
Certainly it's similar to what we Americans got here with NBC during its Q1, particularly our February TV "sweeps", with the Winter Olympics as the centerpoint. Actually it doesn't even compare. But actually of course we do it MUCH bigger and it'll be historic in its strong 2-week+ live sports programming slate that'll rake in billions in ad sales. NBC, including its massive multiplatform Milan-Cortina 2026 coverage, also got Super Bowl LX, held at Santa Clara's Levi's Stadium, the home of the San Francisco 49ERS, on February 8 (two days after the Opening Ceremony) and the return of the NBA On NBC after 23 years starting at the very season when the Winter Olympics are going on. With the NBA, NBC has the rights to the NBA All-Star Weekend, held inside the Los Angeles Clippers' new Intuit Dome home at this time, it inherited from TNT/Turner Sports, except for the All-Star Celebrity Game that ESPN still holds. Not to mention NBC will unquestionably lean in heavily on its 100th birth year:
https://frontofficesports.com/super-bowl-nba-olympics-drive-nbc-toward-billion-dollar-february/
https://qz.com/nbc-2026-advertisers-upfronts-super-bowl-olympics-1851770740
Plans are way well underfoot to bundle and optimize the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and Super Bowl LX, along with NBA All-Star Weekend in capitalizing with advertising sales packages for these marquee sports events through its leverage, warning of missing out. Not for the first time NBC did this with the first two regarding commercials. NBC will charge $7 million for Super Bowl LX ad space alone:
https://awfulannouncing.com/nbc/bundle-super-bowl-olympics-ad-inventory.html
https://awfulannouncing.com/nbc/super-bowl-lead-in-nba.html
https://frontofficesports.com/can-nbc-capitalize-on-super-bowl-olympics-nba-trio-in-2026/
Nelson Monfort and Philippe Candeloro may not actually be done with France Televisions' figure skating coverage after all following Dancing With The Stars. There's a serious possibility the duo will be back together for Milan-Cortina next year as they talk with RMC's Les Grandes Gueules (The Big Mouths) hosts. Monfort was impressed that Candeloro followed him out the door even when he didn't ask Candeloro to:
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On 5/8/2025 at 10:54 PM, baron-pierreIV said:
YUP, I JUST KNEW IT!! In Frumpie's mind, he will tie a Ukrainian peace deal with bringing Russia in the World Cup and/or LA28! God, the dickhead's as predictable as a . . . .
Trump claims football World Cup could end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
But hey, if it works, . . . just don't give him The Nobel Peace Prize!!Definitely not holding my breath for--or even expecting--both for the Cheeto Man In Chief
Anyway, it's full steam ahead for NBCUniversal's Telemundo as far as its 2026 FIFA World Cup US-Spanish television plans: It'll broadcast all 104 matches from all three countries live starting from Mexico City at Azteca Stadium with Mexico to East Rutherford, New Jersey's Met Life Stadium for the WC final in the New York/New Jersey area across Telemundo, Telemundo Deportes Ahora, and NBC Universo and streamed on Peacock and the Telemundo app. Not only that, the already robust, authentic, and dedicated Road To The World Cup content leading up to the massive event already on there and being the designated and exclusive US Spanish TV home of Team USA soccer games...
QuoteAs part of its Rumbo al Mundial franchise, Telemundo will enhance its FIFA coverage leading up to the tournament with exclusive Spanish-language rights to nine Argentina and Brazil’s home of FIFA World Cup 26™ Qualifiers and Team USA games. FIFA coverage will continue with the live presentation of the FIFA World Cup 26™ Draw in December 2025 from Las Vegas.
Just remembered Telemundo is going to launch its own 24/7 sports channel come August called Telemundo Deportes Ahora, devoted to offering 50+ live hours a week of Spanish language sports devoted to also, not unexpectedly, "spotlight on “fútbol” as the countdown to FIFA World Cup 26™ begins. Telemundo Deportes Ahora brings viewers closer than ever to the world of sports—anytime, anywhere.":
2025 FIFA Club World Cup - United States
in FIFA World Cup / Bids
Posted
Oh dear on this...like Quaker2001 says, we would all fear how the Cheeto Man in Chief would handle the opening ceremony in Los Angeles and make it all about his narcisstic self. The IOC better restrict him to just the protocol of declaring open the Summer Olympic Games--and not handling the medal ceremonies. Making the Club World Cup all about himself sours the CWC's cred at least for now. He really like his gold...