Sportscene is the name of a bouquet of Scottish sports television programmes produced by BBC Scotland. Its main anchors are Dougie Donnelly, David Currie and Dougie Vipond, with Alison Walker and Richard Gordon acting as relief presenters. Previous Sportscene presenters include Archie Macpherson, who also commentated, Gordon Hewitt, Hazel Irvine, Jill Douglas, Mark Souster and Rob Maclean.
Sportscene is widely recognised in Scotland as the main national sports programme, bringing coverage of Celtic's run to the UEFA Cup Final in the 2002-03 season, Scotland's 2006 Six Nations triumph over England and the finale to the 2002-03 Premier League season, where the title was decided on the last day of the competition, into Scottish homes. Its main commercial competition is usually STV's Scotsport, although their coverage of the Premier League was axed at the end of the 2007/08 season.
History
Sportscene's predecessor was Sportsreel, which was broadcast every Saturday at around 5pm (results and reports) and 10pm (highlights) in the 1960s. By the 1970s a Sportscene format of a 5pm programme called Scoreboard as a regional opt-out from Grandstand plus a 10pm show with highlights from one English and one Scottish league or cup match was established. Sportscene also covered European and International matches, which usually involved highlights but occasionally live coverage. The show was presented by Archie MacPherson with commentary by MacPherson, Alastair Alexander or Peter Thomson.
Present Coverage
Although in previous seasons Sportscene provided live coverage of the Scottish Premier League, from the 2007/08 season onwards they have broadcast highlights only, with live rights having been bought by Setanta Sports.[1] Also broadcast are highlights and selected live games of Scotland's international matches, including qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Football Championship, and exclusive live matches in the Scottish League Cup, officially known as the CIS Cup. Sportscene also shares rights to the Scottish Cup with Sky Sports and shows a number of games from the UEFA Cup and qualifiers from the UEFA Champions League that involve Scottish clubs. More recently, Sportscene Live has covered Scotland's 2006 Kirin Cup win and the final of the 2006 Under 19 European Championships, also involving Scotland.
Commentators & Reporters
The programme's main commentary and reporting team consists of; Paul Mitchell, John Barnes, Scott Davie, Kheredine Idessane, Alasdair Lamont, Rhona McLeod, Liam McLeod, Chris McLaughlin, Jim Spence, Alison Walker and Chick Young.
The Shows
There are a number of shows that come under the Sportscene brand.
- Sportscene Results is broadcast on Saturday afternoons on BBC One Scotland and is presented by David Currie and Jonathan Sutherland. The show rounds up all of the day's main football scores, whilst debating the major Scottish sports stories of the week. From 1989-2001, It was known as Afternoon Sportscene and previous presenters have included Bill McFarlen, Rob Maclean, Dougie Donnelly and Dougie Vipond. The show normally gives football experts like Pat Nevin and Tony Higgins an opportunity to give their views on the days results and the past week of football.
- Sportscene Rugby Special was the title of BBC Scotland's domestic rugby union programming when it held the rights to the Scottish leagues.
- All other football related programming is simply branded as Sportscene. This includes highlights packages and other one-off specials.
Online
Sportscene (Live)'s opening credits
Sportscene has begun simulcasting certain live matches via the 'BBC Scotland Player' on the internet. The UEFA Cup tie between Molde and Rangers was one of the first to feature on bbc.co.uk/scotland.
Presentation
The graphics used on Sportscene, and other BBC Sport Scotland programming, differ from the national BBC Sport graphics. Examples include differing styles, everything being separately branded as 'BBC Sport Scotland' and in the case of football, where the rest of the UK uses the red colour scheme, a light blue colour scheme is utilised instead.
In popular culture
The programme is regularly parodied in the Scottish football impressionist show Only an Excuse?. Munchtime Sportscene is a name often used by the programme's makers, presumably a play on the currently rested Lunchtime Sportscene programme.
See also
References
- ^ BBC Scotland's new SPL coverage deal
External links
