Today marks a very proud moment for BBC Sport with the announcement by the FA Premier League that we have extended our TV highlights contract until the end of the 2015/16 season. This is one of BBC Sport's key contracts and our new deal will see 'Match of the Day' celebrate its 50th birthday. We know how much licence fee payers value the programme and it remains one of the BBC's best-loved and iconic brands. We've seen audiences for Match of the Day grow in recent years in conjunction with our extensive football coverage on 5 live, the market-leading BBC Sport website and via our regular sports news bulletins.
Over the last 12 months there has been plenty of discussion about BBC Sport's relocation from London to the north west of England but more recently the spotlight has fallen on sports rights and the question being asked by many of you - how can BBC Sport with its reduced budget hope to compete for the best sport rights? You may have seen the article in the Guardian which posed exactly this question.
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My next sentence is one which, for much of the past year, I never considered possible I would write. There is a real chance the London Olympics will not sell out.
I'm not just talking about football tickets, which the organisers were always going to struggle to persuade enough people to buy - I'm talking about a number of other key Olympic sports, like weightlifting, beach volleyball, boxing and even basketball.
Last year there were an astonishing 22 million applications in the first round ballot for the 6.6 million tickets available to the British public. Demand surprised even the most optimistic London 2012 officials. A number of events were more than 10 times over-subscribed.
When the remaining tickets went online during the second round sale last summer, most were snapped up in minutes. The British public appeared to have an insatiable appetite for the Olympics. There were never going to be enough tickets to go round.
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Now as promised - here's the second guest blog this week about the torch relay and the way it's being broadcast. It's from Imelda Flattery in BBC News, who's been leading the planning of our coverage.
Usually you know where you stand with a big news event. Last year's royal wedding took place at Westminster Abbey.
End of. It didn't up sticks every 10 minutes and set itself alight.
The torch relay is something different. Live events often perambulate at a stately pace over a short distance.
They involve world leaders or Popes waving serenely to the crowd as they pass. Not the relay though. It's relentless.
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| 15:05 UK time, Friday, 25 May 2012
