The BT Sport announcement focussing on their MotoGP presentation line-up brings with good news, bad news and also a few questions.

Starting with the positives, and BT have assembled a very strong punditry team with Neil Hodgson and James Toseland. It was important for BT Sport to get well known motorcycle names to be a part of the coverage and, from a British perspective, they’ve done just that. As with any pairing, without seeing them on screen, it is difficult to say how it will play out on screen, but they have got the first step right with who they have managed to get. Another positive is the commentary line-up. The positive being in that it is not Charlie Cox and Steve Parrish. Whilst I am going to critical on some aspects of their coverage later on, I am happy that we don’t have to hear Cox struggling to commentate on what felt like far too many occasions last season.

Keith Huewen and Julian Ryder is an interesting one. I’ll be honest in saying that I have never heard proper commentary from them from back in their heyday in the mid 1990s, you can do the sums if I say that I’m currently 21! What disappoints me is the decision to omit Toby Moody. I accept that BT want to go in a different direction in some aspects, because inevitably they want to evolve the coverage. But I’m unsure how reverting to a commentary team from twenty years ago does that. I also didn’t hear anyone wanting Moody out of the coverage. Again, I’m from am era who has only really watched races with Moody and Ryder commentating, saying that I would be interested to hear where people rank Huewen and Ryder in comparison to Moody and Ryder.

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The scheduling of MotoGP Tonight feels like a genius move. Tuesdays at 20:00 on terrestrial television is a ‘dead’ slot and mainly skewed towards female, so this makes perfect sense. One of my criticisms I have with Sky Sports F1 is their insistence to air The F1 Show live on a Friday night when their core, young audience is out. I’m happy BT have learnt a lesson from Sky here and have done some sensible scheduling. I’m looking forward to seeing how MotoGP Tonight plays out, if done correctly it has the potential to be a gem – like The F1 Show was in 2012 before it fell off the rails. The expansive studio should allow them to do some interesting stuff so it will be interesting to see if anything happens there.

With positives, there are negatives. If I made a list of the twenty people most likely to be in the running as potential MotoGP host on BT Sport, I don’t think Melanie Sykes would ever feature in that list. Possibly even top 100. Which makes her announcement even more of a surprise. I assume that Sykes was not BT’s first choice, I would have had Suzi Perry, Jennie Gow, Matt Roberts amongst others above Sykes. In other words, quite a few people must have rejected BT Sport before Sykes became a firm contender. It might be telling that the Sykes rumour only emerged in the last week, even though the commentary line-up has been common knowledge amongst the motorcycling circles for a while. What worries me here is that Sykes has never presented a live sporting event, and I don’t think has done an outside broadcast for years, most of her work has been inside television studios.

Yes, Sykes has bags of experience, but not the right experience. Jake Humphrey and Simon Lazenby both started their respective Formula 1 presenting roles with live sporting experience, the former most notably climbed through BBC’s ranks, made a good impression at the 2008 Olympics and the rest is history. I’m willing to give her a chance, but the ‘Georgie Thompson vibe’ comes to mind here. Thompson left Sky Sports F1 after a year to head to America. Thankfully for Sky, Thompson was a relatively small part of the puzzle and was easily replaced. If Sykes decided after a year that she didn’t want to do the gig any more I don’t think it would be as simple for BT. I hope BT have Sykes locked in for the long term otherwise we could well see the Thompson situation play out again. On a similar subject, having Iwan Thomas regularly on MotoGP Tonight suggests that they are trying to cater for the casual viewer, although in both cases, I do not imagine someone thinking “Melanie Sykes is presenting MotoGP, I must watch it!”.

Aside from Sykes and the omission of Moody, another interesting point is the scheduling. British Eurosport last year were already doing a few hours per day, meaning it is difficult for BT Sport for step up too much from that. Maybe its just me, but ‘five hours of coverage a day’ sounds vague, although it must be noted that the MotoGP weekend schedule is structured differently compared with Formula 1, more for the fan at track rather than strictly conforming to TV viewers at home. I think we will have to wait and see until the schedules come out to see how exactly the coverage forms out, thinking about presentation too at this point given that the press release gives no clue as to whether BT plan to take the World Feed for Moto2 and Moto3.

Overall, I do think the team is good. There’s some aspects I’ve missed out here, and that is deliberate because I don’t know much about them, Matt Birt and Gavin Emmett being those two. One thing I don’t know is how ‘technical’ either of them are in comparison to Neil Spalding and previously Randy Mamola, which is why I have not touched that above. The only mainly negative aspect is Sykes, and I hope I’m proven wrong where she is concerned. I think it is a risk BT taking someone on without a proven track record, but it won’t be long before we find out whether it was a risk worth taking.

BT Sport have unveiled their MotoGP line-up that will cover the series for them throughout the 2014 season, in what it says will be the most extensive coverage of the sport that has ever been seen in the UK.

Melanie Sykes will present the coverage, with former World Superbike champions Neil Hodgson and James Toseland alongside her. Whilst Sykes comes to BT Sport having presented no live sports coverage, she has presented numerous live programmes on ITV such as Today with Des and Mel and Let’s do Lunch with Gino and Mel. The coverage will be presented on-site at each event, with additional analysis from BT Sport’s studios at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. Keith Huewen will be the lead commentator in a three man booth alongside Julian Ryder, the partnership reuniting after a fifteen year separation. Motorcycle News chief grand prix correspondent Matt Birt is the third man in that booth, whilst Gavin Emmett, who can also be heard on MotoGP’s World Feed commentating, will be BT Sport’s reporter.

Coverage will formally launch with a preview show on Tuesday 18th March as the channel reflects on pre-season testing and looks to the season ahead. From that point forward, BT Sport will broadcast an hour long programme on Tuesday nights at 20:00. Entitled MotoGP Tonight, it will be presented by Craig Doyle and former Olympian and biker, Iwan Thomas, with guests each week. Each weekend coverage will begin on Friday mornings with five hours of coverage each day. The exception to this is Qatar, where coverage will begin on Thursday 20th March at 15:00, from the first minute of Moto3 practice 1 to ten minutes after Moto2 practice 2 has concluded. Aside from the details announced today, it was revealed yesterday that BT have created a MotoGP film, to air in the build-up to Qatar.

Simon Green, head of BT Sport, said: “It’s really exciting to be launching such a thrilling new sport on BT Sport, with a tremendous new team and what we believe will be a fresh approach to MotoGP and some fantastic new shows. MotoGP is the top, two-wheeled motorsport. It’s massive in the UK and we’re heading into it at full throttle and following every second of the action. We’re sure we’ll appeal to committed fans, but we also think we will win over and welcome new fans to the sport.”

Manel Arroyo, managing director, Dorna Sports, said: “I’m pleased that MotoGP is part of such a huge and exciting project as BT Sport. I’m sure that BT Sport will provide the in-depth coverage that MotoGP deserves so that British fans can follow the fortunes of British riders in the Championship.” As expected, there will be interactive options via the BT Sport app with eight views in total: the main coverage; helicopter; live timing; a tracking screen and 4 x onboard. Full races and highlights will also be available on the app.

The channel’s deal with Dorna Sports covers the period from 2014 through to the end of 2018 and will be produced by North One Television. As it stands, MotoGP will not have any terrestrial television coverage from this point going forward.

This week is expected to be one of the biggest of the motor sport broadcasting year, from an announcements stand-point as BT Sport are set to unveil their MotoGP line-up. Bennetts last week reported that an announcement was expected at the ExCel Arena, home to the MCN London Motorcycle Show, on 14th February. Whilst that is highly likely to be the date, Shannon Kent, the brother of Moto3 rider Danny Kent tweeted, noting that there is a BT Sport event concerning MotoGP on Thursday (13th February). Either way, it appears this week is the week.

So, who is expected to be part of the team? The rumour mill, as one would expect, has been out in force, however, we can gauge a good idea of who will be part of the team already. Toby Moody’s confirmation a few weeks ago that he would not be part of the team left us with a commentary pairing of Keith Huewen and Julian Ryder, the two expected to rekindle their relationship from the mid 1990s. Despite not mentioning BT Sport recently, his tweets quite clearly show that he is back within the MotoGP paddock circles.

As for the punditry, Bennetts are also reporting that James Toseland and Neil Hodgson, both former World Superbike champions, will be on-board. They note that Toseland “isn’t doing a full season, choosing to do occasional rounds instead, but we believe he will be alongside Hodgson at the first round in Qatar”. This bit is interesting, because a regular insider over on Digital Spy claims that BT will only be on site for seven or eight races. Which, linking back to the above, makes me wonder if Toseland is only going to play a part in proceedings when BT Sport are on-site. I won’t speculate on rumours too much here, as all of this could be wide of the mark.

Which brings me onto my final part. Bike Sport News are reporting that Melanie Sykes is set to front their coverage, with Craig Doyle (current presenter of BT’s Rugby coverage and presenter of ITV’s Isle of Man coverage) fronting a magazine show two days a week. The Sykes rumour sounds incredibly far-fetched, considering Sykes has never presented live sport before and would be a new foray for her. However, it is not as strange as you may expect, when you see this:

ROAR Sport ‏@RoarSport1 Feb 6
Looking forward to announcing some amazing @MsMelanieSykes news next week #2014 #SPORT
3:39 PM – 6 Feb 2014

Again, I don’t want to read too much into this, she could be a lifestyle reporter like Beverley Turner was back in ITV’s Formula 1 coverage back in the mid 2000’s (alas, that role was quickly dropped). Or it could be a red herring, someone has done 2 + 2 and come out with 5. By the end of the week we will find out. And as always, there will be some happy with the line-up, and some unhappy with the moment. For the next few days at least, let the speculation continue…