The Boat Race shall be broadcast on Channel 4 for the primary time on Saturday after leaving the BBC and the presenting workforce has modified dramatically
Three BBC presenters have misplaced their Boat Race roles as protection strikes to Channel 4. Just one member of the presenting workforce has made the leap.
Historical past shall be made in additional methods than one when the 171st annual rowing contest between the College of Oxford and the College of Cambridge takes place on Saturday afternoon.
Not solely does this 12 months mark the eightieth version of the ladies’s race, however for the primary time, protection of the occasion shall be broadcast on Channel 4. The race was initially televised by the BBC in 1938 after the company had introduced it to the airwaves through radio in 1927. ITV coated it from 2005 till 2009.
However this time round, as Cambridge appears to be like to increase its head-to-head lead in each the boys’s and girls’s occasions, followers must tune into Channel 4. One acquainted face awaits, whereas the remainder of the punditry workforce has been shaken up.
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Final 12 months, the BBC programme was fronted by Clare Balding and she’s going to return for Channel 4 this weekend. Balding acts because the lead presenter as soon as once more.
She was joined by commentator Andrew Cotter 12 months in the past, in addition to reporters Lee McKenzie and Qasa Alom. Nonetheless, these three don’t characteristic on Channel 4’s line-up.
Former Paralympics GB wheelchair basketball participant Ade Adepitan joins Balding as co-presenter and Alex Jacques shall be on lead commentary responsibility following the opponents down the Thames.
Olympic gold-medal-winning rower Martin Cross and Olympic silver-medal-winning rower Jess Eddie are additionally a part of the punditry workforce, as is triple Olympic champion Pete Reed OBE. Broadcaster and mathematician Hannah Fry can even be current, as will Jamie Laing.
Pete Andrews, head of sport at Channel 4, stated: “We’re very excited to be broadcasting the race on Channel 4 for the primary time and, as we get nearer to Race Day, it is a thrill to substantiate our workforce to current this historic race for us.
“I am delighted Clare Balding and Ade Adepitan shall be becoming a member of us on the banks of the Thames, together with the sensible commentating expertise of Alex Jacques and a gang of professional pundits, plus we’ll be including in additional Channel 4 faces as we construct as much as the massive day, too.”
Channel 4 gained the aggressive rights to turn out to be the unique free-to-air residence of the Boat Race for the subsequent 5 editions, with Instances Radio taking the radio rights.
The ladies’s race will air first, starting at roughly 2:21pm on Saturday. The boys’s race will then happen an hour later at an estimated 3:21pm, with a frightening 4.25-mile stretch from Putney to Mortlake on the Tideway awaiting the rowers.
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