Jake Humphrey
Losing Jake Humphrey is a massive loss for the BBC, as he was easily one of the jewels in their slightly depleted crown.
While a massive coup for BT and their new football coverage starting next year, BBC Sport have lost one of the prize assets.
Ever since Sky took Formula 1 off the BBC’s hands for the most part, the corporation has had little to crow about in terms of sport. They’ve been lucky this year with the giant events occurring all at once, but The Olympics only happen once every four years and the giant football tournaments only occur every two years.
Apart from those major events (and even then the football is shared with ITV) what else do the BBC have exclusively or the best coverage of? Their Moto GP coverage has long been outdone by Eurosport’s commentary team and apart from athletics, the BBC have seldom few exclusives to their name.
BBC Sport has also suffered massive losses over the last few years to both ITV and Sky in terms of personnel. Whilst some won’t be missed (Adrian Chiles anybody?) other’s have already had their presence sorely missed (Lee Dixon was easily the BBC’s best football pundit and Ted Kravitz’s input into F1 cannot be underestimated).
Humphrey wasn’t just the friendly face of F1 though; he had long been the BBC’s golden boy when it came to sports coverage, throwing him at everything in an effort to have his natural charm rub off on it. Be it the Olympics, football or everything in between, Humphrey’s face was always a welcome part of the Beeb’s sporting coverage. He even made the Superbowl interesting for non-Americans.
It sets a dangerous precedent though that even in its developmental stage, BT can pilfer one of BBC Sport’s highest profile presenters.
Here’s hoping that the BBC can keep hold of Claire Balding, as without her the whole ship’s in danger of toppling over.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith