Darren Fletcher (broadcaster)

Last updated

Darren Fletcher (born 5 October 1972) is an English football commentator for TNT Sports on their coverage of the Premier League, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

Contents

Career

BBC (2004–2016)

Fletcher began broadcasting back in 1993 with local radio stations in his home town Nottingham when he was 20. He joined BBC Radio Five Live in 2004. [1] Whilst he was part of Five Live's main commentary team he commentated on two World Cups and a European Championship. [2] He also regularly appeared on the show 606 , often alongside Robbie Savage. In 2010 he joined BBC Sport to be part of their coverage and also commentating on Match of the Day . He was also part of the BBC team at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He was the main commentator covering the Boxing Tournament alongside co-commentator Steve Bunce. [3]

BT Sport (2013–present)

In 2013, he joined BT Sport to commentate on their new coverage of the Premier League. [4] In 2014 he co-hosted the programme Fletch and Sav, alongside ex-footballer Robbie Savage, which was launched to rival Soccer AM . [5] The show ended in 2016 when BT Sport acquired the rights to 5:30 pm games. [6] Fletcher would also become a part of the channel's FA Cup, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League team when BT acquired those rights in 2015. [7] Since 2016 he has commentated on the finals of the Europa League and the Champions League. [8]

Since 2014 Darren Fletcher has anchored the Channel 4 coverage of the Red Bull Soap Box Derby. In 2019, Fletcher won the award for Sunflower of the Year, an annual horticultural event held by TNT Sport. He remarked, "Look at it. It's frigging massive!"

In 2019, Fletcher and Josh Chetwynd commentated on the 2019 MLB London Series baseball games between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

Notts County (2017–2018)

In 2017, Fletcher became a director at Notts County F.C. in his home town of Nottingham, and worked closely with club owner Alan Hardy. He stepped down from the position in August 2018. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Beglin</span> Irish Footballer

James Martin Beglin is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a defender, and a current co-commentator for RTÉ, CBS Sports, TNT Sports, and Premier League Productions.

Derek Rae is a Scottish association football commentator and presenter who currently works for ESPN and ABC in the United States for the English-language coverages of Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, and La Liga and Deutsche Fußball Liga for the English-language world feed as well as the Premier League coverage on Amazon Prime Video in the UK. He has provided the English commentary for the FIFA/EA FC video game series alongside former Arsenal players Lee Dixon in 2020 and Stewart Robson, who also played for West Ham United since 2021. He is also an ambassador for Berwick Rangers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Townsend</span> Irish footballer

Andrew David Townsend is a former professional footballer and sports co-commentator for Premier League Productions and CBS Sports.

Stewart Ian Robson is an English former football player and TV and radio football pundit. He played for Arsenal, West Ham United where he was their player of the season in 1988, and Coventry City. After his footballing career ended he took on a role as a TV and radio pundit for Arsenal TV until 2012, ESPN, TalkSPORT and TNT Sports. He is currently ESPN's lead color commentator for FA Cup and EFL Cup working alongside Jon Champion and Martin Tyler, and Bundesliga with Derek Rae, who he also provides commentary alongside in the FIFA/EA FC video game series since 2021.

Jonathan Martin Champion is a British sports commentator currently working as an association football commentator for ESPN and NBC Sports. Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC and ITV over the last 20 years. Champion currently covers the FA Cup for ESPN, the Premier League for NBC Sports, and the 2024 national USA women's soccer team at the Olympics for USA/Peacock, sharing commentating duties with prior Olympic gold medalist Julie Foudy.

Alan Parry is an English sports commentator, concentrating on football and athletics. He has commentated for all four main broadcasters of football in the UK – the BBC, BT Sport, ITV and Sky TV, as well as for both BBC and commercial radio.

ITV Sport is the sports department of ITV plc, which produces and presents sports programming for the ITV network and ITVX. The branding was originally introduced in 1985 as an umbrella title for networked sports programming produced by ITV's regional franchises. The division took its current form in 2004 amid the acquisition of Carlton Television by Granada Television to form ITV plc, after which the sports departments of Granada, Carlton, and London News Network were amalgamated to form ITV Sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Pearce (commentator)</span> British football commentator

Jonathan Mark Pearce is an English sports commentator on football for the BBC and TNT Sports. He worked for BBC Radio 5 Live and Match of the Day, and participated in other lower-profile sports programmes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Bower</span> English football commentator

Stephen Robert Bower is an English football commentator. He is best known as one of the main voices for BBC TV's Match of the Day, culminating in being part of the commentary teams for the 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 FIFA World Cups. Bower commentated on New Zealand's historic draw with Italy and Argentina's 4–1 win over South Korea amongst others. He can also be heard on TNT Sports covering the Europa League, Serie A, and the Bundesliga, NBCSN covering the Premier League in the US, and ESPN covering international matches. He is the lead presenter on world feed Premier League Productions and presents Premier League football for Amazon Prime Video UK. Previous work includes Setanta Sports, ESPN UK, and MUTV.

Peter Donald Drury is a British sports commentator who currently works for Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and NBC Sports in the United States as the lead commentator for their Premier League coverage.

Robin "Rob" Maclean is a Scottish television presenter, football commentator and sports writer. He currently works for BBC Scotland and TNT Sports.

Football on 5 is the principal football programme on Channel 5 in the UK. The show first ran from May 1997 until July 2012. The show returned in August 2015 under the name Football League Tonight. For the 2016–17 Football League season the Football on 5 name was revived with the highlights show now called Football on 5: The Championship and Football on 5: Goal Rush being broadcast from 9pm-10.30pm on a Saturday with a repeat on Sunday morning. The show itself was initially sponsored by Wilkinson Sword, and would eventually be sponsored by Soccernet.com, Peugeot and SEAT, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy Mowbray</span> English football commentator

Guy Nicholas Mowbray is an English football commentator, who primarily appears on the BBC and TNT Sports. While working for Eurosport at the 1998 World Cup, he became the youngest ever television commentator on a World Cup final, aged 26.

Ian Darke is an English association football and boxing commentator who currently works for ESPN and TNT Sports. Darke was previously one of Sky's "Big Four" football commentators alongside Martin Tyler, Alan Parry and Rob Hawthorne. He was also the main commentator for Sky's big boxing fights and along with Jim Watt, covered some of the biggest fights involving British boxers.

Dave Woods is a British sports commentator. He covers rugby league and football for the BBC and BT Sport as well as occasional freelance work for Five in their Champions League and Europa League coverage.

Ross Dyer is a British sports and entertainment broadcaster. He is currently a football commentator and presenter for ESPN and Fox Sports in the United States.

Alistair Mann is a freelance football commentator and TV sports presenter.

Paul Andrew Francis Dempsey is a British TV and radio sports presenter and commentator now chiefly employed by TNT Sports where he covers football and boxing coverage, as well as TV host and commentary on Indonesian Djarum's multiplatform Mola TV. After 18 years working for Sky Sports and 7 with the Dublin-based channels of Setanta Sports, Dempsey was signed by BT Sport prior to their UK launch.

TNT Sports is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as BT Sport on 1 August 2013.

The UEFA Champions League is an annual club football competition organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competition winners. The competition attracts an extensive television audience, not just in Europe, but throughout the world. The final of the tournament has been, in recent years, the most-watched annual sporting event in the world. The final of the 2012–13 tournament had the competition's highest TV ratings to date, drawing approximately 360 million television viewers.

References

  1. ↑ "Darren Fletcher". BT.com. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  2. ↑ "Darren Fletcher". TV Newsroom. 6 December 2014. Archived from the original on 3 April 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  3. ↑ "Darren Fletcher - James Grant Group". James Grant Group. Archived from the original on 29 August 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  4. ↑ "BT Sport announces line-up of talent including ex-England striker Michael Owen as a co-commentator". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  5. ↑ "Matchday Live with Fletch and Sav". BT.com. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  6. ↑ Football, Mirror (7 May 2016). "Fans voice disbelief on twitter after Fletch and Sav is cancelled". mirror. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  7. ↑ "Champions League: BT Sport wins £897m football rights deal". BBC Sport. 9 November 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  8. ↑ MorningAdvertiser.co.uk. "Full-time Fletch... on the Champions League final". MorningAdvertiser.co.uk. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  9. ↑ Curtis, Leigh (31 August 2018). "Darren Fletcher steps down from Notts County board". nottinghampost. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.