From next month, ESPN in the States will be covering NASCAR motorsport.

Both the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series and NASCAR Busch Series will be the most technologically advanced programming in the history of televised motorsports, according to ESPN, and includes true high definition in-car cameras.

“In-car cameras are probably the most dynamic facet of motorsports coverage and taking that into the high-def world is huge,” said Rich Feinberg, senior coordinating producer for NASCAR on ESPN. The camera systems had to be re-engineered for HD, as did the camera power and transmission systems within the race cars, all while maintaining a delicate balance to not add weight to the cars and possibly affect their performance.

Engadget have picked up on a US survey suggesting that more people would rather watch the Super Bowl on a high definition television than experience it live.

48% of respondents to the "Big Game Survey" (no they weren't lions or tigers) said they'd rather stay at home, watching on the big screen, compared to 26% who said they'd rather be at the game. What the other 26% said? Who knows.

Sky have announced that they'll be broadcasting the Super Bowl live in high definition on 4th February 2007 (well, early 5th Feb, UK time).

Super Bowl XLI will be the first US sports event and the sixth sport to be screened in HD by Sky Sports with the first Super League match in HD also on 4 February 2007.

Half time show performance comes from Prince.

Sky have reaffirmed their commitment to the sport with a new 4-year deal announced in September for live games and support programming.

Sky HD

Related stories: Why Sky's cricket deal is good news | Sky to broadcast Ryder Cup in HD

EngadgetHD is reporting that Eurovision has successfully taken various sports feeds (NBA, NHL) from the US, converted them to a "UK friendly" format, and broadcast them over here.

Details are extremely sketchy, to say the least. Digging around for the original press release, all that's really talked about is how the feed has been converted from 1080i/60fps (US) to 1080i/50fps (Europe/UK) without downconverting to NTSC format.

Sky has announced details of more televised Guinness Premiership Rugby Union matches from rounds 14-19, all to be broadcast on Sky Sports and Sky Sports HD.

Eight matches will be aired live and exclusive to Sky Sports, meaning that each of the 12 Premiership teams will be shown at least 3 times between the start of the season and mid-March 2007.

The BBC has announced that live sport will take a prominent place on the BBC HD trial channel in the New Year.

In January, the third round of the FA Cup gets underway, and the BBC aims to show live matches every weekend right up until the Final. The matches and times are still to be confirmed.

The BBC HD channel will also show all Six Nations Rugby home games for England, Scotland, and Wales, in simulcast with BBC1, starting in February and running through to the final in mid-March.

Sky's continuing high definition push, particularly for sports, continues with today's announcement that they are to show the first ever Rugby League matches in HD, beginning with next season's exclusive live coverage of the engage Super League.

We've talked of Sky's fairly impressive high-def footie package before, but with a potential classic match between Manchester United and Celtic kicking off next Wednesday (13th September) at Old Trafford, it's a good a time as any to remind you what European football is being shown in glorious HD this season.

There'll be over 100 matches from the UEFA Champions League, including a choice of 14 from the group stages. Any match involving a Premiership side playing at home will be shown in HD. This gets under way with the clash between English and Scottish giants, Manchester United and Celtic at Old Trafford next week.

Richard Keys will present the live coverage of the UEFA Champions League and will be joined in the studio by guests rich in European club pedigree including Ray Wilkins and Graeme Souness, so you have the joy of seeing old football players in high-def too!

Sky HD

Buoyed by the success of the World Cup in its 8 UK venues (well, except in Scotland) which saw a 46% rise in sales during June, they've just secured a deal with BSkyB to show high-definition sport in their Haymarket café, and had HD screens installed.

Chairman Ian Lenagan said: "The roll-out of the Sports Cafe estate continues. The results of the first half of 2006 together with Sports Cafe's continued expansion and increasing profile enables the board to remain confident about the prospects of the company."

Presumably this will roll out across the expanding chain in the future. A bar is due to open in Cardiff before the 2007 Rugby World Cup, with a Croydon café due to open in the next few weeks.

Tonight sees the Sussex Sharks take on the Warwickshire Bears at Hove in another Pro 40 cricket outing on Sky Sports HD.

Sussex have been on form in the county championship and will have high hopes of performing well against Warwickshire tonight.

Cricket has probably been one of the most impressive aspects of HD broadcasting to date, with the image being a lot crisper and clearer and the movement of the ball being captured sublimely.

Catch it at 4.30pm today on Sky Sports HD

Europe’s top consumer electronics show IFA kicks off in Berlin today, and you can bet that HDTV will be very high up on most manufacturers’ agendas. We’ll be delivering all the news from Berlin as it happens, but here's what we know so far.

Panasonic – Will almost certainly unveil new HD ready TVs during a key note speech by top exec Mr Otsubo.
Samsung – Although it will be majoring on small digital TV devices Samsung is promising plenty of big screen high def action. Look out for contenders for the world’s biggest LCD and plasma sets.
Sharp - We’d put our money on a European debut for its 65inch LCD TV – the world's biggest apparently - which will go on sale in the UK next year.
Blu-ray vs HD-DVD – In a re-run of IFA 1997, where Tosh and Sony battled it out to establish a DVD format, this year the pair will be pushing their DVD successors in HD DVD (Tosh) and Blu-ray (loads of others). Both are designed to offer the kind of storage capacity that will enable consumers to record high definition TV.