To find a time when sport created such a sense of national pride and euphoria you have to go all the way back to 1966 and England winning the World Cup on home soil.

There have been many special sporting moments since then but surely nothing that compares to the events of this year.

Much has been said and written about the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. It was billed as the ‘greatest show on earth’ and it's difficult to imagine how they could have gone any better.

Mark Cavendish was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2011. Photo: PA

But the year of sport was not defined solely by the brilliance of these Games. We have been spoilt with so much sporting drama and unprecedented success across many sports.

The power of sport to unite the nation has never been so evident.

And so BBC Sport will be celebrating and reliving these events with our biggest ever Sports Personality of the Year on the evening of Sunday, 16 December.

We will be broadcasting live on BBC One, BBC One HD and BBC Radio 5 live from Excel London in front of a record crowd of more than 15,000 people.

It’s a huge privilege to bring the sporting curtain down on 2012 and we hope it will be a fitting finale to one of the most enthralling and memorable 12 months in the history of sport in the United Kingdom.

This year also sees some changes to the show.

Given the calibre and number of potential candidates this year has produced, we have decided the 2012 shortlist will consist of 12 sportspeople, two more than usual.

As in previous years, the winner will be voted for by the public during the live BBC Sports Personality of the Year programme, giving everyone a chance to back their favourite.

We also committed to review the shortlisting process for this year’s event following the controversy of an all-male list in 2011.

It was the first time that the system had thrown up this sort of anomaly, although no-one could deny that Mark Cavendish was a very worthy winner of the award and the clear choice of the general public.

We wanted a wide range of input into the review so over the last 12 months, assisted by some of my senior BBC colleagues, I have consulted with a wide range of people on the subject including BBC Audience Councils, former nominees and various representatives of the sports media and sporting bodies.

Amongst all the discussion and debate two key messages in particular shone through.

Firstly, there was a consensus that the BBC itself should be better represented and have more control in the shortlisting process to ensure there are no more anomalies of the sort we saw in 2011 - in the previous system the BBC had no input other than to administer the voting process.

Our research also showed that there were many options and views about how that control should be exerted. We thought long and hard about the right way forward, to ensure the show maintains its credibility as the definitive review of the sporting year.

We have decided to evolve the shortlisting process through the introduction of an expert panel. The panel will be asked to devise a shortlist that reflects UK sporting achievements on the national and/or international stage, represents the breadth and depth of UK sports and takes into account ‘impact’ within and beyond the sport or sporting achievement in question.

The 2012 panel will comprise:
*Me, in my role as Director of BBC Sport (Chair)

*The BBC’s Head of TV Sport (Philip Bernie)

*The Executive Editor of BBC Sports Personality of the Year (Carl Doran).

*A representative from BBC Radio 5 Live - this year, Eleanor Oldroyd.

*Three national newspaper sports editors (to be rotated annually) - this year, Mike Dunn (The Sun), Lee Clayton (Daily Mail) and Matthew Hancock (Observer)

*Three former nominees (to be appointed annually) - this year, Sir Steve Redgrave, Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson and Denise Lewis OBE

*A pan-sports broadcaster/journalist - this year, Sue Mott

*Baroness Sue Campbell, Chair of UK Sport.

The panel will endeavour to produce a shortlist based on reaching a consensus view. If a consensus view cannot be reached on all or some of the candidates, then they will be asked to vote for the remaining candidates.

We are extremely grateful to the sports editors of the national press that were the crucial part of the previous system. They are still closely involved, on a rotational basis, occupying three out of the 12 places. Their perspective and enormous wealth of experience is critical to the legitimacy of the shortlisting process.

I am in no doubt that the assembled panel will produce a shortlist that meets the criteria set down. The members of the panel bring a wide and diverse range of expert sporting knowledge through a combination of permanent seats and rotational participation.

When we reviewed the shortlisting process, a few people suggested that we should adopt two awards - male and female - whilst others have suggested there should be separate awards for Olympians and Paralympians.

We have decided to keep with tradition and not risk devaluing the success of any particular sportsperson, so we have retained the format that has served the nation well for 58 years, of one overall Sports Personality of the Year award.

The expert panel will also decide the Team of the Year, Coach of the Year and the Overseas Personality Award.

One of the most notable features of sport is the passion it instils as people discuss what they have watched, listened to or read. I can’t wait for the panel to convene and open up the debate over these awards. I hope a day will be long enough.

There you have it, one cup of tea, a bastion of Britishness and a price difference of £2 - from 50p in Scotland to £2.50 at Old Trafford and the Etihad. But why?

And that, very simply, is what the BBC Price of Football 2012 report - to be published on the BBC Sport website on Thursday and discussed on BBC Radio 5 live - is all about. Asking why? Discussing how?

It isn't an exercise in kicking clubs for charging too much, nor is it about hopping on the bandwagon and shouting "disgrace" at that those that charge the most. It's about a day of discussion and debate about the cost of watching your team play football and how that has changed, at whatever level.

It's also the chance to ask questions of the people in the game who set the prices at the 166 teams involved across 10 divisions in England, Scotland and Wales.

But this didn't happen overnight. Before we even started, earlier in the year, we ensured we had the co-operation of the Premier League and the Football League. Clubs receive several requests a week to take part in surveys and reveal prices, so ensuring the leagues understood what we wanted to achieve was crucial.

Because of their experience of the Price of Football report in 2011, they agreed. They, in turn, encouraged clubs to take part.

Over the past month, we've spoken to media officers from every one of the 166 clubs we surveyed. Many of them more than once. Some, we've had to chase for the information. We've then double-checked that information to ensure that it's accurate.

But studying the Price of Football isn't easy. There is simply no way to compare the "normal" ticket prices fans pay at any given club, on any given matchday or for the deals available on season tickets.

From the variety of categories that are set depending on the opposition, to early bird offers, to family discounts through offers for cup games, there is no way to compare every single type of ticket available.

Similarly, neither is there such a thing as a standard junior ticket. Some clubs let certain ages in for free, others bracket children's tickets depending on age, setting one price for those under 12 and another for 12-16 for example.

So the simplest way to identify trends across 166 clubs in 10 divisions, who all use a range of different pricing structures, is to keep it clean and simple to ensure that the results of the study are as comparable as they can be.

We asked clubs for the cheapest, and most expensive, adult ticket for a league game when purchased on a match day, as well as adult season tickets - and added in a pie, tea and a programme to work out the cost of a day at the football for one adult.

We've aimed, all along, to be as transparent as possible. Clubs decided to take part in the survey and they wanted to spark debate on their own websites with their own fans about how their prices are structured.

With seven different price categories across 166 teams, our study offers more than 1,100 different figures to pore over and is one of the biggest ever undertaken in British football.

We want this to be an annual event, when football clubs and fans come together across the BBC to discuss and debate everything from the price of a pie, to the cost of a season ticket.

So next year, we'll do it again, and I welcome your suggestions about how we can make it even better. Feel free to leave some below.

After all, what is football without the fans?

By Stuart Rowson, BBC sports editor interactive.

Listen, watch and debate the Price of Football with 5 live and the BBC Sport website with a specially-extended YourCall from 9-11am on Thursday with Nicky Campbell and Rachel Burden. You can listen on 5 live and watch it on red button and the website between 9-10, then online and red button only between 10-11. And you can get involved in the debate throughout the day on the BBC Sport website on Sportsday Live from 7am and on Twitter using #bbcpriceoffootball

The answer is, unfortunately, no. The simple fact is the television rights for the Paralympics were awarded to Channel 4 by the London organisers, Locog. We've known about this since January 2010 and my colleague Roger Mosey blogged about it at the time.

So, the reason is not that we think the Paralympics doesn't deserve all-embracing coverage. On the contrary, the BBC has had a long standing commitment to the Paralympics and indeed a proud tradition of covering disability sport - one that's valued by sports governing bodies here in the United Kingdom and envied around the world - so it would be bizarre for us to make such a decision without cause.

Despite this, the BBC still has a major stake in the success of the Paralympics. BBC Radio 5 live and Radio 5 live sports extra will be the home of live commentary and reporting from the Paralympic Games. As we did so successfully during the Olympics, it will be our privilege to showcase the main events, feature the key athletes and personalities and conduct the national conversation surrounding the Games.

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson won 11 gold Paralympic medals between 1992-2004. Photo: BBC

Legendary Paralympic athlete Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and swimmer Marc Woods will be at the heart of our programmes presented daily from the Olympic Park. John Inverdale will be hosting coverage through 5 live Drive and 5 live Sport, whilst Shelagh Fogarty will present her 12-2pm show from Olympic Park. Other shows such as Breakfast will also, at times, be presented from the Park.

The BBC network of 40+ local radio stations, including BBC London, will also feature those athletes making an impact on the Games. They have reported on their progress in the months leading up to the Games and their unrivalled reach will ensure the stories and achievements of our athletes can be reported back to every corner of the UK.

It will also be a priority for our BBC TV News outlets and local television stations to report the stories of the Games. In common with other non-rights holders, we have no access to venues and limited access to the Olympic Park. Plus, we are also restricted in the amount of footage we can use to illustrate any reports and interviews. Nevertheless, we will, with the co-operation of Paralympics GB, get opportunities to interview athletes after they have competed and we are committed to featuring their exploits across our network and regional news programming.

We are also making a strong digital commitment to the Paralympics. There will be dedicated Paralympics sections on our web and mobile sites, where you will be able to find all the latest news, results, medals table, schedule and photo galleries, as well as following the action throughout every day via our ever-popular live text commentary page.

You will be able to listen to live action at bbc.co.uk/5live while we will also showcase the best bits of 5 live - commentary highlights, interviews, video clips - via one easy-to-use page. You will also be able to visit the BBC 2012 portal to find the best of the BBC's online offering across News, Sport and Regions in one place.

As you can see, we are fully committed to reflecting the Paralympics across the BBC despite the absence of live TV sports coverage. The Paralympics is one of the landmark events of 2012. It will be the biggest ever and we fully recognise that this is a big opportunity to continue to build the profile of the Paralympics and disability sport with our audiences, as the BBC has done so successfully for many years.

While the past few weeks of the Olympics have been incredibly special, the work doesn't let up for BBC Sport. Alongside the huge network TV viewing figures we have seen unprecedented audience numbers for our digital services - and the challenge now is how we build on what we have seen in London for our week-in, week-out online sports coverage.

Big sporting events have traditionally been the catalyst for change in broadcasting - from the advent of colour TV to the introduction of HD - and I'd like to think what we have seen during London 2012 will have a bearing on how sport is covered in the future.

• Enhancing our mobile offering, including the introduction of a BBC Sport app for smartphones;
• Taking some time to develop online video for live sport, following the success of London 2012; and
• Building a genuine, effective 'connected TV' service - ultimately to replace the red button, which has served us well in the past, but which is due to be scaled back in the coming months - and learning the lessons from the special 24 channels we had during the Olympics.

When we began our digital Olympics project, back in 2005 after London won the right to stage the Games, we came up with a phrase to describe our ambition. We wanted the 2012 Olympics to do for digital media what the Coronation had done for TV. In other words, to be the moment when it moved from the preserve of 'early adopters' (I'm not sure they were called that back in 1953) into the mainstream.

The reason we felt optimistic was down to the timing. From a digital perspective we were lucky that the BBC got to broadcast a home Olympics in 2012. If the Games had come to the UK in 2008 it would have been slightly too early, the technology and audience behaviour wasn't quite ready back then. Similarly if it had been in 2016, the moment would probably have passed. As it was, 2012 felt perfect: it was when the UK was due to switch off analogue TV and move to a fully digital landscape. It looked like being the 'sweet-spot' where technology and audience uptake were set to converge.

Much has changed in the intervening seven years, of course. Back in 2005 there were no tablets. Mobiles, for the vast majority of people, were just for making calls and texting. Only around half of UK households had digital TV. Social media was in its infancy - Facebook was only starting to pick up momentum; Twitter didn't even exist.

By 2012 viewers were ready for a new type of sports coverage - and, crucially, more of us have the kit and access to the signal we needed to enjoy the full Olympic experience.

That comparison with the Coronation has served as useful journalistic shorthand: a reminder to all of us at the BBC that public broadcasters have a duty to deliver big national events on behalf of the whole population. It's too early of course to tell whether we have witnessed something as seismic as the original surge in TV viewing back in 1953. But it does feel that we have seen significant change over the past few weeks.

London 2012 has proved to be a spur for a new type of media consumption: fully connected at all times, on-demand and on-the-go. The statistics are pretty bold, with 39 million UK browsers of BBC Sport, around a third of whom were accessing us on mobile devices.

But the anecdotal evidence is just as powerful. I have heard tales of TV viewers in their 90s using the Red Button for the first time, such was the pull of the sport on offer. I watched in amazement as a whole carriage on a train crowded round three different mobile screens to see Usain Bolt win his 200m gold. And you are reminded that this is now part of the national conversation when even the fabled front page of Private Eye is referencing the Red Button, This then genuinely did feel mainstream.

The key mission for our coverage was that you would 'never miss a moment' - built around offering every sport as it happened; a total of 2,500 hours of video in up to 24 different video streams at any one time. Across the 17 days of the Games, some 24m viewers watched at least 15 minutes of our Red Button service - and what was particularly gratifying is that all the different sports proved to be a draw for the audience, with each of those 24 'channels' receiving at least 100,000 viewers at some point.

Here are the peak audiences for each of the top 20 sports on Red Button (excluding Freeview numbers):

Beyond the phenomenal surge in multi-event viewing there have been other developments in sports coverage that we're tracking.

We are continuing to see the rise of live blogging or, as we prefer to call it at BBC Sport, live text commentary. These pages were the most popular on our London 2012 site - the classic one-stop shop where our journalists could capture all the stories from the panoply of Olympic sports. Essentially they represent a new form of story-telling: dynamic, bite-sized and interactive, with audience comments at the heart of them. They are the bedrock of our coverage of football, cricket and other big sports and we are always looking to take them to another level.

Then there is social media. This was the Olympics where Twitter made a huge impact.

As well as being the place where Olympians interacted with their armies of fans, Twitter has established itself, in pretty short order, as a key element of the journalist's armoury. We use it as an additional way for our reporters to get news and comment out there quickly - and to monitor stories from elsewhere.

BBC Sport used Twitter extensively during the Games, from taking photos of police officers mimicking Usain Bolt's trademark pose to sparking 4,000 retweets from Dutch fans after we linked their thrashing of Team GB's hockey team to their earlier dressage defeat.

But my personal favourite tweet during London 2012 was from our chief sports writer, Tom Fordyce. In seven words it summed up the sheer disbelief that many of us felt at what we were seeing from Team GB - plus that peculiar ability of sports fans to switch from despondency to arrogance at the flick of a switch. It read simply:

'World: can we play you every week?'

Over the past few months David Walliams, Helen Skelton and John Bishop have completed the most amazing Sport Relief challenges, while Frank Skinner has embarked on his own personal quest to overcome a lifetime fear of swimming.

Freddie Flintoff has astonished the world by setting 14 records in 12 hours, including achievements for Most hot dogs made in 1 minute (9) and Fastest 100 metres on a pedalo, (1 minute 58.62 seconds).

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We've had members of the England football team battling it out in the Kitchen; Strictly Come Dancing going underwater and the stars of popular sitcom Benidorm coming up close and personal with Simon Cowell and the Britain's Got Talent judges.

Thre's also Frank Lampard and Fiancée Christine Bleakly appearing on TV together in a very funny sketch for Outnumbered; 20 of the biggest names in rugby limbering up to sing with JLS; World Champion Mo Farah being out-run by Misery Bear and 'tennis' star Miranda Hart embarrassing herself in front of the cream of British sport.

You can see it all in a quite incredible night of sporting entertainment starting at 1900 GMT on BBC One on Friday.

Seeing how stars from sport, music and entertainment have been so eager to give their time for free and get involved has been heart-warming - and believe me some of the things we have asked them to do have been pretty tough - did you see Gary Lineker as the back end of a pantomime horse?! And I'll never forget explaining to Sue Barker how we wanted to create a 'double of her' for a special round of Question of Sport called 'Who Barker'.

It's not just about the celebrities of course, and over the weekend more than a million people will also be doing the Mile for Sport Relief. We have BBC cameras at 17 flagship Miles across the UK, including three major Outside Broadcasts at the Mall in London and in Manchester and Glasgow.

You can watch it all unfold live on BBC1 from 1300 BST on Sunday. My family are in training for the Manchester Mile and my youngest daughter Daisy is really going to get a glimpse of Olly Murs who'll be performing at the event!

And don't forget everybody is getting involved with Sport Relief in order to help those people who need it most, both here in the UK and in some of the world's poorest countries.

The moving appeal films we make are a powerful reminders of the reason why people do the incredible challenges, why we make the funny sketches and why everyone has been signing up for Sport Relief Miles all around the country. The money really makes a difference.

I hope you enjoy both shows and if you're running in the Mile good luck and thank you.

• Formatting of results and fixtures - we know there has been some frustration with the way our pages that display up-coming football matches are laid out. In particular there have been calls to still see all the fixtures in all divisions on any given day. We're sorry this facility isn't currently available - but I want to assure you we are working to bring it back as a priority. I can't yet say when the issue will be resolved, as it represents a significant technical deployment - but it is being looked at.
• Reflecting the BBC sport brand - as I have mentioned before, yellow and black are the colours of BBC Sport's on-air brand, so it is appropriate that they are represented on the website. However, in response to some of your feedback, we are considering potentially reducing the usage of yellow on particular pages.
• Headlines on the homepage - our new-look Sport homepage is designed to showcase a whole host of different types of content, everything from video and audio to scores and league tables. We know that many of you just want to scan the headlines of the big sports stories of the day - and that is one of the reasons we have introduced a new flexible, image-heavy section at the top of the homepage, which allows us to highlight the main stories and events. But we will keep looking at the most effective way to balance the top stories and allow headline scanning - and we will test any potential further changes before introducing them onto the live site.
• Videprinter - we know some of you are missing the videprinter, ie the single page containing all the latest scores as they come in, across all football divisions. We are investigating ways we can bring this service back, while still retaining the separate divisional live scores pages which we know many others prefer to use. In the meantime, the 'old videprinter' can be found here and will remain available until 'videprinter mkII' is launched.

So that's a list of some of the priority areas of focus for us. It's not exhaustive and I realise I haven't provided full detail on exactly what we plan to do.

But I will stress what I said in my original blog post about this relaunch - which is that we will not be making knee-jerk changes. We have already implemented immediate fixes to mend 'broken' elements on the site (including the 'flashing' banner and video which automatically played on certain pages) but other changes need more consideration and testing, and our software developers require time and space to put them into place.

Even though there may be no instant changes to announce right now, that does not mean we are ignoring any issues that you have raised. We will come back to this blog to let you know as and when we have more specific news to announce.

These became apparent over the weekend and continue to affect our live text pages.

We are hard at work to resolve this, please bear with us while we do so.

In the meantime, Sportsday Live is being published via a page which requires users to hit 'refresh' for updates.

We will revert to our new-look dynamic pages across the site as soon as the technical problems have been resolved.

Thank you for your patience.

The joint initiative between Comic Relief and the BBC started back in 2002 and has so far raised over £127m for good causes here in the UK and across the world's poorest countries.

As we celebrate the 10th Sport Relief anniversary in this very special year of sport we're hoping to get more than one million people doing the Sport Relief Mile, making it one of the biggest ever UK mass participation events.

This year you can do one, three or six miles - as a family team, with your friends, against the clock or just as a gentle stroll to enjoy the company - it should be lots of fun and encourage even more people to go the extra mile and help raise millions of pounds.

In 2010 the Sport Relief Miles were a great success and my children have been asking when they can run the Mile again ever since, although my youngest daughter Daisy will be walking it as she's only six! My son Reece wants to do it in his Everton top with his grandad, while Amy, my eldest, is too cool to do it with the younger ones and will be with all her friends from school.

My family will be running and walking the mile in Manchester, where the second largest event is taking place. They are also keen to swim the Big Splash Mile for Sport Relief in April - you can also do this as a team - although I think as all three of my children can only do a few lengths between them I'll have to swim a lot of it myself!

Before the Mile Show on Sunday, 25 March, Sport Relief will take over BBC television on Friday, 23 March with some hilarious moments planned and some of the UK's favourite stars from sport, entertainment and music booked in to bring them to you.

I'm also the editor of BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and was blown away by Smithy's (James Corden) Sport Relief performance two years ago where he shared a bath with David Beckham, had a beer on a pedalo with Freddie Flintoff and danced with Wayne Rooney before turning up at Sports Personality and insulting some of the biggest stars in sport to create one of my all-time favourite Sport Relief moments. Enjoy! 

Other things to look forward to on the night will be a special episode of Horrible Histories featuring Amir Khan and Jermain Defoe and plenty more that we are keeping under wraps for now.

Although Thursday, 19 January is the official launch day, things have already started apace. The incredible Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton is currently attempting a phenomenal challenge, traveling 500 miles to the South Pole by ski, bike and kite to raise money for Sport Relief and inspire children across the country to go the extra mile for Sport Relief too. Her diary makes for some frightening reading!

The Great Sport Relief Bake Off went out on BBC Two last week and was hugely popular. I thought it was a fantastic series and special congratulations to Anita Rani, who was crowned queen of the cakes after beating actress Angela Griffin and BBC Radio 4 presenter Fi Glover in the final. If you missed it, you can still catch up on BBC iPlayer. You can also see some tips on holding your own bake sale - a great idea, especially if you've got three kids!

Don't miss the BBC Radio 5 live Sport Relief launch show on Thursday night at 1930 GMT to look ahead to this year's events.

And don't forget the place to register for a Sport Relief Mile and keep up to date with all of the latest Sport Relief news from now until the weekend of the 23-25 March is the BBC Sport Relief website.

Good luck whatever you do to go the extra mile!

The 2011 show is going to be broadcast live from BBC Sport's new home at MediaCityUK, Salford, on Thursday 22 December and I'm really excited by what we have in store.

But waiting to get the top 10 from the sports editors is always an apprehensive time, as it's not until we get the line-up confirmed that we can really put together the show's running order and lots of the films for the night.

This year's top 10 is a phenomenal collection of some of the best sports stars in the world - and we are really excited by the films we can put together to reflect what has been an incredible year for British sport.

The top 10 contenders for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2011

Throughout the show, it will be fascinating to relive how Mark Cavendish achieved his dreams by winning the Tour de France green jersey and World Road Race, and how cricketers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook destroyed the Australians in the Ashes and then ruled the world as the number one Test side.

There's Dai Greene's journey to become a world champion hurdler and at the same championship Mo Farah's comeback from 10,000m disappointment to prove he's the best in the world over 5,000m.

The UK continues to be the centre of the golfing universe, with Rory McIlroy taking the US Open, Darren Clarke the Open and Luke Donald the world number one spot.

Local boy Amir Khan's star continues to rise and is duly recognised, while Andy Murray has once again come agonisingly close to securing that elusive first Grand Slam triumph.

It's also a slightly odd time. As editor, I have control over most things that happen in the show, but the top 10 is one area where I relinquish this and hand it over to the professionals from a wide variety of publications, who work in British sport day in, day out.

This year's nominations have thrown up something that I've not seen in the six years I've been editor of the show - and that's an all-male shortlist.

It's a shame not to see Keri-Anne Payne, Chrissie Wellington or Rebecca Adlington get in the top 10, as they've all had great years and are wonderful role models - and all three came close to being in the 10. However, the vote is carried out independently of the BBC and by very knowledgeable individuals.

Giving publications that are read by such a wide breadth of the public the opportunity to shape the UK's biggest and most prestigious sports awards show still feels the right way to reflect the UK's favourite sports stars and the best sporting moments of the year.

I also think what matters is that only the general public will decide the actual winner as they vote in their huge numbers to crown the Sports Personality of the Year 2011 live on the night. We extended the shortlist to 10 from six in order to give the public far more choice than in years gone by.

There is no doubt that list itself is oozing with incredible talent. It is one of the strongest fields I have ever seen during my time on the show and the race itself is too close to call. The winner could easily be any of the 10.

Other sporting achievements from the past year will be featured throughout the show, with awards for Team of the Year, Coach of the Year, Unsung Hero, Lifetime Achievement and the Helen Rollason Award - as well as the Young Sports Personality of the Year award, for which the top 10 was announced last week.

I sit on the panel to decide the Young SPOTY award - and this year the candidates were the highest calibre I've ever seen. Choosing a winner will be unbelievably tough, and when former winner Amy Spencer, John Inverdale, Jake Humphrey, Sonali Shah, Ore Oduba and I - along with our good friends in Youth Sport Trust - start debating the final three, we could be going for a very long time.

There will be some very special moments in the show again this year, which are not to be missed, ranging from the emotional to the high energy. Many of these will be kept secret until the day. (More secrets!)

So we are all set for a huge Sports Personality of the Year show - make sure you join Gary, Sue and Jake on 22 December. Who will follow AP McCoy as the 58th Sports Personality of the Year? That will depend on your votes.

We're still working things through and are not in a position to confirm everything yet - but we are able to reveal some of the headlines: including which races we will be covering live; and how we intend to broadcast highlights of the rest.

The first thing to stress is that we will be at every race, bringing the season to life for BBC TV viewers.

Jake Humphrey will be leading our coverage from the F1 paddock, as he has for the past three seasons, and he'll have 13-time race winner David Coulthard alongside him, while Lee McKenzie will be back in place as pit-lane reporter.

You may have heard Martin Brundle is leaving - and we wish him well. We will be announcing the rest of our on-air team in the coming weeks.

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In terms of coverage, we'll have 10 of the races live, which are: China (15 April), Spain (3 May), Monaco (27 May), Europe (24 June), Britain (8 July), Belgium (2 September), Singapore (23 September), Korea (14 October), Abu Dhabi (4 November), Brazil (25 November).

For the other races we will run extended highlights a few hours after the chequered flag.

The plan is that races in the Far East time zone, which take place early in the morning in the UK, will be run as a two-hour show at 2pm.

And for highlights of European GPs we're looking to run 90-minute programmes, going out at 5.30pm. You can see more details about our broadcast plans here.

A word on the race split. Just to be clear, it wasn't the case that the BBC was simply able to select its preferred 10 races to cover live - under the terms of our rights agreement, the allocation was decided through a negotiation with Sky, with each broadcaster able to prioritise specific choices within certain parameters.

One of our key criteria was to try to avoid too many major clashes with other big sporting events we are covering, particularly the London Olympics next summer.

The way the calendar works after the Olympics, the rest of the season on the BBC will effectively alternate between live and highlights races, so there is something of a pattern that viewers can follow.

While we would obviously prefer to have all the races live, we still have significant airtime over the course of grand prix weekends to devote to F1.

We'll have to work harder to let you know when we're on air, but we remain ambitious for our coverage: we aim to provide entertaining, expert programming that appeals to the broadest possible audience.

I won't dwell on the reasons for the BBC doing the deal we have on the rights - that was debated and discussed when the news was announced back in the summer - other than to reiterate the point that the BBC as a whole is facing considerable cut-backs.

We've had to face some tough choices and we recognise that some people have strong views about the F1 deal.

But now things have begun to settle down, we are looking forward to next season and the creative challenge of telling the story of the 2012 F1 season in a new way for BBC TV audiences.

We'll keep you updated as our plans progress over the winter.

It is fantastic that one of the first major events to come out of the new site will be one of the BBC's longest running and best-loved flagship shows.

We've also launched the Unsung Hero Award, which is always my favourite moment of the night, when someone most deserving gets a chance to share the spotlight with the biggest names in sport.

The studios in Salford are great and having seen the new set design for this year's show I know SPOTY will once again be one of the most exciting live productions on television.
I'm delighted to say that Gary Lineker, Sue Barker and Jake Humphrey - who have loved presenting the show - will be back again.

In recent years we've broadcast the event from arenas around the UK, in cities like Sheffield, Liverpool and Birmingham and we're thrilled to once again be moving to an area that boasts such a great sporting heritage, with some of the world's most successful teams and best facilities.

City and United are just part of the story, but what a part they play! There's also Lancashire County Cricket Club, top class Rugby League and Rugby Union teams, the British Cycling team, Aintree and so much more.

The area is simply mad about sport, but as well as that, in these challenging economic times, it works better for us to present the show from our new home than opting for the more costly arena options.

Of course the drawback with moving back to the studio is a smaller audience, but while there will be no public sale of tickets for Sports Personality, we're really happy that thousands of people will be able to get involved in the build up to the big night as we launch 'Celebrate Sport', a 14-day event which runs through to SPOTY on Thursday, 22 December.

BBC Celebrate Sport will take place in the two weeks prior to Sports Personality of the Year 2011

Once design plans are finalised we will also make some free tickets available to the public for the main Sports Personality TV show. These will be distributed fairly through a public ticket ballot. More information will follow on that soon.

One of the key missions of BBC Sport moving North is to involve more people in what we do and we hope a huge number of people, including many local schools and groups, will be able to experience some of our best-loved shows and meet our most well-known faces during that two week period and beyond.

For the first time there'll be a chance to be in the audience for 5 live's 606 Football phone-in, Monday Night Club and 5 live's Sports Personality of the Year backstage show.

To complete the 5 live line-up, Fighting Talk will also be recorded in Salford with a studio audience, while we'll also be holding a special evening with Question of Sport presenter Sue Barker and captains Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell.

We'll be planning some special events with the Match of the Day and Football Focus teams, while there will be a chance for youngsters to meet some of their CBEEBIES favourites, who are also new Salford residents.

The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra will be involved, hosting a special concert for Christmas with an appearance from the Manchester United choir, while the National Football Museum will have an exhibition on site here at the BBC Studios in Salford leading up to the festive period and through to their opening in Manchester next year.

More details about how to get involved in the celebration will follow on the BBC Sports Personality web site over the next few weeks and you can register your interest in attending events now at https://meleleh.pages.dev/showsandtours/shows/shows/celebrate_sport.

The Celebrate Sport finale will be Sports Personality of the Year and this year's programme promises to be packed with drama following an amazing year of sport.

Who would have thought Northern Ireland's finest would dominate golf's majors?
The stories of how Darren Clarke and Rory McIlroy ruled the world are heart-warming and inspiring.

Talking about ruling the world, that's exactly what England's cricketers are doing and we hope to have many of the team with us for SPOTY.

Elsewhere, Mark Cavendish became the first Briton to win cycling's coveted green jersey at the Tour de France, while Dai Greene and Mo Farah took gold at the World Athletics and there's so much more to come with the Rugby World Cup, for example.

When I was growing up, SPOTY was always the first sign Christmas was coming and it certainly will be this year.

Once again the top 10 contenders will be nominated by 30 sports editors from across the country and we'll be announcing the top ten during The One Show.

The show itself is on the move from its traditional Sunday evening slot to a Thursday night.
Why? You might ask. Well we've worked really hard this year to avoid the show clashing with other big events in the busy Christmas schedule and are pleased to have secured a great prime-time slot, right in the heart of the Christmas build up.

It's a great opportunity for the family to get together and be part of the celebrations. It will also enable the One Show to get involved with the SPOTY red carpet, bringing you the excitement, glamour and nerves as the stars arrive, which is fantastic.

Hopefully SPOTY will once again represent a chance to settle down with a mince pie and wrap the last of your presents as you watch the best of sport from 2011.

But this is just one event in a fantastically busy period for Olympic sport; both in terms of domestic test events and international championships.

Some of the test events have been quite low key, for instance the World Junior Rowing Championships at Eton Dorney last month.

Others are big international competitions in their own right, for instance last week’s Hyde Park Triathlon, where GB won gold in both the men’s and women’s race.

Britain's Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone and London 2012 organising committee chief Lord Sebastian Coe at the launch of the London 2012 Olympic logo. PHOTO: GETTY

Then there are the international competitions in four big Olympic sports - the World Swimming in Shanghai last month where GB finished fourth in the overall medal table and top European nation, and the World Athletics Championships in Korea, World Rowing (including Paralympic disciplines) in Slovenia and World Road Cycling and World Para Cycling Championships in Denmark all coming up in August & September.

We wanted to share our Olympic sport coverage plans so you can see what is to come.
Below is the text of a media release we will be sending out later.
If you have any questions on our coverage, you can ask them here.

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BBC Sport will be bringing viewers all of the key moments from a number of Olympic Sports over the next couple of months as Team GB hopefuls attempt to stake a claim for a place at the London 2012 Olympic Games. There will be coverage across TV, Radio 5 live, BBC Sport online and BBC Red Button.

With many key qualification and test events taking place in August and September, this is a crucial time for many of Britain’s athletes, from all 26 Olympic sports, as they seek winning performances against the best in the world.

A special programme ‘Olympic Countdown’ will be aired on BBC Two, 1300-1730, Sunday 21 August. Clare Balding looks at how London is preparing for the Games. The programme will include:

• Highlights from the finals of the Women’s Beach Volleyball test event, held at Horse Guards Parade. This will include the progress of the two British pairs who are battling it our to claim Team GB’s one automatic 2012 spot

• The best of the action from the Men’s Road Race (London-Surrey Cycle Classic) as a top international field including Tour de France sprint champion Mark Cavendish test out the Olympic route in competition for the first time

• The key moments from the Basketball test event in the Olympic Park where Team GB, led by NBA star Luol Deng take on China, Serbia, Croatia, Australia and France. Team GB’s final two games, against China (1800, Saturday 20 August) and Australia (1800, Sunday 21 August) will also be streamed live on BBC Red Button

• Brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, fresh from a gold/bronze finish at the Hyde Park triathlon and women’s winner Helen Jenkins, are back in action in the World Sprint Championships from Lausanne

• Highlights from the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Hungary. World Champion Ed McKeever, Rachel Cawthorn and newcomer Paul Wycherley lead the way for Team GB.

Other coverage includes:

• Sailing: The Olympic Test Regatta: BBC One, 1300-1400, Saturday 20 August. Highlights from the Olympic Sailing test event in Weymouth, where will Britain’s top sailors have been in action against the world’s elite in the 10 Olympic classes

• European Hockey Championships: BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport, 20-28 August. England’s men’s and women’s teams in action in Germany in a key event in their build up to 2012. The men are defending champions, while Britain’s women won bronze medals at the World Cup and Champions Trophy in 2010, their most successful year to date

• Equestrian - Euro Eventing: Cross Country, BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport, 0925-1500, 27 August; Show Jumping, BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport, 1240-1430, 27 August; Euro Eventing, BBC Two 1515-1730 and bbc.co.uk/sport, 28 August. Reports also on Radio 5 live. Britain defend the team title they have won eight times on the trot

• World Judo Championships: video reports on bbc.co.uk/sport, 23-28 August. Coverage from Paris as GB’s top judokas Euan Burton, Karina Bryant, Ashley McKenzie and Craig Fallon compete against the world’s best

• World Athletics Championships: live across Radio 5 live and 5 live extra, daily video highlights and live text commentary on bbc.co.uk/sport, 27 August – 4 September. Action from Korea with Jess Ennis, Mo Farah and Phillips Idowu leading Team GB’s campaign

• World Rowing Championships: BBC One, 1400-1630, Saturday 3 September; BBC Two, 1545-1700, Sunday 4 September. Finals streamed live on bbc.co.uk/sport and on BBC Red Button (approx 1010-1230, Thursday 1 September; approx 0930-1245, Friday 2 September; approx 0930-1245, Saturday 3 September; approx 1100-1245, Sunday 4 September) and covered on 5 live Sports extra. John Inverdale presents coverage of the World Rowing Championships in Slovenia with special guest and five-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave. Britain will field boats in all the Olympic classes and three of the four Paralympic classes. The 68-strong team will aim to defend four world titles and arrive full of confidence having won 10 medal, including four golds, at last month’s Lucerne World Cup

• Men’s European Basketball Championships: Team GB’s opening five group games will be streamed live on BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport as will subsequent games should the team progress. Reports also on Radio 5 live. 31 August-18 September. Having been finally granted a host place at the 2012 Olympic Games by the world governing body earlier this year, GB’s men including NBA star Deng, will be eager to prove they deserve it, as they take on Lithuania, Turkey, Spain, Poland and one other team yet to qualify in their opening five games

• World Canoe Slalom Championships: BBC Two and bbc.co.uk/sport, 1400-1510, Sunday 18 September

• Triathlon World Series: BBC Red Button, 0530-0750, Friday 9 September; BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport, 0630-0850, Sunday 11 September

• Triathlon World Championship Final: BBC One, 1500-1630 and bbc.co.uk/sport, Saturday 17 September

• European Show Jumping Team Championships: BBC Two and bbc.co.uk/sport, 1510-1630, Sunday 18 September

• World Road Cycling Championships: BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport, 1300-1610, Tuesday 20 September; BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport, 1130-1605, Wednesday 21 September; BBC One, 1300-1400 and BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport 1230-1615, Saturday 24 September; BBC Two, 1515-1700 and BBC Red Button, 0900-1605 and bbc.co.uk/sport, Sunday 25 September.

There will be a further edition of British Olympic Dreams on BBC One, 1430-1500 on Saturday 17 September.

Viewers can follow the action from these events and keep up to date with the news in all the Olympic sports at bbc.co.uk/olympics.

For the full range of BBC London 2012 content: bbc.co.uk/2012