BBC apologizes for sex sounds heard during football coverage on live TV

BBC has apologized to its viewers after sex noises like moaning were heard during its FA Cup coverage that aired live on television.

"We apologize to any viewers offended during the live coverage of the football this evening," the BBC said on Wednesday, Jan. 18 (Philippine time).

Sexual sounds interrupted the coverage as football player-turned-sports broadcaster Gary Lineker presented a replay between Wolves and Liverpool prior to the game. He ended up joking about the incident along with other football pundits at the game. 

“As he cut to colleague and fellow former England striker Alan Shearer in the commentary gantry, he said: ‘Somebody’s sending something on someone’s phone, I think. I don’t know whether you heard it at home,’” a BBC report detailed. 

Moments later, Lineker shared a photo of a mobile phone on Twitter, saying that they found it taped to the back of the set. “As sabotage goes, it was quite amusing,” he tweeted on the same day of the incident. 

Well, we found this taped to the back of the set. As sabotage goes it was quite amusing. 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/ikUhBJ38Je

— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) January 17, 2023

On BBC Two’s Newsnight, Lineker explained that he thought it was a video forwarded to one of his colleagues at first. The loud volume of the sex sounds, however, made him realize someone was actually messing with them. 

How “loud” were the sex noises? According to the same BBC report, Lineker explained he was “unable to hear what anyone was saying in his ear, making it ‘quite difficult’ to carry on with the pre-match build-up.” 

Lineker, after all, still found the prank “good” and even joked that BBC “certainly got nothing to (be sorry) for.” He continued, "If you told me this morning that tonight, I'd be on Newsnight talking about a porn scandal, I would have been terrified." 

The incident is now under investigation, according to a spokesperson for the BBC.