THE months of May into June are a hot spot on the live TV sport scene with enough action to keep the most die-hard fans satisfied. In the past week we've been served up lashings of soccer and basketball as they happened, plus the Grand Prix (Prime) and Major League Baseball (Wharf/ESPN) action. Prime, in their role as carrier for Rupert Murdoch's Sport Corporation promotion company, aired all three of Arsenal's Euro-Asia tour games It turned out the fates smiled kindly on Prime. The Arsenal mini-tour, dull as dishwater in theory, turned into a nice three act play of disaster and redemption. It started sourly with defeat in Beijing and David Seaman's mis-kick which not only led to the Gunners conceding their second long-range lob in a week but, more importantly, sent the England 'keeper home with his ankle in plaster. Victory in Tianjin suggested the Gunners had got their heads straight but the cabbage patch of a pitch didn't allow for a completely satisfying performance. Only in the third instalment on Saturday in Hong Kong on a much better pitch did Arsenal turn on the style. Admittedly Hong Kong's Rangers were not tough opponents but the 4-0 margin reflected Arsenal's uncharacteristically cavalier approach to the game. But why, after showing all three Arsenal games, could Prime not give us last night's Spurs v Eastern-Kitchee clash live as well? It had more obvious appeal, especially being Jurgen Klinsmann's third-last performance for the London side. But the German motorcycle Grand Prix got the live slot last night with Spurs' game shown in the wee hours this morning. It's hard to comprehend Prime's priorities here nor, in retrospect, to understand their Euro-Asian Cup promos over the past few weeks which never indicated that Spurs would not be on live. IF the Euro-Asia Challenge was an unexpected success, Prime have much greater expectations of the Rugby World Cup which starts with hosts South Africa v holders Australia at 9 pm on Thursday. The feast continues throughout the rest of the month but for this week the menu is Scotland v the Ivory Coast, France v Tonga, Wales v Japan, England v Italy, New Zealand v Ireland. EVERYTHING else seems to be on hold in terms of Prime's live event coverage with the exception of the Indy 500 which airs on Sunday. It will be time for 'gentlemen, start your TV sets' at 11.30 pm. AMIDST all the build-up to the World Cup, though, Prime are hoping that they can quietly slip out of the NBA play-offs. After all their promotion of what is the highlight of the US basketball season gave no indication that it would all come to a dead stop after the second round. Last Friday morning's Game Six in Chicago saw the Magic eliminate Michael Jordan & Co with an exciting 14-point run for a 108-102 win. It was appetite-whetting stuff. So imagine the hoops fans' unpleasant surprise when studio presenter Jonathan Green said: 'That's all from our NBA play-offs coverage. See you in November.' IT'S all a question of rights, apparently. Prime have them only to the second round. ESPN have them all the way into the finals. ESPN also are offering more NHL play-off action with games from the Western and Eastern Conference semi-finals tomorrow, Wednesday and Friday. FOR the first time this decade terrestrial television in the territory didn't carry the European Cup Winners' Cup live. The week-before-last's match in Paris which ended on the miraculous note of Nayim's 40-yard lob was available to Wharf/ESPN viewers only. TVB publicity department's explanation is simply that they haven't got the rights any more. The same applies to the delayed screening of Saturday night's FA Cup final on the English-language TVB Pearl. This again is the first time this decade the Cup final has not been on Pearl live. But, at least it was on TVB's Cantonese channel, Jade. TVB explained that the Jade programme was available in English for viewers with Nicam and the delayed Pearl screening allowed more than one option to see the game. So the word from Pearl seems to be don't fear a conspiracy to abandon live coverage of big soccer matches. TVB's goodwill is not in doubt - yesterday they showed the Olympic qualifier between Hong Kong and South Korea from Mongkok. Now if only someone could get the Scottish FA Cup final this Saturday. AUSTRALIAN Television's news on Saturday carried an ITN preview to the FA Cup final which wasn't surprising considering the game was reaching more than 100 countries. It was a shame that while the newsreader was speaking the graphic on screen was of the World Cup. ESPN's live Major League Baseball continues to entertain. But it could do with one cosmetic change. Their on-screen logo is permanently placed in the top left-hand corner. Normally this is the ideal spot for causing minimal obstruction. But during baseball it continually obscures the scoreline. Is the know-how there to move the Wharf/ESPN logo a few centimetres? OF course it doesn't have to be live to be watchable. BBC World (Wharf) showed a QED documentary last Friday which traced the research and development behind the Lotus Super Bike which led British cyclist Chris Boardman to Olympic glory.
