Perhaps television sports commentary is not something that one should get wound up by; I reckon that here in the U.K. we have some of the best commentators in the world, especially for the big three sports – football, television and rugby. However the commentary only seems to be intelligent if it’s provided by certain corporations, namely the BBC.
Say what you want about the British Broadcasting Corporation but it has the best television (and radio) sports commentary around. You can complain about the mythical ‘leftie’ bias at the BBC, or perhaps the mandatory license fee which every household in the country has to pay but there are several things the Beeb does get right and one of those is sports commentary. Many, such as radio pundit Alan Green, are household names and provide a descriptive and entertaining commentary to what’s going on on the pitch.
The BBC's Alan Green
Of course I’m not here to talk about the commentators I do like, I want to moan about the type of commentary I don’t like and it all comes from ITV. The commercial, terrestrial television provider vies with the BBC for the biggest sporting events (the ones which Sky isn’t allowed to buy), perhaps the most recent being the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. I’m sure I can’t have been the only one to cringe in embarrassment at the risible efforts to describe the matches by commentators who never seemed to have done it before. The BBC have the superb Ian Robertson and ex-player Brian Moore to comment on and critique the game; why couldn’t ITV source someone similar, or perhaps even those two themselves?
Football commentary is equally as bad; the matches are littered with silly, ill-thought out statements which appear to have been written on a sheet of paper beforehand and rehearsed. Many listeners must do what I do – turn the sound down on the TV and switch the BBC radio commentary on. That’s fine but the time delay means a goal can be scored on the TV ten seconds before it happens on the radio. But what the hell, it’s a small price to pay to switch off ITV.
Television Sports Commentary
Perhaps television sports commentary is not something that one should get wound up by; I reckon that here in the U.K. we have some of the best commentators in the world, especially for the big three sports – football, television and rugby. However the commentary only seems to be intelligent if it’s provided by certain corporations, namely the BBC.
Say what you want about the British Broadcasting Corporation but it has the best television (and radio) sports commentary around. You can complain about the mythical ‘leftie’ bias at the BBC, or perhaps the mandatory license fee which every household in the country has to pay but there are several things the Beeb does get right and one of those is sports commentary. Many, such as radio pundit Alan Green, are household names and provide a descriptive and entertaining commentary to what’s going on on the pitch.
The BBC's Alan Green
Of course I’m not here to talk about the commentators I do like, I want to moan about the type of commentary I don’t like and it all comes from ITV. The commercial, terrestrial television provider vies with the BBC for the biggest sporting events (the ones which Sky isn’t allowed to buy), perhaps the most recent being the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. I’m sure I can’t have been the only one to cringe in embarrassment at the risible efforts to describe the matches by commentators who never seemed to have done it before. The BBC have the superb Ian Robertson and ex-player Brian Moore to comment on and critique the game; why couldn’t ITV source someone similar, or perhaps even those two themselves?
Football commentary is equally as bad; the matches are littered with silly, ill-thought out statements which appear to have been written on a sheet of paper beforehand and rehearsed. Many listeners must do what I do – turn the sound down on the TV and switch the BBC radio commentary on. That’s fine but the time delay means a goal can be scored on the TV ten seconds before it happens on the radio. But what the hell, it’s a small price to pay to switch off ITV.