TV Coverage: General Issues

[Satchmo Distel]

I thought Derek Rae did very well during the harrowing period of Denmark v Finland when he must have feared he was commentating on a fatality on the pitch. Efan Ekoku was also OK, at least in maintaining a calm but somber tone. The decision to play the game (and Bel-Rus) was fairly debated despite ESPN having a vested interest in games going ahead.

On the actual football, Rae is the best qualified for pronunciations due to his experience covering the Bundesliga, etc. He seemed to have done his homework on Finnish speech.

I don't mind ESPN doing the Euros as I'm used to how they cover it. It sticks with the tried and trusted and someone taking a time machine from 2012 wouldn't notice much change. Their big error is their belief that Darke-McManaman is their best pairing; it clearly isn't.

[ursus arctos]

Rae said that it was the most difficult ten minutes he has ever experienced in a life of commentary

He is another admirable example of someone raised among the Cold War forces in West Germany

[ChrisJ]

I'm very far from being a J. Pearce fan, but given he was stuck with a director's decision to stay with the the stadium, show shots of tearful fans, Eriksen's partner, team-mates, etc, I'm not sure what else he could have said beyond stating the obvious; that football was suddenly very unimportant. I'm fairly sure even his ego will have been shrivelling and writhing and praying for a cut back to the studio.

Best response I saw before turning off - Alex Scott. "I've just texted my mum to tell her I love her."

I try not to call for the sacking of people who make mistakes, but the person responsible for coverage staying with the stadium needs to go on a course.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Much of the chat about this in Ireland seems to be that the delay in going back to the studio might well have been because the pundits were in no position to have the game thrown back to them. Liam Brady and Damien Duff were apparently visibly emotional which is not something that you'd expect from either, and what they were saying was a mess. I suspect that that may have been a factor in a lot of places. What the on site director did with the feed was kind of out of their hands.

I hope no-one complains again about tv companies not showing replays of tackles resulting in bad injuries again.

[San Bernardhinault]

I've mostly been watching ESPN on mute, which seems to work pretty well. When I've turned the commentary on it's mostly sounded like an English commentator from about 20 years ago with an ex-player sidekick trying to be funny rather than tell us anything useful.

Was fortunate enough to be out during Denmark-Finland and feel lucky to not be able to have an opinion on how that was covered.

[Satchmo Distel]

I was fortunate to only have it on the radio (we were in the car) so I won't ever have any of the visuals haunting me, but my radio (Sirius XM FC) was playing the ESPN feed, although later it had to switch between ESPN News (the resumption of Den-Fin) and ABC (Bel-Rus). The ABC anchor was piss-poor, frustrating given they had competent people available (Kelly Cates had been excellent speaking with Craig Burley and Steve McManaman but had to defer to a less knowledgeable American anchor).

[Jah Womble]

I try not to call for the sacking of people who make mistakes, but the person responsible for coverage staying with the stadium needs to go on a course.

It was poor, but perhaps ‘a word’ would be enough. Nobody could’ve been prepared for what happened there, and someone behind the scenes f***ing up doesn’t ultimately seem hugely important in the circumstances.

I note that the BBC highlights package was abandoned for a Russell Crowe movie last night - which I guess was also understandable. (The former part of that sentence, rather than the latter.)

[Satchmo Distel]

As TAB notes, it's possible that the studio pundits were too distressed, but perhaps they could have had gone to a news presenter or other safe pair of hands?

[imp]

In Germany on ZDF they had Per Mertesacker and Christoph Kramer in the studio, both very decent human beings. Kramer was close to tears and barely able to talk, Mertesacker was just stunned like everyone else. The moderator quickly took pity on them and told them he realised it was putting them in a terrible position to have to offer views at such a moment, and largely took on the duty of talking himself before they switched to the usual half-time news bulletin.

[Sporting]

Imp, do you know who the woman was on the panel on Das Erste today? I didn't catch her name.

[Satchmo Distel]

As we discussed recently, Julie Faudy has become an asset for ESPN: maintains a good balance between authoritative and enthusiastic; cool as ice, a relaxing presence.

[tee rex]

Peter Drury and Andy Hinchcliffe are doing a decent job on the international feed for Poland-Slovakia. We don't get any HT chat at all.

[ursus arctos]

Foudy has been allowed to mature as a commentator and pundit, which is a privilege not offered many women here

Though ESPN is definitely better than many st in this respect

[DPDPDPDP]

Rae said that it was the most difficult ten minutes he has ever experienced in a life of commentary

He is another admirable example of someone raised among the Cold War forces in West Germany

Wat doe usecnd sentence mean? Rae was born in Aberdeen and I’m pretty certain was brought up there too.

[ursus arctos]

My recollection is that he learned German at Forces schools near the old border (also why he supports Hessen Kassel)

[scratchmonkey]

He's written an article about it, he learned German in Scotland and fell in love with the country, including listening to German radio:

https://www.espn.com/soccer/german-b...er-and-culture

[Satchmo Distel]

I was wondering if Rae was given the day off yesterday on compassionate grounds or if it was always the plan that he'd not do any games until the Scotland one?

[DPDPDPDP]

Wat doe usecnd sentence mean? Rae was born in Aberdeen and I’m pretty certain was brought up there too.

Just reread my message. Wow, note to file - check your typing before posting.

[ursus arctos]

I wondered if it was dialect, though I guess my memory was also off

[DPDPDPDP]

I wondered if it was dialect, though I guess my memory was also off

It’s the dialect commonly known as ‘stupidity’

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Something that keeps winding me up is witless bastards like peter collins and others saying that it's great that VAR has played such a small role in the tournament so far. which a) suggests they only notice var when they put up the graphic and show the replays. and b) they have no idea how Rarely Var actually intervenes.

You can see the referee telling people to hold the game all the time, and that's the only signal you get that VAR is looking at something. It happened today when Scott McTominay was looking for a penalty. The ref clearly told the Czech player to delay the throw. Actually I kind of thought it was going to be given. McTominay just runs into that guy if he stays still, and it's not a penalty. Except he turns his body and catches mc Tominay in the chest with his shoulder. It's basically the same trick that Rudiger pulled on kevin de Bruyne. Now that probably is a penalty.

We've had 10 games so far, and last season in the premier league VAR awarded a penalty for any reason every 13 games, (29) it awarded a penalty for handball every 32 games, (12) overturned a penalty every 17 games, (22) ruled out a goal every 9 games (42) including a goal ruled out for offside every 12 games. There's going to be 51 games in this tournament so if you were to take those figures, you'd expect VAR to award 4 penalties over the course of the tournament, (2 for handball, 2 for other nonsense) overrule 3 penalties, rule out 5 or 6 goals, 4 of which will be for offside, and overrule the linesmans flag to allow 1 goal.

So far VAR has ruled out one goal for offside, and not awarded any penalties. Which is not out of line with what you might reasonably expect. Var doesn't intervene very often, and since only the goal in the wales game, and the first dumfries goal came remotely close to being offside there hasn't been a delay on most goals. Indeed, there have only been 29 offsides in the 10 games so far, which is really not very many. (The PL average is 4 a game)

[Nocturnal Submission]

If Werner starts for Germany expect to see the stats rocket upwards.

[danielmak]

I thought Derek Rae did very well during the harrowing period of Denmark v Finland when he must have feared he was commentating on a fatality on the pitch. Efan Ekoku was also OK, at least in maintaining a calm but somber tone. The decision to play the game (and Bel-Rus) was fairly debated despite ESPN having a vested interest in games going ahead.

On the actual football, Rae is the best qualified for pronunciations due to his experience covering the Bundesliga, etc. He seemed to have done his homework on Finnish speech.

I don't mind ESPN doing the Euros as I'm used to how they cover it. It sticks with the tried and trusted and someone taking a time machine from 2012 wouldn't notice much change. Their big error is their belief that Darke-McManaman is their best pairing; it clearly isn't.

Rae was interviewed on a US podcast 5+ years ago. I think it was called Beyond the Pitch, but maybe I'm conflating that name with some other publication. I think a lot of that interview was then recycled in different ways to make up his wiki profile. He's a very thorough commentator, has covered a lot of leagues, and spends a lot of time research the players before he calls the game. In fact, for many years, ESPN had excellent commentators with a guy named Mike Hill preceding Rae for CL coverage (JP might have been in between). I think Darke is now paired with Stewart Robsen (sp?). McManamen seems to only be a studio analyst this time around.

I was telling a friend the other day that I remain on the fence about US TV coverage of many tournaments. On one hand, I don't really enjoy listening to most of the US-born announcers. Steve Cangialosi is a tough listen, for example. On the other hand, at some point these guys need to be able to have a shot and to earn a living. It's not like many of the UK-based announcers are any more intelligent given some of the stupid shit they say when they cover the CL. If the US announcers demonstrate that they actually watch games outside MLS then I am ok with those guys. Andres Cordero is a great example. He was tough to hear when he was with Gol TV but he grew when he started paying attention to multiple leagues and talking about the games he calls from a broader perspective. Then there is the problem with the stations cross-marketing. Good God, the amount of mentions of MLS-based players in the Brazil-Venezuela Copa America match was brutal. I know that has nothing to do with the Euros, but the approach by John Strong was symbolic of announcer limitations and narrow views of football by producers in the US.

In the end, after ESPN's brutal coverage of WC 2006 and Fox's plan to use a college football announcer for WC 2014 before he bailed on the project, what we get now with ESPN is not a major concern.

[Snake Plissken]

It happened today when Scott McTominay was looking for a penalty. The ref clearly told the Czech player to delay the throw. Actually I kind of thought it was going to be given.

Well it would have been had he been wearing a Man Utd shirt.

[E10 Rifle]

In terms of clear and tactical insight, Emma Hayes on ITV in the UK has been a cut above so far. Comparing her co-comms in Poland-Slovakia with the witless nothingness of Danny Murphy later on was stark.