Drop The Champions League and Step Away from the Football, ITV...

[EastStandBlue]

Right, i've just about had my fill of ITV attempting to fumble their way through a live sports coverage now. Everything, right down to the very core, is just downright awful on ITV, but let's start with a few of the major errors that have struck me.

1) The presenting team and pundits. Steve Rider can, just about, hold a sentence long enough for the next VT to role and does a reasonable job. Matt Smith, however, can take his smug facial expression and f*ck off back to radio.
Andy Townsend can take his magical television and take a running jump, preferably at Robbie Earl in the direction of an oncoming freight train.

2) blatantly biased commentary. On the face of it, the commentary is probably the best thing about ITV Sport. Tydlesley and Champion are reasonable commentators, however their blatant bias to anything English is astounding. Steven Gerrard goes to ground, where Johnny Foreigner takes a dive to win a free kick. This all came to a head this evening when Gerrard took a blatant dive on the edge of the box, which was shown on a slow motion replay. Gerrard was adjudged to have "made a meal of it". No, he dived. If there's no contact, he dived. Simple.

3) Incessant adverts. Because of ITV's sole future as a broadcaster seemingly depending on Good ol' Corrie, Coverage of the Champions League starts at 7:30, with games starting at 7:45. In this 15 minute period, ITV somehow manage to cram in 3 advert breaks, leaving around 8 minutes of build up. Now, ITV's attempt at limiting Matt Smith's airtime is admirable and fully understandable, but fill this time with something that won't drive me to the edge of insanity, not 7 minutes of Iceland advertising a Chicken Tikka F*cking Lasagne.


I could go on, but I feel the rage building inside me once more. The only defence they really have is that they're not Setanta, home of "Macca's Football Hour".

 

[TrueBlue]

At least F1 is returning home!

 

[seany t]

Here here.

I've hated ITV for years. That whole 'touchline reporting' idea annoys me the most.

Because obviously the best place to see how the game is playing out is right next to the pitch and at a level where you're unable to judge anything...

 

[C C Csiders]

Close your eyes and Matt Smith is Mark Lawrenson - same gayboy Preston accent.

 

[TBV_Dan]

The commentators were biased for the Southend V Chelsea game as well, but I do not like ITV football at all and have not liked it for a while now. No build-up whatsoever and it launches you straight into the match.

 

[steveo]

3) Incessant adverts. Because of ITV's sole future as a broadcaster seemingly depending on Good ol' Corrie, Coverage of the Champions League starts at 7:30, with games starting at 7:45. In this 15 minute period, ITV somehow manage to cram in 3 advert breaks, leaving around 8 minutes of build up. Now, ITV's attempt at limiting Matt Smith's airtime is admirable and fully understandable, but fill this time with something that won't drive me to the edge of insanity, not 7 minutes of Iceland advertising a Chicken Tikka F*cking Lasagne.

But they need to raise money to buy the coverage which is why they have adverts. Without ITV's effort there wouldnt be any terrestrial coverage as the BBC dont have the money and not everyone has Sky. Im sure the average fan who cant afford satellite TV would rather settle for this than nothing.

 

[BrettieAngell]

I can't stand footie on ITV, wish the channel would just disappear actually.

 

[number11]

Got to agree with the original poster here. Never liked ITV coverage, even going back to the Brian Moore / Big Ron days. And that was before Sky then showed how football can be done. Missing the goal in the Liverpool Everton game was unfortunate, even comical, yet really summed up their ineptitude. I just cant see how their coverage can be more bareable unless they have complete overhaul and stopped taking themselves so seriously.

 

[TBV_Dan]

But they need to raise money to buy the coverage which is why they have adverts. Without ITV's effort there wouldnt be any terrestrial coverage as the BBC dont have the money and not everyone has Sky. Im sure the average fan who cant afford satellite TV would rather settle for this than nothing.

I agree with this, if you want to watch the football on the tv and you havent got satellite TV, you are going to have to put up with the s*** that ITV show.

 

[londonblue]

Right, i've just about had my fill of ITV attempting to fumble their way through a live sports coverage now. Everything, right down to the very core, is just downright awful on ITV, but let's start with a few of the major errors that have struck me.

1) The presenting team and pundits. Steve Rider can, just about, hold a sentence long enough for the next VT to role and does a reasonable job. Matt Smith, however, can take his smug facial expression and f*ck off back to radio.
Andy Townsend can take his magical television and take a running jump, preferably at Robbie Earl in the direction of an oncoming freight train.

2) blatantly biased commentary. On the face of it, the commentary is probably the best thing about ITV Sport. Tydlesley and Champion are reasonable commentators, however their blatant bias to anything English is astounding. Steven Gerrard goes to ground, where Johnny Foreigner takes a dive to win a free kick. This all came to a head this evening when Gerrard took a blatant dive on the edge of the box, which was shown on a slow motion replay. Gerrard was adjudged to have "made a meal of it". No, he dived. If there's no contact, he dived. Simple.

3) Incessant adverts. Because of ITV's sole future as a broadcaster seemingly depending on Good ol' Corrie, Coverage of the Champions League starts at 7:30, with games starting at 7:45. In this 15 minute period, ITV somehow manage to cram in 3 advert breaks, leaving around 8 minutes of build up. Now, ITV's attempt at limiting Matt Smith's airtime is admirable and fully understandable, but fill this time with something that won't drive me to the edge of insanity, not 7 minutes of Iceland advertising a Chicken Tikka F*cking Lasagne.


I could go on, but I feel the rage building inside me once more. The only defence they really have is that they're not Setanta, home of "Macca's Football Hour".

So do what I do, and don't turn over to the football until kick off time. You know the build up will be rubbish, and you know the adverts will annoy you, so don't turn over until the match has actually started.

This applies equally well to Sky who in my opinion are worse than ITV.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

But they need to raise money to buy the coverage which is why they have adverts. Without ITV's effort there wouldnt be any terrestrial coverage as the BBC dont have the money and not everyone has Sky. Im sure the average fan who cant afford satellite TV would rather settle for this than nothing.

The gleeful reporting of ITV's financial woes on the BBC would tend to indicate that the Beeb has more money to spend than its commercial rival, and yet it chooses to neglect football in favour of Six Nations Rugby, F1 and Wimbledon. I'm sure none of those come cheap, but it wouldn't surprise me if Premiership and international football were more expensive than any of them. We might not like ITV coverage, but at least they're splashing the cash and making the effort.

 

[canveyshrimper]

The gleeful reporting of ITV's financial woes on the BBC would tend to indicate that the Beeb has more money to spend than its commercial rival, and yet it chooses to neglect football in favour of Six Nations Rugby, F1 and Wimbledon. I'm sure none of those come cheap, but it wouldn't surprise me if Premiership and international football were more expensive than any of them. We might not like ITV coverage, but at least they're splashing the cash and making the effort.

That isn't quite true, up until this season the BBC & Sky jointly held the rights to both the FA Cup and England Internationals. The joint ITV/Setanta bid put paid to that as IMO the FA opted for the cash, Setanta having a smaller number of subscribers than Sky. I think it was hoped that Setanta would get more subscribers, however now they've lost one of the Premiership packages to Sky I don't think this will happen.

I gues it's feasible given the current financial climate that both broadcasters could try and seek a way out of the contract with the FA, and if an article I read the other day is true then ITV are trying to do this. Don't forget they gave up the F1 contract before they had to.

I don't like sport on ITV IMO the coverage is smug, self satisfied and shoddy, certainly compared to Sky and to a degree the Beeb. Although IMO the BBC have slipped back a lot in their coverage of all sports.

It wouldn't break my heart if ITV lost their football coverage, then they can go back to what they are good at, soaps, reality shows and moron fodder game shows.

 

[Bob Cratchitt]

Who cares as of next season the Football league matches will be on Sky/BBC.

Anyway I had a big spiel similar to Harry about the Sky/BBC and Setanta/ITV partnerships and how ITV have put all the eggs into the Football basket so left the other sports ripe for the BBC to prise away, after all for commercial decision football is the largest attraction, so no wonder that ITV are going for this.

 

[EastStandBlue]

That isn't quite true, up until this season the BBC & Sky jointly held the rights to both the FA Cup and England Internationals. The joint ITV/Setanta bid put paid to that as IMO the FA opted for the cash, Setanta having a smaller number of subscribers than Sky. I think it was hoped that Setanta would get more subscribers, however now they've lost one of the Premiership packages to Sky I don't think this will happen.
.

Up until this season, the BBC and Sky had a firm understanding that, whatever broadcaster held the right to broadcast the game live, the other would recieve a highlights package. According to meddling EU Law, this "monopolisation" of TV rights as a product is illegal, which led to Setanta being able to purchase game packages and then hold BBC and Sky to ransome with highlight packages. It's guerilla warfare at it's best, but Setanta were stupid enough to go against the worlds largest broadcast mogul in Murdoch, and they're now paying the price with the lowest bracket of Prem games from the 2010 season onwards.

The FA did go for the money. They did because they were/still are skint and crippled by the cost of Wembley and stupid pay outs to underperforming managers.

Don't get me started on Setanta though... Their coverage makes ITV's look professional, but I can fully see them collapsing in the near future. Their Premieship coverage halved in one fell swoop, their domestic boxers retiring and amateur approach to the sports is coupled with the way they treat customers under scrutiny.

 

[Bob Cratchitt]

I have never had a problem with Setanta but when you get it free from Virgin I guess you will not be to bothered about the small niggles.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

I only have Setanta as I subscribed to NASN (now ESPN America), then Setanta bought it and packaged up the no-frills American sports channel with their other rubbish, jacking up the price as they went. I wasn't impressed by this, but Setanta were winning me round with their boxing coverage, just because big fights weren't made into pay-per-view events. However, one night watching Setanta Sports News on a match night, where the female co-host couldn't even pronounce the names of the teams, has me firmly back in the camp of loathing this amateurish abomination.

 

[EastStandBlue]

I only have Setanta as I subscribed to NASN (now ESPN America), then Setanta bought it and packaged up the no-frills American sports channel with their other rubbish, jacking up the price as they went. I wasn't impressed by this, but Setanta were winning me round with their boxing coverage, just because big fights weren't made into pay-per-view events. However, one night watching Setanta Sports News on a match night, where the female co-host couldn't even pronounce the names of the teams, has me firmly back in the camp of loathing this amateurish abomination.

Exactly the reason i'm reluctantly keeping it, as the coverage on ESPN America is actually half decent. That, and the fact it's the only broadcaster in the UK that has the UFC now.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Exactly the reason i'm reluctantly keeping it, as the coverage on ESPN America is actually half decent. That, and the fact it's the only broadcaster in the UK that has the UFC now.

I'm loving the College Hoops and the World Baseball Classic coverage at the moment, just disappointed that there's no NBA. Is anyone showing Association basketball at the moment? Channel 5 have dropped out haven't they?

 

[EastStandBlue]

I'm loving the College Hoops and the World Baseball Classic coverage at the moment, just disappointed that there's no NBA. Is anyone showing Association basketball at the moment? Channel 5 have dropped out haven't they?

I don't think so... There's still game night on a Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and NBA Fastbreak on Fiver.

 

[pickledseal]

I think the Leeds fans got it right when playing Histon.... there were distinct chants of "ITV is f***ing sh*t!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwwywcM_sdQ