After ITV Sport phoning it in for their coverage of the fantastic Turkey vs Czech Republic match, BBC are pulling out all the stops for their coverage of Austria vs Germany. The programme begins with a well-crafted montage of the footballing history between the two nations. Is it just us, or are the BBC the only broadcaster able to put these together without it seeming like a desperate act of hyperbole? Three pundits in the studio (Alan, Alan and Martin), plus Lawro pitchside with Ray (why are they still doing this? What's the chuffing point?) and Mark Bright down in the Fanzone. To the casual observer, this could just as well be the final given the amount of effort they're making with the coverage of the match, the only indication that it isn't being that Austria are involved.
There's an argument to be made that the BBC shouldn't be spending all this money covering the tournament, normally in publications edited by Paul Dacre. Despite mentioning the same point in an earlier post, we've decided that we don't really have a problem with this. Television is a visual medium. If we're going to look at four ex-pros topping and tailing the live match with their thoughts on it, why not have a backdrop of some stunning Austrian architecture? It's certainly nicer than the inside of a studio in London. And the former won't have Andy Townsend telling us that "both teams will be looking to get a result here".
It's also worth pointing out that BBC are showing the matches in HD on all platforms offering such a picture, all Free To Air. ITV have restricted theirs to people who've bought a Freesat box. Tsk.
There's an argument to be made that the BBC shouldn't be spending all this money covering the tournament, normally in publications edited by Paul Dacre. Despite mentioning the same point in an earlier post, we've decided that we don't really have a problem with this. Television is a visual medium. If we're going to look at four ex-pros topping and tailing the live match with their thoughts on it, why not have a backdrop of some stunning Austrian architecture? It's certainly nicer than the inside of a studio in London. And the former won't have Andy Townsend telling us that "both teams will be looking to get a result here".
It's also worth pointing out that BBC are showing the matches in HD on all platforms offering such a picture, all Free To Air. ITV have restricted theirs to people who've bought a Freesat box. Tsk.
[BBC Sport +2 points]
[ITV Sport -1 point]
2 .:
I have a sneaky feeling the BBC are going to win this one.
They probably are, as no-one else seems to be making much of an effort. I've got the American ESPN2 coverage of Greece vs Spain on right now, expecting it to be a veritable goldmine of material, but it's all very mediocre stuff.
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