Sending Kids on an errand
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Tonight a new standard was reached in TVNZ’s completely erratic coverage of the Commonwealth Games in Queensland.
The same hockey match was being covered live on two of their three channels simultaneously. That in itself is not unique in sports broadcasting, but the strange thing was it seemed an odd opportunity to not take advantage of ads, replays, or lame humour at the same time.
It has really had everything. Ads in the middle of a hockey quarter. Ads when the last rider in Hamish Bond’s event was nearing the finish line. Last minute coverage of Joelle King’s squash gold medal, confusing coverage details and much more
A lot of the early excuses were that TVNZ, being Free to Air, needs to play ads so stop complaining. But it was not the adding, it was the way they were adding.
Over on Radio Sport there are just as many ads (plus news breaks) and there was just one frequency yet they didn’t seem to miss a single important event. And that’s where experience comes in.
This is a very public demonstration of how covering a complicated sporting event like the Commonwealth Games requires experience, sporting knowledge, and some common sense to succeed. TVNZ has been out of this game for a while now, and it is really showing.
The winners out of all of this are the previously perceived Evil Empire of SKY Television. For all their faults they know how to cover sporting events.
The carry-on at Duke in particular is almost mesmerisingly bad. The Moment is a toe-curling imitation of the worst bits of The Crowd Goes Wild and the ACC. The costumes are try-hard, the content is immature and predictable, and it has an uncanny knack of screening when there is most other activity taking place.
And the lack of sports understanding matches that of Sam (were the last Commonwealth games held in Russia?) The Weatherman.
On the positive side the much criticised interview between Jenny May Coffin and Katrina Grant was great. People tire of the soft interview; that was a legitimate question, and the response from Grant was superb.
Real, cliché free, emotion that captured what is going on with the Silver Ferns really well.
It seems strange that has been the part of the coverage that seems to have wound so many up the most.
Cannot disagree with anything here. Good calls, Graeme. We expected there to be sackfuls of ads every day, but the timing of them has been appalling; almost arrogant.
The assumption that a big majority of viewers would only choose to watch via devices was just dumb also. I mean did they not take into account that free-to-air top level sport is such a rarity these days? Coupled with the Comm Games being a real draw for people over 40 especially, and the TV audience was always going to be there in anticipation. No foresight at all.
And Benji Crossley via Twitter was surely right: A team of inexperienced staff for events of this nature is a big reason for why it’s all been a shambles.
[…] on TVNZ will not be interrupted by ads. You shouldn’t really need to specify that. But then the disjointed nature of their Commonwealth Games coverage set the bar […]