In recent years coverage of Scottish football on TV has been poor. Of that there can be no doubt.
It strikes me then that many have complained about BT’s coverage and namely it’s use of controversial commentators and pundits.
Whilst it’s true that messrs Sutton, Stewart and Craigan can come out with some humdingers I personally give credit to the broadcaster for actually investing some time and effort into the Scottish game. Compared to Sky, who treat Scottish football by and large as an irrelevance and at times even an inconvenience for me, BT are a breath of fresh air.
Yes it can be controversial and sometimes looks down right stage managed but so what?
If the objective is to garner attention and raise awareness of the game here then so far it’s mission accomplished.
People are talking about the game. In picking over the sometimes overly critical, and irrational to the point of banal opinions voiced by the three aforementioned pundits people themselves actually attribute some attention to the incidents in question.
Now some complain it’s a pantomime act.
James has said that on here; the football itself can’t do the talking so send in the clowns.
But with respect to him I’d rather have this than Sky’s near-total ignorance.
The same approach has been fostered on various forums down south between Sky and the BBC for years in relation to the money spinning EPL and rarely do I hear voices of complaint about it up here. TalkSport pioneered “send in the clowns” but it’s worked.
Even if you look at the coverage on Sky, so much of it has become about the money, the money, the money.
When you think about it, this is not an accident.
Sky, after all, are the big spenders down there. It’s their cash which feeds the madness. So it’s only natural that the most watched show on there during the windows is Sky Sports News where they’ve turned the madness into a virtue, into box office, selling their own brand.
So the TV rights money being agreed and transfer fees being paid out are purred over. We often hear about how we’ve fallen light years behind. One reason is clearly a difference in population and hence the potential TV audience.
But the other aspect in which Scottish football has fallen way behind is in this ability to sell itself.
Sky brought in the Keys & Gray act upon the conception of the Premier league concept and this in more recent years has been followed by several others with the most recent being the Neville & Carragher double act.
The BBC through the years have employed the likes of Hansen, Lawrenson and of course Robbie Savage.
All have in one way or another riled up the general football public.
And each one has been mocked and derided for various stances and opinions down through the years.
All have played and some continue to play a major part in the EPL brand and that is what the English Premier League has become.
Like it or hate it, it’s showbiz.
Any PR is good PR.
Please bear that in mind when BT bother to set-up a pitch-side panel of 4-5 pundits post-match for over half an hour before an after a game with every incident of substance picked over at length.
Then compare it to Neil McCann and David Tanner over at Sky having a quick 15 mins chat before and after a game in a broom cupboard in one of the stands whilst looking eager to get off to their respective taxis.
BT’s approach may be called into question but what can’t be is their investment and effort.
It’s on that note that we then come to the BBC.
Many seasons ago the BBC launched a re-branded Sportscene. It consisted of a quick 30 mins, slap-dash, blink and you’ll miss it match ‘highlights’.
This in some cases consisted of just the goals shown in standard definition which looked painful when played minutes after they had shown the HD coverage of the main match.
The analysis as it was would often consist of a sentence or two by a disinterested studio pundit and would never feature any post-match interviews.
Combine this with the inappropriate intro track of ‘I Can Feel It’ by the Silencers which played over a pretty embarrassing opening montage of just about every Scottish cliché imaginable ranging from someone playing golf, a guy rambling through the Highlands to some poor sod in a kilt getting stood up at the alter and then finished up with two kids playing a video game with a Man Utd scarf hanging below the screen.
The whole things was a shambles.
However a few years back Sportscene got a long overdue makeover.
The highlights were extended to the best part of an hour, the number of pundits and their general interest level increased and post match interviews even got included. It was actually decent. HD was also deployed across the board so no two different sets of highlights looked like they were captured on completely different formats.
Barring the annoyance of a sporadically changing start time, on the whole the coverage was far worthier.
Therefore I was amazed at the BBC’s decision to show the New Year’s Eve game match highlights over 2 days later.
Weren’t we all told this was the flag ship match that Scottish football had been missing?
Isn’t this the game that was needed to be retained at all costs to stop football Armageddon in Scotland?
It seems bizarre to me that whilst Match of the Day had shows on, on both New Year’s Eve (the day of the game at Ibrox) and on New Year’s Day that BBC Scotland thought they would sit on the highlights of not only the much heralded ‘Old Firm’ game but indeed of all of Scotland’s top flight matches for two whole days.
Are they not aware that people have access to the internet and by that I mean YouTube and the likes and can watch said highlights at their leisure across various different platforms as opposed to waiting with bated breath for over 48hrs for the BBC to bother?
Apparently not.
It’s just another example of the parochial nature of Scottish football TV coverage.
Let’s also not forget the BBC forked out £204 million to keep the EPL match highlight on Match of the Day for this season and next.
How much of mine and your license fee was diverted to Sportscene I wonder?
It wouldn’t surprise me if it didn’t amount to much more than a tin of beans and a rusty can opener.
Maybe Henry McLeish or whoever gets the jolly can include that in the next think tank report on our national game and it’s failings.
And did you see what now gets passed off as Only An Excuse?
On second thoughts, let’s not go there.
Paul Cassiday thinks TV coverage still sames our game short … but BT Sport gives him reasons for optimism.